INTERNATIONALIZING KNOWLEDGE – THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OFFICE FOR THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES OF TODAY

Abstract

The International Relations Office has not only become an indispensable feature of the modern European university, but it is also enjoying a constantly growing importance. While there exist many factors that motivate the growth in importance of the International Relations Office, in the present article we have highlighted only a couple of them: the desire to offer quality education and the wish to benefit from European funding. Due to this ever increasing importance, the International Relations Office is under significant pressure to redefine and reinvent itself. We offer examples of how such reformation efforts are focused on linking the function of the office to the processes of internationalization, modernization/development, or project development and execution. We review the role of the International Relations Office in overcoming challenges faced by the European universities of today. These challenges range from credit-hour recognition to bridging the gap between theory and practice, from achieving an enhanced mobility and internationalization to offering support for the implementation of joint Masters and Doctoral degrees, from disseminating latest policy information to working towards a more digitalized university. Based on the exposed information, we conclude that the International Relations Office has a truly important role in the internationalization of higher education institutions in Europe.