People, capital, ideologies, media images and cultural impulses travel around the world more rapidly and efficiently than ever before (Appudurai 1996; Giddens 1996; Bauman 2000; Beck 1998). International experiences are constantly available in our neighborhood or on-line. Responding to the needs of global man, higher education policies have become increasingly internationalised (Kälvemark, Löfkvist & Waerness 1999). Within the European Union the need for mutual exchange of "know how", a strategic utilization of competencies and resources, and a constant quality-enhancement of higher education is emphasized. Hence policy-makers in Europe, North America and Australia also encourage or even require universities to facilitate international cooperation. Such efforts are commonly captured by the term "internationalization". Yet the full meaning of internationalization remains ambiguous and unclear (Knight 1997; Yang 2002; Stier 2001/2002b). By the same token, the ideological underpinnings of internationalization policies are seldom objects of critical scrutiny. By drawing upon personal experiences as an international educator and on the discourse on globalization, intercultural training and internationalization, the focus of this paper is, therefore, to critically investigate the ideologies on internationalization in higher education - focusing on their explicit as well as implicit visions, foci, goals and strategies. Attention will be drawn to two interconnected problem-complexes: first, to divergent conceptualizations and foci of internationalization within the existing discourse; second, to how such divergent ideologies have different implications for higher education. It will be suggested that three divergent ideologies on internationalization are visible in the discourse. These will be referred to as idealism, instrumentalism and educationalism. The idealist rationale of international academic cooperation stems from the assumption that "internationalization is good per se, i.e. it is an end in itself. Through international cooperation, higher education can contribute to the creation of a more democratic, fair and equal world. It is in this endeavour that internationalization plays a significant role. Internationalized curricula increase the awareness of global life-conditions and social injustices - both for students and staff. In turn, as aware and knowledgeable citizens they may eventually demand a redistribution of resources and welfare as well as enable people to establish a satisfactory level of life-quality.The instrumentalist viewpoint mirrors prevailing "pragmatic" and "economistic" ideologies. Instrumentalists consider higher education a means to maximize profit, ensure economic growth and sustainable development, or to transmit ideologies of governments, transnational corporations, interest groups or supranational regimes. For instance, the EU:s rationale for providing life-long learning, e-learning, international study programs etc, is an overall enhancement of its labour force's competence and, in turn, an increased competitiveness on the global market.The ideology of educationalism implies a wider and deeper view on education - vividly expressed in the German distinction between Ausbildung and Bildung. In short, Ausbildung is typically what most of us think of when we hear the expression higher education. It is organized, limited in time, and its purpose may be professional or academic. By contrast, Bildung refers to life-long learning, beyond organized education, with a strong emphasis on the value of learning itself. What this means it that although internationalization may be a response to the labour market's competence demands, for educationalists their ambition extends beyond mere idealistic and professional aspirations of policy- makers.Finally, it is argued that a possible formula for successfully internationalizing higher education requires us to critically scrutinize as well as emancipate ourselves from existing academic views and structures.