Internationalization of Universities: The German Way

While German universities have traditionally followed a partnership-based cooperativeapproach to internationalization, more recently, growing competition and increasingresource shortages have resulted in the emergence of a more competitive approach.Also with regard to international students as a target group, the cooperative andcompetitive approaches have coexisted for many years, albeit virtually unconnected.This has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of international students inGermany over the past two decades. The question arises as to whether, and how, thetwo sometimes contradictory rationales can, in the future, be harmonized. There ismuch to be said for Germany further enhancing its international profile in the globalcompetitive market by consistently pursuing its partnership-based approach. There isevidence that not only universities, but also the economy and society, reap long-termbenefits.