3

SECOND-ORDER CHANGE

WITHOUT FIRST-ORDER CHANGE

A Case of Thai Internationalization

of Higher Education

Pad Lavankura and Rattana Lao

INTRODUCTION

Internationalization of higher education has become a worldwide

phenomenon that impacts education systems across contexts, countries

and continents. The expansion of the internationalization process and its

complexity is well illustrated in the evolution of academic attention paid

to the definitions of internationalization. Arguably, the most acclaimed

definition was given by Knight (1994) who defines it as the “process

of integrating an international and intercultural dimension into the

teaching, research and service functions of the institution” (p. 7). This

working definition represents one of the first attempts to situate the

internationalization process as a central part of every function of higher

education institutions. Ten years on, the definition of internationalization

of higher education was equated, to better include internationalization’s

Reproduced from Education and Globalization in Southeast Asia: Issues and Challenges, edited by
Lee Hock Guan (Singapore: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, 2017). This version was obtained electronically direct
from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced
without the prior permission of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
Individual articles are available at http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg.