ABSTRACT
As noted at various points in this book, processes of globalization increas-ingly require people to recognize how forces from areas of the world previously considered distant and remote, impinge upon their daily lives. While the workings of a global economy and the increasing interconnectedness of societies pose common problems for educational systems around the world, regional, national, and local responses vary. The impact of globalization can only be measured against local values and context. Due to China’s specific situation, certain issues are key to the internationalization of higher education in China, while they may mean little in other countries. There are a number of such issues. Based on their existing and potential influences, this chapter identifies four major issues in internationalizing China’s universities: overseas student education, the English language, the Chinese professoriate, and the role of Hong Kong higher education. They are examined in a comparative perspective which traditionally has taken as its subject matter the macro- and micro-level forces shaping education systems around the world, and is ideally situated to study the dynamic interactions between global trends and local responses (Arnove & Torres, 1999, p. 4).
