Earlier this month, the Austrian Government launched its National Mobility and Internationalisation for Higher Education strategy.

This document was developed by Austria’s Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and intends to place mobility and internationalisation at the core of Austria’s success as a global frontrunner for higher education. It covers all four sectors of higher education: public universities, universities of applied sciences, private universities and university colleges of teacher education and acknowledges that “there are many routes for internationalisation”. In this sense, institutions can select different objectives from each strategic goal and adapt them according to their individual characteristics. The newly published strategy pursues five strategic goals to be met by 2030:

● Develop a comprehensive culture of internationalisation within higher institutions by introducing an internal internationalisation strategy

● Enable mobility for all members of higher education institutions, in particular for teachers, higher education staff and poorly represented students

● Develop innovative virtual and blended forms of mobility

● Ensure skills improvement and institutional learning, creating lasting experiences at the individual and societal level

● Easing mobility for students and teachers from non-EU countries and their incorporation into the labor market

This strategy also fits at the broader EU level, as proved by strategic documents from the EU and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) which reference this approach to internationalisation. In the national context, this strategy will help meet the Government’s budgetary impact targets.

The strategy implementation and its goals will be monitored by the institution’s own quality management teams and by the BMBWF, which will present a progress report in 2024.

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