An Exploratory Case Study Of Organizational Strategy For Internationalization In Indonesian Flagship Universities

Internationalization of higher education is a relatively recent phenomenon,having developed over the last 30 years,and is propelled by a dynamic combination of political,economic,sociocultural,and intellectual rationales and interests.The implementation of this phenomenon has many obstacles,especially in developing countries such as Indonesia.However,the two Indonesian flagship universities,UD and UM have effectively adopted internationalization.Both of these universities have a long history of establishing international programs.The main objective of the dissertation is to investigate organizational strategies for internationalization which are implemented by Indonesian flagship universities.The research addresses the following four closely related issues: the rationale and motivation of Indonesian flagship universities in pursuing internationalization;organizational strategies implemented for internationalization;factors which influence the implementation of such strategies;and the challenges of implementing the strategies.The results of this research can be used as input by other universities in Indonesia to prepare themselves to face internationalization.In addition,this research can also be input for the government to improve regulations and support for universities in Indonesia in facing the internationalization of their universities.The framework adopted in the study is Organizational Strategy for Internationalization by Knight(2007).Using this framework,this research categories organizational strategies as analyzed from interviews and universities’ websites into four major dimensions: governance,human operations,services,and resources.These dimensions are further explained into components or sub-elements.An exploratory case study was adopted as the research methodology,with semistructured interview as the main research method.In total,12 participants including university managers and lecturers,six from each university were involved in the study.Apart from interviews,the data in this study are also secondary data from other research papers,journal articles,websites,and web blogs.All data were then analyzed using qualitative data analysis.The stages of data analysis include organized the interview responses,grouped the answers of each interview participant into several themes,and then grouped based on the similarity of themes so that they could be narrowed down into several units of information in accordance with the organizational strategy framework.This unit of information is then compared with literature obtained from secondary research.Findings of the study reveal four key motivations driving the implementation of internationalization in Indonesian flagship universities.These motivations or rationales include the need to promote of values,culture,and work of the institution to the international community;broaden knowledge capacity and skills through partnerships;contribute to society and the world;and to prepare students for global studentship.Second,in pursuing internationalization,the universities implement several organizational strategies.Third,factors that influence implementation in both universities were found to be funding,institutional leadership,and infrastructure.Fourth,the main challenges encountered by the institutions in implementing organizational strategies are mindset challenge,funding,and language barrier.Implication of research findings are discussed as well the study’s limitations.The flagship universities studied in this dissertation have shown that they need to make calculated strategies to strengthen their internationalization approach.It is expected that the current study will not only help us understand organizational strategies for internationalization in Indonesian flagship universities,but also brings insightful implications for internationalization of higher education in other developing countries.