HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION

The changes to which higher education all over the globe increasingly is exposed, are complex and varied, even contradictory, and the comprehensive concept of globalisation are far from clear and well defined. Nevertheless, the concept of globalisation indicates that the various changes are somehow interrelated and creating new forms of interdependencies between actors, institutions and states. It is assumed that globalization promises dramatic and rewarding change to the higher education systems, of societies, which are relatively stable in their political, social and institutional makeup, while for the others, it may threaten the very stability needed to build well performing higher education system. It seems that the Higher Education is undergoing dramatic change worldwide and that the early 21st century is the “perfect storm” of external pressure and internal responses. Higher education has now become central to the changes sweeping through emerging nations, in which worldwide networking and exchange are reshaping social, economic and cultural life. In some respects globalization in higher education is an alternative to the old internationalization, even a rival to it. Yet they also do not necessarily exclude each other.