ABSTRACT
Despite a growing cross-national analysis of internationalization, the higher education knowledge base lacks participatory evaluations of exemplary practices focused on their unintended consequences, particularly in post-socialist Europe’s north-eastern region. This chapter presents an example of ongoing practices in Latvia, moving to Europeanized and Global Open-Universities in the geographical and political contexts of the historical development of internationalization in the last 30 years. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how internationalization impacts the institutional strategies and ongoing practice at the University of Latvia and what controversial issues regarding unintended learning outcomes are evident. The trends and the directions for the future of this field, avoiding cross-nationally the mistakes made and lessons learned, will be analyzed, focusing on the unintended consequences of these practices regarding balancing institutional capacity and international status building.
