Money for Prestige: A Geopolitical Transaction

Abstract

This study explored how political and economic forces influence internationalization activities in Brazil and the United States. Eighteen international officers and faculty members at two public research universities in the United States and Brazil were interviewed to understand how internationalization activities have changed given new political and economic circumstances in these countries. This study found that the major forces influencing internationalization activities in higher education in Brazil and the US are federal and state policies, institutional internationalization strategies, and the pursuit of money and prestige. Furthermore, this study found that Brazilian higher education increased its internationalization activities and prestige pursuit through federal policies encouraging mobility programs that brought the standardization and formalization of such activities at the institutional level. Additionally, US higher education institutions are increasingly engaging in entrepreneurial behaviors regarding internationalization activities. The interaction of these forces have resulted in a geopolitical transaction: money for prestige.