Globalisation and the Dilemmas of Australian Higher Education

The success of Australian universities in internationalising their campuses has been widely noted. This paper considers the ways in which this success has been measured largely in commercial terms; and argues for the importance of understanding internationalisation of higher education in historical and political terms. It suggests that when educational and cultural dimensions of internationalisation, linked to issues of globalisation, are also considered, it becomes clear that Australian efforts to internationalise higher education are beset with a number of dilemmas, relating not only to issues of capacity, volume, commitment, balance, orientation and quality but also to the ways in which international education reproduces some of the contradictions of neo-liberal globalisation.