Internationalisation in higher education and its impact in multilingual contexts: redefining identities of Basque-speaking academics

Abstract

This article analyses aspects of the impact of internationalisation in higher education in multilingual contexts where both a state language and a minority language are present and where English is gradually being introduced. The analysis focuses primarily on the consequences for the professional identities of academics who work in a minority language. The basic hypothesis is that the processes of global change influencing higher education go hand in hand with a transformation of the roles of academics and their professional identities. This implies that new demands on professors, lecturers and researchers tacitly lead to the incorporation of new language requirements and to a new identity. The field work was carried out in the University of the Basque Country (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) and involved in-depth interviews to obtain the perceptions and representations of Basque-speaking professors, lecturers and researchers about their academic identities and the metamorphoses that such identities have undergone in relation to language. This exploratory study has helped identify some of the main trends in professional roles and identities through a generational change; in particular, the emergence of strong strategic orientations in the design of academic careers. These processes of global change act as hidden forces regulating the academics' language choices.

Keywords:

• internationalisation
• higher education
• academic identities
• multilingual university
• minority language
• Basque

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of the Basque Country [research grant EHU09/10].