Higher education, at present, is developing fast with emerging new disciplines and specializations of subjects. The impact of the development of science and technology, transport and communication, information technology, globalization and the outburst research activities in different disciplines on education in Universities and Colleges is tremendous. The institutions are challenged to constantly review and update their academic programmes, infra-structural facilities and strengthen resource generation and management. These institutions face stiff competition from within and outside the country. Their survival depends on the quality of their educational programmes, their ability to attract meritorious students, financial viability and impact they create on local society and nation. Some institutions may not have the freedom to plan innovative courses and programmes due to restriction by Government or University rules or constraints because of locality or context. Very few institutions enjoy the autonomy to plan their own curriculum and evaluation procedures or arrange for exchange or twinning programmes. I recollect the words of Dr. Malcom Adiseshia (1973) about the need for autonomy and quoted by our former Chairman, Dr. M.A. Thangaraj, ‘I give the present Indian higher education 20 years: if nothing is done to redeem it from its irrelevance, it will collapse under its own weight of uselessness. But I see an escape route for it in the scheme of autonomous colleges"/1/. Thanks to our Government, UGC and the Universities for they have accepted this idea and granted autonomous status to many colleges.

Today, many terminologies such as ‘internationalisation’, ‘globalization’, ‘westernization’, ‘nationalization’, safranisation ‘contextualization’’ ‘indigenization’ etc. are commonly used in the context of higher education. Each of these words have a distinctive meaning and expresses a concept. We, therefore, need to use these words carefully to convey the proper meaning. Let me point out briefly what ‘internationalisation’ of higher education means conceptually and in practice, factors contributing to internationalising higher education, its positive impact, the challenges it poses to Higher Education institutions and the attempts of Lady Doak College in internationalising higher education.

The word ‘international’ points to several nations beyond one’s own country but having some relationship between them either for the sake of commerce, trade or transport or agreement on border security or sharing of their resources or having mutual exchange of ideas on certain issues affecting them. Dewayne Frazier defines internationalisation of higher education as ‘efforts to promote and foster cross-cultural awareness on institutional campuses through: curriculum development; building international relationships with foreign institutions; recruiting international students from diverse parts of the world; offering study abroad and service learning programmes in various sites; programming international lecture series for campuses and recruiting and retaining international faculty’/2/. Another definition quoted by Vincent Hanssens is, "Internationalisation of higher education is the process of integrating an international/intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of the institution"/3/. He goes on to point out that the internationalisation and globalization differ in their characteristics and the way they operate.

The main characteristics of globalization are free market economy and capital flow from one country to another, dominance of Multi-National companies over nation-states and homogenization of culture and society /4/. These characteristics of globalization contribute for privatization of industries, businesses, education and medical care and accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few rich individuals/families. The process of globalization brings some sort of uniformity in culture at the expense of ruining the traditions, skills and pluralism. It leads to the closing down of unproductive and profitless institutions and sending many workers out of their jobs. It has increased the debt/ burden of the nations as well as the families. Globalization seems to benefit the developed nations of the west.

Though globalization has descended on us like a powerful monster, on the positive side it has drastically transformed the global community which is already caught in the current of Information and communication technology. Concept of time and space has changed promoting internationalisation. It has removed our isolation at the same time our privacy too exposing us to transcultural conflicts. Therefore it becomes all the more necessary to make people understand and appreciate other cultures and peoples through internationalisation of education. Computers have become accessible to common people and have become an integral part of every day life. With the current of globalization it is impossible to live in one’s own country and one’s own place disconnected culturally from the rest of the world. Educational institutions have the responsibility to develop in the youth, the capability to reconcile local culture with transnational culture in an amicable way. Colleges and Universities have to build an international dimension into their courses, curricula and campus life and train students as cosmopolitan citizens of the world/5/.

The process of internationalisation is aimed to promote co-operation between nations or institutions for a particular cause, respect for the culture of each nation and appreciation of the cultural diversities in societies. The genuine internationalisation would promote the welfare of the partner nations and develop the weaker ones to progress. The process of internationalisation includes sharing of ideas, technologies and human resource in contrast to the exploitation of the ex-colonies or other poorer nations. The process of internationalisation leads to strengthening the relationship between countries or educational institutions to establish justice, peace and harmony in the world. Whether the process of globalization and internationalisation stand opposite to each other or not is a debatable issue. Whether we like these processes or not, they are there and we cannot escape or stop them any more. But, I believe, that the positive impact of these two processes can contribute to the enrichment of higher education.

