Nigel Healey, Professor of International Higher Education and Vice-President Global and Community Relations at the University of Limerick, tells us how his connection with international education started as an academic in business schools, which in the 1990s were in the vanguard of internationalisation. From there he started to be increasingly involved in international student mobility and partnerships covering senior international roles at universities in different countries, including as former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Fiji.
Nigel shares his view of the key differences between the approaches to international education in the different countries he worked in, stressing the different extent to which internationalisation is primarily seen as a commercial activity. He stresses the importance of widening opportunities to gain international experience to more students, including through the development of deep and equitable partnerships based on two-way mobility agreements. He also points to the growing role that considerations related to global social justice and sustainable development will be playing in shaping the future of international education, including through a growing awareness of its carbon footprint. …and he shares the memorable experiences of being seconded in Belarus just after the end of the Cold War, and being Vice Chancellor of Fiji National University where the Minister would be regularly on speed-dial.