Internationalization Of Research University In International City

Internationalization of the research University, to a large extent, is a practical issue. Despite of the fact that the strategy of internationalization has been adopted by many research universities, how to achieve it so as to promote further development still remains a big challenge. Among the research universities in the world, many of them are located in international city. This situation also applies to the research universities in China.However, this inviting field has not received due attention from scholars and researchers, and there are many deficiencies in the existing studies. These deficiencies, to some extent, also result in some problems that confront us. For example, the existing studies concerns more about how to identify the internationalization of the research university. Many of the studies on the implementation of internationalization lack a coherent theoretical framework. Moreover, very few studies take the international city into consideration when examining the approaches to carry out the strategy. Not surprisingly, study in this field which is based on empirical studies, field work and transnational comparative studies, is a very rare phenomenon.A survey of the existing studies suggests that a thorough study on the internationalization of research universities, especially those located in the international city is of great importance. Based on the status quo, this study will examine the research university located in international city, with University of British Columbia and East China Normal University as the case study. Considering the locations of these two universities, namely Vancouver and Shanghai, are generally acknowledged international cities, this study also explore the advantages of the research university located in international city in terms of the implementation of internationalization.Apart from theoretical studies and textual analysis, generally used by researchers, this study adopts many other research methods, such as interview, questionnaire, field work, etc. This study recorded interviews with all interviewees if permits. Besides, the researcher made a deep analysis of the recorded texts of one hundred international students studying in international city. It is worth mentioning that this study also benefits from a face-to-face interview with the renowned Prof. Robert Cowen, President of the European Association of Comparative Education. The part "research methods" in the "introduction" provides a detailed account in this aspect.This dissertation mainly comprises three parts:an examination of the advantages of international city in implementing internationalization of research universities, a detailed analysis of the internationalization of University of British Columbia and East China Normal University as the case study, and a discussion on the strategies that Chinese research universities located in international city may adopt. These three parts form the main body of this dissertation.Part One examines the advantages of international city in implementing internationalization strategy for the research university. According to the study, the research university located in international city, compared with those located in non-international city, already taken the role of "pulling the international students", with the results of their general understanding and specific understanding toward international city. Statistics in this part mainly focus on the recorded texts of international students studying in international city including Vancouver and Shanghai, two international cities, although some other international cities have also been taken into consideration.Part Two probes into the internationalization of two typical research universities, The University of British Columbia and East China Normal University, as the case study. To point out, these two research universities both exist in international city, great achievements revealed in the implementation of internationalization as well. This part begins with an introduction of the strategy of internationalization drawn by them, followed by a detailed analysis of their practical measures and ways. A brief summary is supplied at the end of the examination of each university. Based on the comparative study, this part arrives at the conclusion that both University of British Columbia and East China Normal University are dedicated to the supportive service for international students, local students, and local residents in the course of implementing internationalization. Part Two covers Chapter Three, Chapter Four and Chapter Five of this dissertation.Based on the actual condition of research universities in China, Part Three provides tentative solutions for universities. These suggestions include both general guidelines and feasible strategies. This consideration is based on but also goes beyond the case study of University of British Columbia and East China Normal University, for it has included exploration of other research universities. Part Three is composed of Chapter Six and Chapter Seven of this dissertation.