Internationalisation of higher education is not a new phenomenon. This has been going on from very early periods with the development of transport and movement of people from one country to another. The major periods of internationalising higher education in India Viz. Pre-colonial period, Colonial period, period of struggle for independence and Neo-colonial period. I am not going into the details of its historical development at present. The various factors such as the growth of media, distance education, movement of visiting lecturers, liberalisation policy of the governments, granting of autonomy to colleges and development of net-working among institutions contributing to enhance internationalising education need a detailed study but it is beyond the purview of this paper.

What are the positive impacts of adding international dimension on the teaching-learning process in colleges and Universities?

Let me share the experience of our college in internationalising higher education in co-operation with our partners, associations and other service agencies in India and abroad.

Adding international dimension to the education at Lady Doak College (LDC) has been there right from its inception in 1948. Let me explain briefly how internationalisation of education happens at Lady Doak College bringing forth good results in the teaching-learning process.

i) Miss Katie Wilcox, the founder of the college came from USA and established this college for the education of women in 1948. The historical context of this period was gaining the freedom and independence from the British rule. Madurai had industries founded by the British business people particularly the Harvey Mills (now called as Madura Coats). Sir James Doak, the British industrialists in Madurai and his wife Lady Helen Doak supported the effort of Ms. Katie Wilcox in her educational service to women. Other foreigners such as J.X. Miller and Dudly also extended their support to develop the college. Rt. Rev. Dr. Leslie Newbigin, the Bishop in Madurai gave able leadership to the development of this college as its first Chairman. Some of the Principals who succeeded Ms. Katie Wilcox were Ingrid Wielhemson and Dr. Margaret Clapp from Sweden and USA respectively. Some of the earlier faculty members were also from overseas. Their presence and service added international dimension to the programmes of the college and strengthened the link with their churches and mission boards.

ii) WCC and such other ecumenical bodies help the faculty development programme occasionally meeting part of the expenses for our staff to travel overseas to specialize in areas such as Environmental Studies, Women’s Studies, Human Rights and Leadership service. Although these grants are small and occasional, it helps our faculty to gain overseas exposure and experience.

iii) Professors from the universities and colleges in the West and East and leaders of the churches overseas come to our college to spend part of their sabbatical and gain exposure to Indian pluralistic context or for research and writing. They do give guest lectures and interact with the students providing latest information in their field of study or profession.

iv) Some of our graduates and staff members settled abroad do visit our college and share their expertise and experience with the present faculty and students.

The Churches and Mission Boards in USA and UK established a strong tie with this college particularly the UCBWM (Global Ministries), UBCHEA and later Oberlin Shanshi Memorial Association (OSMA). They contributed funds to develop the infra-structure in the initial period of the college, they changed their policy to develop the Indian faculty members working in Colleges. Two of our main mission partners, UBCHEA and Oberlin Shanshi operate exchange programmes for the faculty to spend a year or a semester in one of the colleges related to UBCHEA / in the Oberlin College. Although UBCHEA helps the overseas faculty members to come to LDC for teaching or research, it is not a regular programme. But their regular programme of placing one of our faculty members in USA went on for many years with a recent change to place the faculty member for a semester in USA and another semester in Asian countries like Japan, Philippines or Thailand. Oberlin Shanshi sends one of the graduates of Oberlin College to be placed in LDC for a year or two on exchange programme to learn, teach and conduct educational programmes through International Study Centre and get enriched mutually. Two of our faculty members were able to spend the summer term in Selly Oak College, Birmingham, UK with the help of USPG. Seven faculty members from different departments were trained in Gender Studies by the Institute of Women’s Studies, Philippines and they are all actively involved in the Women’s Studies Programme teaching courses on gender issues to our students. More than 38 faculty members out of 110 regular faculty members have been sent to various countries in the West and East over the past decades to have short-term and long-term training in various fields of studies. It means 30 per cent or one third of our faculty members have gained overseas experience in education. They have returned and are contributing to the teaching and learning process with their rich experience abroad.

