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Article
National Policy for Internationalisation in
Higher Education: The Case of Mozambique
Charnaldo Jaime Ndaipa
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden/ Púnguè University, Mozambique
Email: ndaipa@kth.se
Kristina Edström
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Email: kristina@kth.se
Lars Geschwind
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Email: larsges@kth.se
Abstract
The impetus of this study is to explore the internationalisation of higher education policy in Mozambique at
a national level. Internationalisation has been one of the major themes of discussion across countries but
except for South Africa, it is rarely researched in sub-Saharan Africa from the perspective of the policy of
higher education at a national level. This study is qualitative and applies the policy analysis method. Data
derive from higher education policy documents and semi-structured interviews with policy-makers. Two
research questions are asked. First, how do policy-makers understand and strategise the
internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique? Second, what are the rationales and challenges
for undertaking internationalisation of higher education? The findings reveal that internationalisation is
understood as mobility of students and staff, establishment of agreements and cooperation and integration
of higher education in the Southern African Development Community and worldwide. The findings further
reveal that the rationales for undertaking internationalisation of higher education policy encompass
quality, academic training, competitiveness, prestige, and knowledge production. An ideological mismatch
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in the strategies of the internationalisation between policy-makers and policy documents was noted,
identifying opportunities for a more creative approach.
Keywords: higher education, internationalisation, policy, Mozambique
Introduction
Internationalisation has been globally regarded as a phenomenon influencing higher education (Altbach &
Knight, 2007; Altbach et al., 2019). Attesting to this claim, internationalisation is on the agenda of many
higher education institutions (HEIs) (Hellstén, 2017; Sanders, 2019; Wihlborg & Robson, 2018) and
governments (Lane, 2015) becoming an important policy issue for universities and governments in
developed and developing countries (Beerkens, 2004). International dimensions of higher education have
been present for centuries, for instance, in the sense of attracting students and staff from many countries
through academic cooperation among HEIs and the mobility of scholars and knowledge around the world
(Altbach & De Wit, 2015; Knight, 2014a). Therefore, internationalisation is by no means a new phenomenon
(Knight, 2014b). Scholars state that internationalisation of higher education emerged in the 1990s in the
global North and connected with the discourses and practices of globalisation (Marginson & Rhoades, 2002;
Stromquist, 2007). Expansion, massification, privatisation and globalisation have contributed to
internationalisation policies transforming national higher education systems (Dobbins & Kwiek, 2017).
Different governments establish national policies that regard internationalisation as a means for growth
and income generation in higher education (Teichler, 2004, 2009).
This paper aims to explore internationalisation of higher education policy in Mozambique at national level,
as one of the sub-Saharan African countries. We analyse internationalisation at the national level because
following Knight (2004), the central authority has an important influence on the international dimension of
higher education through policy and regulatory framework. The case of Mozambique is particularly
interesting for twofold reasons. First, historically the government of Mozambique has been embarking on
the internationalisation of higher education since the date of independence in 1975 (Mário et al., 2003).
Second, the country has expanded higher education more rapidly than many sub-Saharan African countries
since midst 1990s (Zavale, 2017) and the premier HEIs are labelled as international institutions of the classic
model performing inward and outward mobility, international partnerships and external collaborations
with various entities (Ndaipa et al., 2022).
It is evident from the literature that the internationalisation of higher education is commonly associated
with success in terms of research funding, international staff and student recruitment, and co-authorship
with international research partners (Wihlborg & Robson, 2018). It is also seen as a way to improve the
quality of teaching, learning and research, enhance the experiences and understanding of staff and
students and address societal issues to improve cross-cultural understanding and inclusion (Robson &
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Wihlborg, 2019). Despite the positive impact, internationalisation of higher education presents
considerable challenges. For the global South like Africa, higher education is a vital tool for socio-economic
development, and internationalisation is viewed as one of the strategies to improve the higher education
system. Despite various attempts to enhance the benefits of internationalisation, African higher education
has continued to be peripheral, with relationships remaining asymmetrical and unequal (Alemu, 2014).
