Internacionalização da educação superior: as múltiplas dimensões de um processo institucional

Abstract

Internationalization actions have been present in the context of higher education institutions for a long time. In this sense, each moment is characterized by a different role for these actions. Notably, international aspects have begun to be discussed and increasingly implemented in the daily lives of institutions in this segment, often being seen as an institutional differentiator. With globalization, the internationalization of higher education gains strength from the moment in which research, agreements and the resolution of global problems begin to appear among important institutional elements. It is worth noting that the internationalization process cannot be confused with the globalization process. The first refers to institutional actions aimed at solving global problems and the possibility of seeking excellence in institutional dimensions (teaching, research and extension). The second concept relates to the driving force of internationalization, the ability of different countries to engage in the pursuit of common goals, regardless of borders. Following this direction, the Federal Technological University of Paraná – UTFPR, has been developing internationalization actions with international universities since the 1990s. With the aim of working on a comprehensive perspective of internationalization, with the full participation of the institution, the UTFPR Internationalization Policy was approved in March 2018. This institution, which is characterized by offering engineering, technology, bachelor's and teaching degrees, is present in 13 campuses in the State of Paraná, and the Toledo campus was chosen as the object of analysis for this study. Taking into account the internationalization perspective, this research sought to answer some questions: (1) How have internationalization actions been developed within the scope of the UTFPR Toledo campus since the publication and implementation of its internationalization policy? (2) Which categories, generated from the content analysis, are present in the institution's internationalization policy? (3) How have the actors been motivated to develop actions based on its internationalization policy? The research was characterized as being descriptive-analytical in nature, using the phenomenological method. The research techniques used were case study, interviews, and content analysis. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis (Bardin, 2016). After identifying the categories present in the Internationalization Policy and in the interviews with campus stakeholders, some characteristics of the internationalization process were presented based on their perception. As a result of the analysis of the policy and the interviews, 6 and 3 categories were found, respectively. The quantitative data were tabulated, analyzed, and presented using simple descriptive statistics. Based on these actions, the aim was to respond to the general objective, which is to analyze, based on the analysis of the categories, the data contained in the reports, and the stakeholders' impressions, the path taken by the Toledo campus in the development of internationalization. The results indicate that there is a movement towards internationalization, but that the process still needs to mature, indicating that thexi internationalization policy is important, but above all, the institution needs a culture focused on this.