Research On The Finnish Higher Education Internationalization Strategy Development

Internationalization of higher education is a response to globalization phenomena. This requires that countries face a global future, fostering specific and diverse international exchanges through cooperation in higher education. Such goals can be achieved by learning from educational philosophies and educational models of higher education around the world. It also involves that countries consider their own cultural traditions, its values and behavior in order to improve quality of talent training, promoting modernization of higher education, as well as economic development of the country and the world. A major goal of the internationalization of higher education is achieving mutual global understanding and respect across cultures. As a trend towards the internationalization of higher education gradually increased, countries around world began to focus on enhancing the quality of higher education. They wanted to improve its national strength and international competitiveness while prioritizing national educational policies. Finland has a high regard for the internationalization of higher education. Since the last century, Finnish Higher Education promulgated multiple international development policies, set up specialized agencies, and implemented a security system. Those efforts have now rendered remarkable achievements.The study is divided into five sections. Specifically, the study on how the internationalization of Finnish higher education initiated. This section is followed by an in-depth study analyzing the contents of its core strategy, formulation, implementation and operational effectiveness in practice. Then the study contains an analysis of the value of its implementation, trends, lessons learned, and some deficiencies. Finally, some suggestions are presented for the development of higher education internationalization.The first part introduces the background of the development of internationalization of higher education in Finland. This section contains a detailed analysis of the history and development of domestic and international factors that impacted the development of Finland’s higher education. There are four elements that gave momentum to the internationalization of Finnish higher education. Those elements are:European values towards integration, the impact of the Bologna process on the internationalization of higher education in Finland, the Finish assessment of the need to develop its market, and the Finnish government emphasis on internationalization of higher education.The second part of this study describes in detail the Finnish higher education internationalization process. This process includes the Finnish higher education’s international strategic objectives at different stages of the process, multiple initiatives to implement evaluation systems, as well as how to effectively implement different types of initiatives to achieve the goal of internationalization.The third part the study provides an analysis of the effectiveness of the internationalization of higher education in Finland. This section focuses on the positive impact of the implementation of the Finnish higher education. This positive impact is reflected in the creation of many forms of internationalization, the establishment of diverse international exchange partners, and through the Reform of Higher Education of the University of Helsinki, which is analyzed as case study of the effectiveness of implementation.The fourth part focuses on the evaluation of internationalization of higher education in Finland. The evaluation is based on the assessment of organizational values inspired by national and international ideals. Evaluation is reflected in the actualization of the conceptual model of internationalization in response to their concrete experiences. Finally some problems in evaluation are analyzed.The fifth part of the study elaborates on how Finland’s experiences can inspire internationalization of higher education in China.This section presents an analysis of the development of internationalization of higher education, and implementation problems. This analysis lays the foundation for uncovering the implications for internationalization of higher education in China. These implications include:the concept of cultivating international universities, reforming the degree and credit system of higher education, emphasizing the education of international students, and increasing international exchanges and cooperation.