The Internationalisation of higher education policy is grounded in local realities involving a mixture of
history, culture, political institutions, and traditions (Sanders, 2019). That is why one should be careful in
concluding on similarities in policies. Policy initiatives involve different empirical phenomena related to
specific national contexts (Meek et al., 1991). A national government may actively facilitate particular
strategies of internationalisation (Teichler, 2004) which might differ from others since the rationales for
embarking on internationalisation vary strikingly by country and region (Teferra, 2008; Teichler, 2017).
Although internationalisation of higher education has garnered attention and emerged as a major theme of
discussion and action in many countries and regions (Lane, 2015; Sanders, 2019), the research and
literature are dominated by Western but specifically Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom and
Australia (De Wit et al., 2015; Jones & De Wit, 2012; Robson & Wihlborg, 2019). However, if South Africa is
excluded, Zavale and Schneijderberg (2020) have noted that despite emerging research in higher education
particularly in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa, higher education research in various countries across
the continent is generally weak or non-existent. In particular, studies on internationalisation in the African
continent, are far from being at par with what has taken place elsewhere (Tamrat & Teferra, 2018). The
existing studies, however, have focused on different perspectives and unities of analyses. For instance, just
to mention a few, Ndaipa et al. (2022) explored internationalisation practices of local HEIs, whilst McGrath
et al. (2021) focused on internationalisation of higher education and its engagement with national priorities
in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, Tamrat and Teferra (2018) identified the dominant manifestations of
internationalisation in Ethiopian’s HEIs, while Kragelund and Hampwage (2015) studied the influence of the
Confucius Institute at the University of Zambia as a new direction towards internationalisation. Finally,
Kufaine (2016) studied the internationalisation of higher education from the leadership perspective
building on the case of the local university in Malawi.
It is of utmost importance to highlight that policy is defined as ‘the generic term provided to encompass the
myriad techniques at the disposal of governments to implement their public policy objectives’ (Howlett,
1991, p. 2). In higher education systems, specifically, governments apply a set of different policy
instruments to pursue their goals and continuously design and redesign them until being adopted (Capano,
2018; Capano et al., 2020). Campbell explains that policy change can result from bricolage which is the
adaptability of the local elements to create new policy; diffusion defined as a transfer of policies from one
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place to another among nations; and translation which involves the combination of new externally given
elements received through diffusion with old locally given ones inherited from the past (Campbell, 2004).
Hence, such policy change might affect the internationalisation element specifically its rationales, strategies
and challenges.
The significance of this study is consistent with the ideas of Jones and De Wit (2012), as well as Proctor and
Rumbley (2018) who have been suggesting to learn from a non-Western national context, known to be
under-researched, to more fully understand how internationalisation can benefit different stakeholders
and nations. The relevance of this study is twofold. First, it contributes to the ongoing debate about the
internationalisation of higher education policy by getting a general spectrum of the phenomenon from a
sub-Saharan African country, in a non-speaking English context, Mozambique. Second, it empirically
provides an ideological description of the subject-matter by the policy-makers over policy texts.
The paper is structured as follows: The next section focuses on the historical background of
internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique. Then a method section is described. Subsequently,
the findings and discussion are presented. The final section comprises the conclusion and policy
recommendation as well as the future research avenue.
Historical background of internationalisation of higher
education in Mozambique
The internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique is directly linked to the history of higher
education in the country. It has been reported that higher education in Mozambique comprises three
phases, namely the colonial period, the socialist period, and the multi-party democracy and free-market
period. The colonial period is characterised by the establishment of the first HEI in 1962 by the Portuguese
colonisers, named General University Studies of Mozambique (EGUM), primarily created to educate the
sons and daughters of Portuguese colonists. It was noted for its colonial and racist ideology as by the date
of independence in 1975, there were only 40 black Mozambicans enrolled, representing only 2% of the
students (Langa, 2014; Mário et al., 2003). Portugal had ruled the country for over five centuries (Mkuti,
2011). However, little is known about the internationalisation process in this period due to the scarcity of
literature.
