Internationalisation performance in higher education: a systematic evidence review

Abstract

The systematic evidence review aims to i) determine the prevalence of existing research on internationalisation performance in Higher Education (HE), ii) classify and analyse existing evidence on the complexities and challenges of internationalisation performance, and iii) come up with recommendations for future research to achieve effective internationalisation performance in HE. A search strategy was initiated to examine databases such as Scopus, Cochrane, Embase, Science Direct and Web of Science to qualify the studies between 2000 and 2023. Out of the 2704 publications generated by the search strategy, 1918 were excluded, and 786 were selected, of which 47 publications covering 42 chosen papers were included for final review. As studies on internationalisation performance are important, this review involved research and publications conducted in high-income and developing economies and could not identify internationalisation in HE publications from undeveloped countries. The overall lack of evaluating research on HE sectors, and HE informatics raises attention and unanswered questions regarding their capacity to improve the eminence of internationalisation performance as well as digitalisation, globalisation, cultural competence, complexities, and challenges of internationalisation in HE. In this regard, this study offers a review of HE to decision-makers and HE authorities to deliberate on the present situation of internationalisation performance and suggestions for further research