Krystian Szadkowski: "Internationalisation of universities - public good and the common good?"

Keynote 2: 5/12/23
Dr Krystian Szadkowski, Researcher, Scholarly Communication Research Group, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
Internationalisation of universities is lauded for its potential to elevate academic standards and enrich cultural diversity. Often framed as the public or the common good, this talk scrutinises the dichotomy within internationalisation’s impetus-questioning who initiates it, by what means, under which circumstances, and to what ends. It probes the core issue: is the internationalisation of universities the public good or the common good, and importantly, whose good does it serve? The discussion will navigate the intrinsic conflicts and opportunities of internationalisation, perceived as a battleground for ideological disputes regarding the purpose, boundaries, and ownership of higher education. The aim is to dissect the role of universities in the global context critically and to conceptualise a praxis of internationalisation that might foster the realisation and broadening of the common-the foundational ontology of all educational pursuits.
Krystian Szadkowski, PhD, is a researcher at the Scholarly Communication Research Group of Adam Mickiewicz University. His interests cover Marxist political economy and transformations of higher education systems in Central Eastern Europe, as well as the issues of the public and the common in higher education. He worked as a researcher for Education International (Brussels, Belgium). He was a visiting researcher at the Centre for Global Higher Education, both at University College London and the University of Oxford. He recently published ‘Capital in Higher Education: A Critique of the Political Economy of the Sector’ (Palgrave 2023), and co-edited (together with Richard Hall & Inny Accioly) ‘The Palgrave International Handbook of Marxism and Education’ (Palgrave 2023).