The socialist period starts with the independence of Mozambique in 1975 when the Front for the Liberation
of Mozambique (Frelimo), the ruling party, adopted the Marxist-Leninist form of government. The first HEI
was renamed Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) (Mário et al., 2003). Soon after independence, Portugal
established a General Cooperation Agreement between 1975 and 1978 with five Portuguese colonies in
Africa (Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe) named Portuguese-
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speaking African countries abbreviated in Portuguese as PALOP. The main purpose was to strengthen the
bonds of friendship and solidarity through a common cooperation policy framework on various fronts. For
example, economic, financial, technical, scientific and cultural. The General Cooperation Agreement
between the governments of Portugal and Mozambique was signed in 1975. It encompasses among other
actions, the mobility of teachers and researchers between the two countries, the granting of scholarships
and the possibility of access to professional internships. A few years later, the cooperation agreement was
well elaborated in higher education involving teaching, scientific research, students and staff training,
exchange of teachers, scientists and researchers. Mozambique being a PALOP member, enrolled 7.015
students across the Portuguese higher education system between 1999 and 2009 (Carvalho, 1994;
Mourato, 2011). Beside Portugal, and due to its socialist orientation, Mozambique also approached
internationalisation of higher education by enrolling students in Western Europe, mostly in East Germany,
the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Sweden between 1975 and 1986 (Mário et al.,
2003). With Sweden specifically, the cooperation between the two countries is dated from 1978 and the
cooperation focuses on institutional and research capacity building mainly at Eduardo Mondlane University
through the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) (UEM, 2018,
2019). Two more HEIs were established in this period. First, Higher Pedagogical Institute (ISP) in 1985, as a
teacher training college, and given full university status in 1995 as Pedagogic University (UP). Second,
Higher Institute for International Relations (ISRI) in 1986 conceived to train future diplomats (Langa, 2017).
In the multi-party democracy and free-market period, Mozambique shifted from socialist ideology to
democracy from 1990 onwards and started building new relationships with Europe and the United States of
America (Mário et al., 2003). The internationalisation of higher education was extended to the
commonwealth countries when Mozambique joined the organisation in 1995 as the first country without
traditional historic links with Britain or other Commonwealth countries. This enabled student, institutional,
and programme mobility in higher education. For instance, from 1996 to 2008, about 5.100 Mozambican
students were hosted by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom (Collinge,
1996; Varghese, 2011). Mozambique also benefited from the waves of internationalisation within Africa,
through the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Education and Training, signed
in 1997 by 12 countries (Mozambique, Malawi, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa). It acknowledges that education and training can equip
member states adequately for the future. To this end, mobility of students and staff was facilitated within
the region for purposes of study, research, teaching and any other pursuits relating to higher education.
Hence, the Protocol created room for regional internationalisation of higher education enabling different
HEIs to cooperate and collaborate in various endeavours. This grand regional aspiration was also shared by
the African Union (Kamwendo, 2009; SADC, 1997). The internationalisation of Mozambican higher
education has expanded currently to various countries worldwide due to smart cooperation with different
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higher education sectors. This includes Brazil, Spain, Italy, China, Cuba, Belgium, Venezuela, Algeria, India
(Carvalho, 1994; UEM, 2019) and others. The market-driven policies led internally to an expansion of HEIs
in the country characterised by the dispersion of public and private institutions. In a nutshell, the historical
overview of the internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique is predominantly characterised by
the mobility of students across Africa and worldwide for academic purposes.
The current context of the higher education system comprises 53 higher education institutions of which 22
are public and 31 are private (Zavale, 2021) and the internationalisation process is being performed
through inward and outward mobility of students and staff, joint research between local and international
scholars, international collaborations with different governments, academic institutions and funding
agencies (Ndaipa et al., 2022; Kruse et al., 2017; Zavale & Schneijderberg, 2020).
Method
This study aims to explore internationalisation of higher education policy in Mozambique at national level.
