The papers in this symposium are situated within a wider context of an inter-disciplinary, international mixed-methods research project funded by the Academy of Finland from 2012 to 2015, involving 26 universities in 9 countries. This project examines ethical issues in internationalization processes in higher education. The data includes both policy documents and qualitative and quantitative data collected through surveys, interviews and case studies. Research partners in these institutions have agreed to address key questions using the same methods of data collection to create a common dataset that can be used in comparisons. Shared questions at the heart of the study include: How is the role of the university, faculty and graduates perceived in terms of global ethics and social accountability ideals? How is diversity/plurality perceived in internationalization policies and initiatives at participating universities? What kinds of educational policies and processes have the potential to resist and disrupt dominant patterns of knowledge production that restrict possibilities for ethical relationalities and solidarities in local and global academic spaces?

This research collective is interested in testing relationships between, on the one hand, ideas of the role of the university in relation to individual and collective imaginaries (geographical, cultural, linguistic and economic), and, on the other hand, ideas of global citizenship, interdependence, global change and social accountability. The papers in this symposium written by members of this research team address these question through data generated in the main project or in 'tag' projects that focus on specific institutional research priorities.

The literature on the internationalization of higher education presents two major influences: market oriented discourses (i.e. related to fostering economic performance and competitiveness) and humanitarian discourses (i.e. related to altruistic or charitable concerns for enhancing the quality of life of disadvantaged communities) (see for example Dower 2003, Matthews and Sidhu 2005, Rhoads and Szelényi 2010, Khoo 2011, Altbach 2011).  Recent literature also indicates that concepts associated with ‘global citizenship’ (ideas of social responsibility, mobility, interculturality and cosmopolitanism) expressed in higher education mission statements, policies, curriculum, and international initiatives (e.g. international cooperation, study abroad and service learning schemes) have come to combine and embody both market and humanitarian influences (see for example Jefferess 2008, Kelly 2000, Rizvi 2007, Abdi and Shultz 2008, Pashby 2009, Khoo 2011, Andreotti et al 2010, Rhoads and Szelényi 2010).  In this sense, internationalization is perceived both as an opportunity for income generation and for the expansion of Western education as a mechanism for international development.

Papers in this symposium address this theme of ethics and internationalization from different theoretical perspectives  drawing on the data collected in the project.

Abdi, A and Schultz, L. (Eds.) (2008). Educating for Human Rights and Global Citizenship. New York: New York State University Press. Altbach, P. (Ed.) (2011). Leadership for World-Class Universities: Challenges for Developing Countries. Routledge: New York. Andreotti, V. (2006). Soft versus critical GCE. Development Education: Policy and Practice, 3(Autumn): 83-98. Andreotti, V., Jefferes, D. Pashby, K., Rowe, C., Tarc, P., Tayloe, L. (2010). Difference and Conflict in Global Citizenship in Higher Education in Canada. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 2(3):5-24. Jefferess, D. (2008). Global Citizenship and the Cultural Politics of Benevolence. Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 2(1):27-36. Kelly, P. (2000).Internationalizing the Curriculum: For Profit or Planet. In, S. Khoo, S. (2011). Re-routing the postcolonial university: educating for citizenship in managed times. In V. Andreotti and L. de Souza (Eds.) Postcolonial perspectives on global citizenship education. New York: Routledge. Matthews, J. and Sidhu, R. (2005). Desperately seeking the global subject: international education, citizenship and cosmopolitanism. Globalisation, societies and Education, 3(1):49-66. Pashby, K. (2008) Demands on and of citizenship and schooling: “belonging” and “diversity” in the global imperative’, in M. O’Sullivan & K. Pashby (eds.) Citizenship education in the era of globalization: Canadian Perspectives. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers B. V., 9-26. Rizvi, F. (2007). Philosophical Perspectives on Lifelong Learning. Lifelong Learning Book Series, 11 (11):114-130.