Internationalization post- COVID-19: exploring internationalization at home initiatives in public and private universities in Hong Kong

Abstract

Because of the priority placed on learning intercultural skills in the 21st century workplace, many higher educational institutions around the world have emphasized internationalization in recent years. In late 2022, two years after the Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted their internationalization efforts, resulting in quarantine requirements and border closures, Internationalization at Home activities have increased dramatically in universities in Hong Kong. In this study, document analysis was used to examine the extent to which internationalization, culture, diversity, equality, and inclusion are reflected in the vision and mission statements, strategic plans, and annual reports of six selected public and private universities in Hong Kong, and the impacts Covid-19 had on their Internationalization at Home initiatives. The study found that the word "international" appears more in documents reviewed from the two large public universities while the word "regional" appears more often in those of the two small public universities and the two private universities, and that the terms "diversity, equality and inclusion" appear more frequently in these six universities' latest annual reports. The Internationalization at Home initiatives identified were programs with international themes, foreign language courses, virtual exchange/internships, and diversity-related extracurricular activities. The findings may be helpful to students, staff and other stakeholders who are interested in the efforts made by these six universities in terms of Internationalization at Home initiatives, culture, diversity, equality, and inclusion. --Author's abstract