Hence, it applies the method of policy analysis. We embarked on policy analysis because Dunn (2018)
claims that this method provides policy-relevant knowledge about key questions related to the policy
problems, outcomes and performance. Thereby, for this study, two questions are asked: (1) How do policy-
makers understand and strategise the internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique? (2) What
are the rationales and challenges for undertaking internationalisation of higher education? Data derive
from document analysis and interviews. Answers to these questions yield important policy-relevant
knowledge because they describe if data sources align or not with each other, that is, if the policy-makers
perceptions match or mismatch with policy texts on internationalisation of higher education in
Mozambique. Thereby, six higher education policy documents, namely strategic plan, law, decrees and
declaration (see Table 1) were analysed. We selected these documents because they are the ones that are
currently updated and provide the regulatory framework for the higher education system of the country in
general and internationalisation policy in particular. As noted by Bowen (2009), the rationale for document
analysis lies in its role in methodological and data triangulation, as a method of qualitative research.
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Table 1. Description of the document analysis
Description
Full title
Page numbers
Decree
Decree no 63/2007 – National higher education
accreditation and quality assurance system.
13
Law
Law no 27/2009 of higher education
17
Decree
Decree no 30/2010 – Regulation of the national
qualifications framework for higher education
13
Decree
Decree no 32/2010 – National academic credit
accumulation and transfer system
14
Strategic plan
Strategic plan of higher education: 2012-2020
133
Declaration
CNAQ internationalisation policy declaration - 2016
2
To complement the document analysis, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with four senior
policy-makers from the Ministry of Science and Technology and Higher Education (MCTES). In addition to
triangulating the data from the document analysis, the additional value of making interviews is that they
generate useful information about lived experience and its meaning (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018) and they
enable posing research questions. The participants were selected purposefully to best help the researchers
understand the problem and the research questions (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). All interviews were
conducted in Portuguese and transcribed verbatim. Based on the experience and background knowledge of
the participants, the interviews covered the following topics: (1) The definition of internationalisation in the
context of Mozambican higher education. (2) The reasons for undertaking internationalisation of higher
education. (3) The strategies currently applied to further internationalisation. (4) The role models or best
practices that serve the inspiration to Mozambique. (5) The stakeholders besides the government are
involved in pursuing internationalisation of higher education. (6) The benefits of internationalisation at the
national level. (7) The main risks of internationalisation in Mozambique. (8) The main barriers of
internationalisation that are aware of. (9) The main drivers of internationalisation in the higher education
field.
The reason for combining the methods was to seek convergence and corroboration of data, providing 'a
confluence of evidence that breeds credibility' (Bowen, 2009, p. 28). By mapping out six major policy
documents spread over a decade, the phenomenon of internationalisation is seen in a wider and holistic
way rather than focusing on an isolated aspect of internationalisation of higher education policy or any
specific policy shift. In the analysis phase following Creswell and Creswell (2018), data were coded
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generating themes for a research study appearing as major results. In the following, the themes are
illustrated by quotations from the interviews translated into English and using pseudonyms to identify the
respondents.
Limitations
The views expressed by the four participants are limited to the government’s perspective on the current
development of internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique. We involved them because first,
the individual know-how of different policy-makers serves to enrich and interpret data, to some extent
going beyond what is presented in the policy documents. Second, to identify an ideological pattern of the
policy-makers over policy documents.
Findings and discussion
The study results are summarised mainly in three categories: Rationales, strategies and challenges (see
Table 2). However, before the identification of these categories, we asked policy-makers the extent to
which they understand internationalisation from the perspective of the policy of Mozambican higher
education:
Internationalisation involves training students abroad and exchanging staff experience to be competitive
locally and regionally boosted by the Mozambican government and implemented by different higher
education institutions – Marcos.
[…] when we talk about internationalisation we place it under the cooperation framework of our higher
education […] with foreign ones, motivated by their extensive experience, reputation, prestige and build a
network to benefit our different academic institutions nationwide – Sitole.
