Internationalization of Higher Education: Current Realities, Challenges, and Future Opportunities
Iman Rabah

Abstract
The new trend in contemporary universities is the level of internationalization. Globalization increased the pace of internationalization under the influence of diversification, expansion, privatization, and marketization. Since neoliberalism ideology states minimal interference of governments and restraining public funds, it had a great impact on higher education. Universities were encouraged to admit full-fee-paying students including foreign students increase income. Consequently, this resulted in the increase of the number of students and therefore the expansion of the university and the growing diversity of students due to international student mobility from less developed and poor countries to developed and rich countries. Higher education internationalization is considered as a soft power tool to enhance and maintain status in the system of the world knowledge. It started with mobility and then developed into a diffusion of innovations dynamics within the world knowledge system. According to this paper some eastern universities, programs and academics may have a high value to add to westerns counterparts if internationalization is deployed in a balanced way leading to exchange of cultures, languages, ideologies, and benchmarks. In fact, it is about time for universities to review their social function, visions, quality and role in excellence ideology production from cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, and collaborative perspectives, as a society microcosm. It is pivotal for universities and employers to ensure that the higher education experience prepares graduates to work and live in a globally interconnected society. Encouraging and supporting a disposition that values connectedness can nurture students to make global sense of responsibility and learn skills and knowledge that secures a better world.

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