Towards More Cooperative/Inclusive Internationalization: Insights from a South/North Virtual Mobility Project

Abstract

The pandemic has changed many physical activities involved in the internationalization of higher education process, such as academic mobility. This study investigated how virtual mobility (VM) can contribute to a more cooperative and inclusive internationalization process with more opportunities for the academic communities involved. With that aim, the perceptions of students from a university in the Global South involved in a VM program with a university from the Global North in the 2021/2022 academic year were analyzed. Data were collected through questionnaires and group interviews and analyzed qualitatively to discuss the affordances of VM for more inclusive and cooperative relationships between universities from the Global South and North. Overall, results of the study suggest that although the VM program was designed by the university in the Global North without the cooperation of the university from the Global South, the students involved were positively impacted by their participation in the program and collaboration with students from the Global North, which in turn, contributed to their knowledge and research topic development.