In my view, internationalisation is a process designed at the national level to create the integration of
Mozambican higher education […] in the international setting. Let's say it is a platform that has been found
so that higher education institutions in Mozambique are not far from what are the requirements of
institutions at the level of this nature at the SADC and international arena […] – Xavier.
The quotes above indicate that policy-makers understand internationalisation as mobility of students
and staff, international agreements and cooperation and integration of higher education regionally
and globally. Indeed, there are various interpretations of internationalisation in the field of higher
education. These variations were previously noted by other scholars who also studied the same
phenomenon in different sub-Saharan African contexts (see Gyamera, 2015, 2018; Mutinda & Liu,
2020). However, the understanding of this phenomenon should go beyond mobility and international
collaborations.
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Table 2. Characteristics of internationalisation of higher education policy in Mozambique
Rationales
Strategies
Challenges
Primarily academic, involving
students and staff in specific areas of
national interest.
Increasing, facilitating and
attracting the mobility of
students and staff.
English language comes as the
main roadblock as the country has
Portuguese as the official
language.
For the country exposure to benefit
students and staff with academic
knowledge and international skills.
Establishment of joint research
programmes and curricula with
regional and international HEIs.
More economic, to increase income
generation.
Establishment of regional and
international HEIs in the
country.
Lack of financial resources.
Increase research production and
innovation.
Establishment of centres of
excellence.
Politically driven by building prestige
and competitiveness.
Participation in the rankings.
Regional and international visibility.
Strategic alliances by building a
network with SADC HEIs and
others internationally.
Fear of brain drain
Improve the quality of local HEIs.
Encompass peer review system
and international accreditation
agencies.
Diversification of knowledge
production in English for national
development.
Promote applied research
programmes at national HEIs.
Fear of loss of the national culture.
Source: Strategic plan of higher education (2012-2020) and interviews.
Rationales for internationalisation
Concerning the rationales, four themes emerged in the study comprising academic training and knowledge
production; quality assurance; international prestige; competitiveness and income generation. The
interviews, as well as the documentary review, indicated that the dominant rationale for
internationalisation was academic which involves students and staff. It was pointed out that the main aim
of the internationalisation policy is training competitive students relevant to the country and the SADC
region. However, the measurement consists of not only sending students abroad but also receiving
international students to the national higher education sector. To accomplish this endeavour, the
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government created the National Accumulation System and Transfer of Academic Credits (SNATCA), to
enable the mobility of the students between higher education programmes/courses or attendance at
relevant disciplines or modules from other programmes/courses or faculties, within the same higher
education institutions nationally, regionally, and globally (Decreto no 32/2010).
Furthermore, quality assurance comes as another driving force for internationalisation. For instance, it was
said by Luisa, one of the respondents, that ‘to improve the quality of teaching and learning in higher
education, teachers must teach at other universities worldwide as well as the Mozambican universities
must receive visiting professors from international universities. Doing this, there will be assured the quality
of the graduates in particular and higher education in general. At the national level, the government
created the National Higher Education Evaluation, Accreditation and Quality Assurance System (SINAQES)
in 2007. The aim was to harmonise national with regional and international standards to ensure the
improvement of the quality and relevance in Mozambican higher education through the agency named
National Higher Education Quality Assessment Council (CNAQ) across the higher education field (Decreto
no 63/2007). The internationalisation policy of this government agency encompasses the following:
‘External evaluation and accreditation of higher education courses, programmes and institutions as a
quality assurance mechanism in response to the demands and development needs of the country and
following the higher education quality standards in the region and the world’ (CNAQ, 2016, p.2).
International prestige, competitiveness and income generation were other noticeable themes on rationales
for internationalisation. It is believed that one of the main rationales behind internationalisation of the
Mozambican higher education is also linked to the need of increasing the prestige of the sector, compete
with international higher education systems and finally from inward mobility of international students,
improve to mobilise financial resources to local HEIs, as stated by interviewee Marcos: ‘Mozambique aligns
its policy on internationalisation of higher education for twofold reasons: raising the prestige of the sector
that will lead to being competitive in the region and worldwide, and improve the economic income of our
universities through the payment of university fees by international students. In addition, the National
Framework Regulation of Higher Education Qualifications (QUANQES) states as one of the policy goals
facilitate the harmonisation with higher education systems in the region for greater mobility, employability
and competitiveness (Decreto no 30/2010).
