Summary

This paper aims at addressing East-West cohesion in the context of international relations and mobility in higher education. The geopolitical and domestic structural challenges in HE that Central European HEIs face nowadays call for an immediate action of the management and decision makers for revitalizing institutions and enabling them to achieve success in increased enrollments and international academic activity. Innovative approaches and experimental attitude may help satisfy the fundamental need of every HEI to increase recruitment both among domestic and international students as well as to provide a unique and attractive educational program portfolio and mobility services and experiment with effective new methods in mobility, international relations, education, research and varsity promotion. Beyond intra and inter-institutional collaboration, we will explore how can Hungarian universities implement knowledge diplomacy of the East-West axis successfully. Some recent Asian educational business experiences are to be shared, too.

Keywords: knowledge diplomacy/ internationalization/ intra- and inter-institutional collaboration

This paper addresses East-West cohesion in the context of international relations and mobility in higher education. The geopolitical and domestic structural challenges in higher education (HE) that Central European higher educational institutions face nowadays call for an immediate action of the management and decision makers for revitalizing institutions and enabling them to achieve success in increased enrollments and international academic activity. Innovative approaches and experimental attitude may help satisfy the fundamental need of every higher education institution (HEI) to increase recruitment both among domestic and international students as well as to provide a unique and attractive educational program portfolio and mobility services and experiment with effective new methods in mobility, international relations, education, research and varsity promotion. Beyond intra and inter-institutional collaboration, I believe that knowledge diplomacy of the East-West axis should be implemented effectively at Hungarian universities that wish to expand their Asian pool of students and research collaborations.

Nowadays the actual context of Asian academic expansion of East-Central European (and Hungarian) HE is the so called Eastern Opening policy (2010) in the course of which HE exchange is interpreted as a tool for a larger social transformation. William J. Jones focuses on the particular intercultural agenda in his „European Union Soft Power: Cultural Diplomacy & Higher Education in Southeast Asia.” Jones has explained how the policy had been established by the New Asia Strategy of the European Commission in 1994, and how the number of Asian students overseas has increased especially in the US, Great Britain and Australia. He also called attention to the massive potential of 1.2 million Asian study abroads in OECD countries and the fact that the Bologna Process has increased the attractiveness of European universities for Asian students. In his view, exchange and mobility are important cultural assets that can turn into economic one, while increased cultural transmission may also entail some fears of illegal impact in Europe, especially in view of the most recent events in Western Europe. Erasmus Mundus, Jean Monet chairs in Asia, the King Abdullah Grant, the Confucius Institute system and various student grants are examples of the intensifying educational relations between Europe and Asia, while the dynamics of cultural, financial and educational symmetry work in altering ways. However, there are experts who criticize the efficiency of the Asian expansion program (1 and 2), too.

As all who work for international relations (IR) at HEI in Central Europe know, there are some major geopolitical, structural and financial challenges that the majority of universities, especially state owned ones face nowadays. In addition, the declining demographic tendencies and correlated fall in enrollment numbers, the increasing global and national competition for domestic and international students as well as the profoundly new student population representing the Z generation that differs in so many ways from any earlier generation, all accumulate new challenges and call for a new attitude of the decision makes and immediate action. In reality, most HE leaders have got adequate academic professional training, but do not necessarily have any formal education in business, diplomacy or culture studies. That is why it is pretty much personality dependent how open-minded one is towards internationalization, and that is why for the majority learning by doing (through mistakes…) is a widespread experience.