A Comparative Study of Virtual Internationalization in Scottish and Australian Universities and the Possibility of Benefiting from It  at Al-Azhar University

Arayes, Gomaa Saber Gomaa Hussein

doi:10.21608/jsrep.2022.301392

A Comparative Study of Virtual Internationalization in Scottish and Australian Universities and the Possibility of Benefiting from It at Al-Azhar University

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Gomaa Saber Gomaa Hussein Arayes

Administration, planning and comparative studies, Faculty of Education at Tafhna Al Asraf, Al-Azhar University

10.21608/jsrep.2022.301392

Abstract

Globalization and its challenges, nowadays, imposed the necessity of internationalizing the higher education virtually, as Virtual Internationalization has become a major pillar in the strategic plans of most international universities. However, higher education faces several challenges, especially in light of the successive pandemics that world is witnessing, including Corona pandemic (Covid 19), which imposed a special educational system that included Distance learning and hybrid learning, which led to the need to develop universities in order to pursue the requirements of digital transformation and international challenges. Therefore, the problem of the study stemmed from the results of some studies that pointed to the shortcomings in applying internationalization strategies to develop Al-Azhar higher education, and low available opportunities to attend conferences abroad, lack of infrastructure for internationalization equipment, and the small number of students studying abroad in the foreign universities. The reality indicates that the expansion of the internationalization of Al-Azhar higher education may be subject to regression due to the expected cost of studying in foreign universities, the large reliance on educational technology, in addition to the fear of some students' parents from the experience of travelling, friction and dealing with the Western civilization. Therefore, the current research aimed to make a comparison between the two universities in the field of virtual internationalization to come up with some results in preparation for developing a suggested prospective for developing of virtual internationalization at Al-Azhar University. The research relied on the comparative approach, which includes a description, analysis and interpretation of the experiences of the two universities in the field of virtual internationalization, in accordance with the efforts made in the context of Al-Azhar higher education. The results of the research resulted in a suggested prospective for the development of virtual internationalization at Al-Azhar University in the light of the results of the comparison between Scottish and Australian universities in the field of virtual internationalization.

Keywords

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