Strategies for internationalisation
Based on PEES (2012) and CNAQ (2016), the government of Mozambique implements key strategies for
internationalisation by promoting and facilitating regional integration and multilateral and international
cooperation in the field of higher education, facilitating exchange programmes and granting tax incentives
and other financial incentives to HEIs. For instance, nationally, internationalisation is applied by:
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• Promoting the learning of foreign languages, particularly English, as a means of scientific
communication;
• Setting an internationalisation policy for higher education in Mozambique that promotes quality
and relevance;
• Improving visibility and access to national higher education institutions through Information and
Communication Technologies;
• Developing partnership agreements with internationally prestigious higher education institutions;
• Involving the participation of international experts in the external evaluation of postgraduate
programmes.
The interviewees generally supported the strategies but two of them presented concerns by critically
stressing the absence of the internationalisation policy framework at a national level which brings some
implications. As noted by Sitole, one of the interview participants: ‘Currently, there is a strategic plan which
presents broad and vague ideas. We have to stop importing discourses from Europe because they don't
match our reality. We are Africans and we must prioritise our rationales and strategies based on the
national and local problems […] for the benefit of the nation’. Moreover, Luisa added ‘due to the absence
of a specific tool for internationalisation of higher education, we end up accepting all partnerships
proposed by foreign institutions or governments. We have to change our approach’.
The findings from the written policies seem to suggest that strategically the country embarks on
internationalisation in line with international entities most of which are understood as a Western approach.
Conversely, the policy-makers emerge with a changing perspective of ideas that prioritise home interests.
Hence, this mismatch might be influenced by the inexistence of a detailed policy framework for the
internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique as reported by interview respondents. It seems
that in the SADC region, South Africa comes across as one of the countries holding such a policy (see DHET,
2019). As noted by Knight (2004) and Teichler (2009) embracing internationalisation is important because it
improves academic quality, leads to richer cultural life and personality development, introduces
technological innovation, leads to economic growth, improves societal well-being and facilitates strategic
alliances. However, the absence of a clear instrument at the national level may hamper development.
Finally, as the last strategy, Marcos has come across with internationalisation of the curriculum, mentioning
that it has to address the local and national needs but internationally valid:
The curricular question [...] is part of it […] a curriculum that can offer quality, from the point of view of value
and validity. It must have value for solving local issues in this case national, but it must be a curriculum that
has validity at the international level, which is recognised internationally. This will also facilitate this
sequence of international policies and internationalisation […] to facilitate the question of staff mobility,
student mobility […] and therefore […] to recognise the credits of a discipline, of a course, so that the student
can have the mobility to other institutions of higher education worldwide – Marcos.
From this perspective, internationalisation goes beyond mobility and other features described above and
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this is where ‘internationalisation at home’ comes into play strengthening local students with international
knowledge as not everyone can study abroad (Hudzik, 2015; Leask, 2015). Thereby, internationalisation
should focus on the curriculum and learning outcomes for societal well-being, according to the interviewed
policy-makers.
