Difference, globalisation and the internationalisation of curriculum

The idea of internationalisation of curriculum has be-come entrenched in Australian higher education. Almost every university in Australia now professes to the need to transform its curriculum to reflect the goals of interna-tionalisation. According to a national study conducted in 1995, 37 out of 38 Australian universities included a policy of internationalisation in their corporate plans. Furthermore, its was found that over 70 per cent of universities had strategies for the internationalisation of form and content of their curricula. (IDP 1996) The problem with these findings is that they do not tell us how the idea of internationalisation is understood. Even a cursory glance at policy documents suggests a diversity of meanings. In 1995, Australian universities claimed over 1000 different internationalised curriculum devel-