Introduction

The phenomena of internationalization and globalization are becoming major domains of enquiry within comparative education. In terms of internationalization of higher education, research is still fragmented, primarily based on American and European experiences, and conflated with comparative and international studies in education. China’s higher education began to integrate with the world community in the late 1970s, and two decades have seen much progress. As one of the world’s major nations, with a quarter of the world’s population, China’s higher education system is one of the largest in the world, and has much to gain from a study of internationalization. The real situation demanded some flexibility, particularly when respondents from certain disciplines had to be found within the small-scale, specialized institutions of higher education, which remain popular in China. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.