The exchange programme for students is necessary to broaden their vision and knowledge. The exchange programme is not an excursion or tourism for sight seeing. It is more of a study programme. This happens at different levels at LDC. Some of our students who were involving in our service programmes are selected to participate in the Service-Learning Programme abroad. It is an organized programme expecting the students to fulfill certain requirements. Our students have participated in SLP organized in Canada, Japan & Philippines. Staff members involved in SLP have attended orientation and training programme conducted in Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong and China to make the SLP effective and relevant. Students from the Universities (ICU, Tokyo and PGU, Osaka, SWU, Korea) came to LDC, one of the recognized centers for international SLP and spent two weeks to one month attending lectures and involving in environmental projects, community health, Veterinary and Aqua centers and Center for Women Studies getting exposed to our culture & social environment. A batch of staff and students of colleges in UK connected with CUAC came to LDC for an exposure to the socio-economic, religious and cultural context of Madurai for two weeks. Another batch of students from Pacific University, USA came to LDC for two weeks exposure and learning. These overseas students were amazed by the diversity of culture, importance of religion in Indian life and touched by the prevailing poverty. What a report in a newspaper or television cannot do, the first hand experience of the context brought a tremendous change in their perspectives. The visit of these students and staff from overseas to LDC either for their SLP or Exposure programmes provides a lot of opportunities to our students to have both formal and informal interactions and gain knowledge.

LDC enrolls students not only from inter-state like Kerala, Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Andamans, Nagaland and Sikkim, but also train students from Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. Some of them come to LDC for specialized courses in UG and PG programmes. Introduction of Choice Based Credit System provides more opportunities for overseas students to come to LDC to select and study some special courses such as Management, Gender issues or Religion and Culture or Human Rights. Whatever the subjects they do for a semester or year, they can earn credit and get recognized by their own colleges and universities. Not only the departments but also some of the programmes and courses offered by the Centre for Women’s Studies (CWS), Centre for Music (CFM), International Study Centre (ISC), Centre for Enviornmental Studies (CES), Centre for Culture and Communication Studies (Folk art)-(CCCS) and Centre for Religion and Inter-Faith Relations (CRIFR) are available for the overseas students and staff.

Internationalisation of higher education can be promoted more in research and writing. One of our faculty members in the Department of Physics had a collaborative research project with an institution in Italy for a period of three years. She went to Italy for a short period each year to join the researchers and continued the experiments in the lab. She has published papers of her research done in Italy. This, in turn, enriched her teaching at LDC and enhanced the researches of students in that department. Another international dimension brought to biological science is the Centre for Fish Immunology. The Director of this center has tie up with the labs in Europe and is a recognized consultant for FAO of United Nations. Efforts are taken to work out tie up with the labs in overseas universities for research in the field of Biotechnology, Genetics, Environment, Microbiology and Molecular Biology. The Centre for Religion and Inter-Faith Relations inaugurated in 2004 started functioning with various programmes and organizing lectures on Philosophy, Religion and Inter-Faith Relations. A Visiting Professor from Mary Baldwin College, Virginia stayed at LDC for four months and gave series of lectures to our staff and students besides carrying out his own research on Gandhian Philosophy and visited various Philosophical centers in Madurai, Pondicherry, Kanyakumari and Kerala.

One way of internationalising our views, opinions and findings of research is to publish the articles in international journals. Some faculty members who have completed their Ph.D particularly in the field of literature and science have published their findings in international journals. Some of the research scholars working towards their Ph.D. under the guidance of our faculty members in the Department of Zoology and Centre for Fish Immunology too have published the findings in international journals. These papers have earned recognition from scholars in the same field in overseas universities. They have contacted our research scholars for further discussions. A lot depends upon the quality of the programme, faculty, lab, library and other infrastructural facilities in colleges. Lady Doak College is looking forward to have partnership and exchange programmes with institutions, Centres and labs at abroad.

Autonomous colleges trying to internationalize their education have challenges and difficulties to face. The concept of internationalising higher education has to catch up with the Management, Faculty and the University with which the colleges are affiliated. Without proper infra-structure, quality programmes, faculty development, co-operation of staff and student body and financial support and more particularly Autonomy and CBCS, it is difficult to promote internationalisation both on campus and abroad.

5. Vincent Hanssens, ‘Some considerations on the Process of Higher Education Internationalisation’ JCHE, June 2004, p.2f