The internationalisation of American higher education: a positional competition perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the potential negative consequences of the internationalisation of American higher education from the perspective of positional competition theory. This analysis suggests that internationalisation efforts undertaken by colleges and universities contribute to positional competition between students vying for admission, between graduates competing for prestigious, well-paying jobs, and between higher education institutions themselves, who compete for prestige. As positional competition necessarily involves displacing other in obtaining advantage for one’s self, the paper further describes how the positional competition engendered in part by the internationalisation of higher education contributes to the replication of social patterns of inequality.

KEYWORDS:

• Internationalisation
• higher education
• positional competition
• inequality
• student mobility
• globalisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Jennifer L. Matić http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4739-9202

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.