Challenges for internationalisation
The strategic plan of higher education points out that one of the biggest challenges when embarking on
internationalisation is the language. Mozambique is officially a Portuguese speaking country while in the
global context, internationalisation is dominated by the English language. Another challenge is that
internationalisation might result in ‘brain drain, loss of national culture in favour of an international one
[…]’ (PEES, 2012, p.76). One of the respondents also stressed financial issues as another challenge for
internationalisation. ‘The phenomenon of internationalisation itself implies money because it is expensive
[…] we need to formulate policies that can handle the shortage of our budget. Currently, the fulfilment of
the main plans of students, staff mobility and scientific production through research networks relies on
external funds […]’ (Sitole). From the policy documents, the findings suggest that the country needs to
embrace a new language, which is English, to cope with the internationalisation demands. Concerning brain
drain, Bloom et al. (2007) and Teferra (2007) have noted that while brain drain has been a key concern in
African countries, the phenomenon could be addressed by establishing effective and efficient national
policy instruments. For instance, paying higher earnings to well-educated people, involving them in socio-
economic development, and developing good institutions both in education and in the workplace. Finally,
from what has been said by our interviewee Sitole, it should be analysed as a call for a changing approach
on policies so that internally the country finds local solutions for internationalisation and become less
dependent on international funds.
Conclusion and policy recommendation
This study aimed to explore internationalisation of higher education policy in Mozambique at a national
level, addressing two research questions: (i) how do policy-makers understand and strategise about the
internationalisation of higher education in Mozambique? and (ii) what are the rationales and challenges for
undertaking internationalisation of higher education?
The first point to take into account is that the findings show a considerable variation in the way in which
internationalisation is understood in a higher education setting by different policy-makers. Knight (2013)
points out that this global trend is understood in different ways in different countries. However, in
Mozambique internationalisation is understood as the mobility of students and staff, the establishment of
agreements and cooperation, and the integration of higher education in the SADC region and worldwide.
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The second point for consideration involves the rationales for undertaking internationalisation. The findings
reveal a mixture of them characterised by the following elements: Academic training, knowledge
production, quality assurance, prestige, income generation and competitiveness. These rationales are
similar across the literature (see De Wit et al., 2015; Knight, 2004; Kreber, 2009; Yesufu, 2018) and the
findings reveal that the accomplishment of these rationales is assured by different policy instruments such
as law and decrees of higher education created by the government. These rationales are traced to meet
both internal and external demands.
Taking a closer look at the internationalisation strategies seen in the interviews and policy documents the
findings reveal a mixture of approaches. There are responses to external pressure in the sense of aiming to
take part in the external networks regionally and globally. Among other strategies, the policies stress, for
instance, promoting and facilitating regional integration as well as multilateral and international
cooperation in the field of higher education and the teaching and learning of the English language. The
challenges for internationalisation at a national level were noted and they include brain drain, fear of losing
the local culture, financial limitations and the need to master the English language.
Applying the concept of Campbell (2004), more translation is required in the internationalisation of higher
education policy in Mozambique as the findings show an imbalance, that is, there is an overemphasis on
mobility and cooperation (which can be traced back from the history of the internationalisation of higher
education) and underemphasis on the policy. Moreover, there is an ideological mismatch in the strategies
of internationalisation between policy-makers and policy documents. Policy texts follow Western ideas,
whilst policy-makers are critical of such an approach and suggest a specific internationalisation policy
framework of higher education that reflects the Mozambican reality and priority. To this end, more local
investment is required in the higher education sector for threefold reasons. First, to have a country more
proactive than reactive in building partnerships regionally and globally. Second, to boost knowledge
production and most importantly pay close attention to the internationalisation at home for societal well-
being. Third, to make the country less dependent on external funds.
This study matters not only to Mozambique but elsewhere mainly to sub-Saharan African countries as the
findings have implications for balancing policy texts with policy-makers ideas, thus improving the
internationalisation of higher education policy. Therefore, we recommend the following: Albeit integrated
into general higher education policies, there is a need for African countries to have a specific
internationalisation policy framework of higher education that articulates clearly not only the strategies but
also the rationales for internationalisation, based on the national interests to enhance capacity building in
teaching and research, attract international students and scholars and equip local students with
international knowledge to cope with market demands locally, nationally and globally.
Ndaipa et al. 14
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While the focus of this study was the policy at the national or macro level, future research studies could
include an analysis of the internationalisation phenomenon at the meso level involving Mozambican higher
education institutions. Specifically focusing on academics and managers about how they understand
internationalisation and its rationales, how they operationalise it and what challenges they experience.
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