Internationalisation of higher education: Impacts, challenges and future possibilities

This article introduces the special edition entitled ‘Critical reflections on contemporary higher education and developments of and in internationalization’. The articles presented here have resulted from the growing interest in internationalisation among members of the European Educational Research Association Network 22, Research in Higher Education. The authors responded to a special call for papers at the ECER 2016 Conference held at University College, Dublin, taking a critical stance on the phenomenon of internationalisation in relation to higher education. In this special edition, we explore a range of contemporary issues impacting upon European and European-influenced higher education policies, dialogues and practices. Internationalisation is conceptualised as a process where cross-cultural challenges are addressed, deliberative pedagogies are developed, and curriculum and the broader higher education experience is enriched to encourage individual and collective agency and engagement with the complex challenges facing society (Shaffer et al., 2017). The papers explore and critique the conceptual and methodological challenges and possibilities of researching internationalisation. They transcend institutional, disciplinary and national boundaries, and aim to offer new research approaches, analytical tools and frameworks, and a robust critique of ideas around internationalising higher education in Europe and beyond