The international business of higher education – A managerial perspective on the internationalisation of UK universities

•The internationalisation of HE is one way that universities are responding to globalisation.•There is little shared understanding of what internationalisation is or what it entails.•Implementing an internationalisation strategy is a major challenge for universities.•Many senior academic managers lack the management skills required to introduce major change.•Successful internationalisation depends on effective management as well as committed academics.

This paper employs a managerial perspective to examine the internationalisation of higher education (HE). Using four case studies of United Kingdom (UK) universities, the research identifies the differences between organisations that are making good progress toward implementing their internationalisation strategy and those that are finding it more difficult. The literature review combines three sets of literature on: the internationalisation of HE, management of HE institutions and strategic management. Based on the literature three main challenges to UK universities implementing organisation wide internationalisation are identified and a set of organisational pre-requisite qualities are suggested, which if put in place will provide should produce sound basis on which to implement an internationalisation strategy. The literature suggests that contemporary universities are international businesses and as such should give more serious consideration to how their internationalisation strategy is managed. The research indicates that some UK universities are struggling to come to terms with their new operating environment and whilst they nearly all have international strategies, they need to pay more attention to the implementation of those strategies.