A Survey of Internationalisation Activities in European Library and Information Science Schools

Abstract

Reports an empirical analysis of internationalisation and international collaboration activities of European higher education institutions within the discipline of Library and Information Science (LIS). To gain more comprehensive and accurate information about the policies, vehicles and activities relied on by LIS schools in Europe in internationalising their educational programmes a questionnaire was administered to 30 academic institutions in the field. The 30 surveyed institutions cover schools of varying type and size and with locations in different parts of Europe. A 75% response rate was achieved. The study examined the nature and level of activities in such main areas as internationalisation strategies, internationalisation of LIS curricula, international students, mobility, international course units, international profile of staff, research projects and Internationalisation at Home (IaH). Findings reveal a somewhat uneven picture of the pace of internationalisation within the European LIS school sector. There are rather few ambitious and large-scale collaborative initiatives.