Experts argue that in the midst of global challenges, the internationalisation of higher education must move beyond student mobility and prioritise human connection, meaningful collaboration, and interdisciplinary understanding.
In photo: Christopher Cripps (Institut Polytechnique de Paris) during his keynote speech at PCE/PCAH2025
France, much like the rest of Europe, started working towards the internationalisation of education intensively in the 1990s, when it became a national and institutional focus backed by government support, policy frameworks, and stakeholders. Back then, internationalisation was synonymous with student mobility, and was often seen more as a punishment, explained Vice-President for Europe and International Affairs of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France, Christopher Cripps. In his keynote presentation titled ‘Internationalization of Higher Education in France: Challenges and Opportunities’, he outlined France’s efforts to internationalise its higher education system, effectively making a case for a changed perception of “internationalisation” in 2025. ‘What does it mean to truly internationalise higher education in 2025, when the world around us is becoming more fragmented, more fragile, and more fearful?’ he asked. According to him, internationalisation is no longer just about mobility, but about mindset, mission, and mutual respect. Students nowadays are pursuing mobility opportunities with great interest, revealing a change in societal and cultural mindset, which the French education system is quickly catching up on.
Watch the full keynote speech by Christopher Cripps in the video below.
Despite the growing interest of students and faculty in internationalising education, socio-economic and political realities are currently hindering international cooperation efforts. While students increasingly demand to study abroad, hurdles such as geopolitical tensions, budget cuts in education and research, and their own economic situations, do not allow them to do so. This may be perceived by many as a crisis, but according to IAFOR’s Provost, Professor Anne Boddington, this is nothing new. During a panel discussion on ‘Cooperation in Times of Crisis: Education, Leadership and Global Citizenship’, moderator Professor Donald E. Hall of Binghamton University, United States, asked whether we are in a time of global crisis. Professor Boddington clarified that the times are felt differently in different parts of the world. It is a fact that developing countries have been fighting these obstacles in higher education for decades. Student mobility or funds for education and research were not readily available to them as it was for students from developed countries. “It is just that now it is affecting people that it hasn’t affected for a long time,” said Professor Boddington. ‘The challenging thing is who can afford to stand up to a government. It’s about challenging things that have not been challenged in this context before,’ she continued.
In photo (from left to right): Christopher Cripps (Institut Polytechnique de Paris), Professor Donald E. Hall (Binghamton University), and Professor Anne Boddington (IAFOR Provost) during their panel discussion at PCE/PCAH2025
So, what exactly needs to be challenged? The panel echoed Dr Giannini’s call to bring back human imagination to the core of education. According to Professor Boddington, education has become highly transactional, so the challenge is how to maintain a sense of socialisation, both between university partnerships and between students, and also across disciplines. University partnerships, often established through Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), are meaningless if there are no person-to-person collaborations or if they fail to produce a meaningful outcome.
“Partnerships are not just a PR tool,” Mr Cripps stated. In terms of students, we need to make sure that their experiences and their future are meaningful too. Whether it is about studying abroad, writing a PhD dissertation, or making career choices, Professor Boddington suggested that educators and mentors push students to think about essential questions: why did they choose a certain country to study abroad, where do they position themselves in the world, what questions do they want to ask through their research, and what difference do they want to make in the world?
Interdisciplinarity is another challenge we need to prepare our students for. ‘What does interdisciplinary education mean, and how do we teach people to be generous and welcoming to other fields? We need to be conscious about the silos we are creating around disciplines,’ Professor Boddington said. Adding to Dr Giannini’s statement that interdisciplinarity is important because it carries with it principles of internationalism, inter-independence, and innovation, she acknowledged that interdisciplinarity and collaboration are difficult to engage with:
Within the context of IAFOR, which is doing a lot of interdisciplinary collaboration, I will say this: interdisciplinarity and collaboration are hard things to do. Conferences are an interesting place where we can see this. How many people go to listen to other people’s presentations, struggle to speak in a different language, and how many people have the tolerance and the patience to listen harder in order to understand?
Professor Boddington’s final message to educational leaders is to bring the human element back to the core of education: “One of the things I think we’ve lost in our impatience with the world sometimes is the tolerance, the decency, the respect, the resilience to listen to another person. This is one of the things that we need to re-learn in a world that is always in a hurry.”
Watch the full panel discussion in the video below.
This article is an excerpt from The 4th Paris Conference on Education (PCE2025) and The 4th Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities (PCAH2025) Conference Report and Intelligence Briefing .
Banner image: RUT MIIT, Unsplash
