Performing Internationalization of Higher Education in Canadian National Policy

Internationalization processes are at the fore of university strategic plans on a global scale. However, the work of internationalization is being performed through the connections between many actors at different policy levels. Our purpose here is to ask, what is happening with internationalization of higher education at the Canadian national policy level? To do so, we suggest that we must look at policies at the national level not as individual entities but rather as these policies exist in relation to each other. We examine three recent policy statements from different organizations at the national level in Canada: a federal governmental agency, a pan-Canadian provincial organization and a national educational association. Our approach involved mapping the actors, knowledges and spaces that are discursively produced through these texts and engaging a relational approach to policy analysis that questions what comes to be assembled as these policies co-exist in the national landscape.  À l’échelle mondiale, les processus d’internationalisation se trouvent à l’avant-centre des plans stratégiques universitaires. Toutefois, le travail d’internationalisation s’effectue par des relations entre de nombreux acteurs, à différents niveaux de politique générale. Nous étudions le statut d’internationalisation de l’enseignement supérieur à l’échelle des politiques nationales du Canada. Nous émettons la possibilité d’étudier les politiques à l’échelle nationale, plutôt qu’à une échelle individuelle. Nous analysons également comment ces politiques coexistent entre elles. Nous décortiquons trois récents énoncés de politique émis par différentes organisations de niveau national au Canada : une agence fédérale gouvernementale, une organisation provinciale pancanadienne et une association éducative nationale. Notre approche consistait à cartographier les acteurs, à analyser les connaissances et espaces produits de manière discursive par ces énoncés de politique, et à entreprendre une approche relationnelle d’analyse de politiques qui remet les énoncés en cause, tandis que ces politiques coexistent sur la scène nationale

Social Capital in Higher Education Partnerships: A Case Study of the Canada-Cuba University Partnership

This article reports on the findings of a case study about the Canada-Cuba University Partnership (CCUP), a teaching, research and service partnership between individuals associated with a Canadian and Cuban University. The research question guiding the study was: “How do the relationships among individuals in the CCUP shape the partnership?” Our review of existing literature on higher education partnerships reveals the lack of literature focusing on the relationships among individual partnership members. Our study is framed by social capital as our theoretical approach and social network analysis as our methodological approach. These approaches enable us to map out the connections between and among individuals and show the importance of their relationships. We analyze the partnership focusing on social capital, highlighting the mutually-beneficial activities and the role of central actors in the network who contributed to the formation of the partnership and the long-lasting relationships among academics in both countries. Relationships in the CCUP are characterized by mutuality, solidarity, strong and thick ties. The argument we advance is that understanding the collaborative relationships among members of higher education partnerships and the productive capacities of those relationships through the enactment of social capital provides insights into how sustainable and successful partnerships work