Internationalization of higher education for improvement on global ranking of universities in South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the process of internationalizing higher education for improvement of ranking in universities in South – East geopolitical zone. Three research questions and one null hypothesis were used to guide the study and three hundred and forty one academic and administrative staff constituted the population, while two hundred and ninety five representing 86.5% of the population size was randomly selected as sample from the population of the study. The Questionnaire titled Internationalizing Higher Education for Improvement in Global Ranking Questionnaire (IHEIGRQ) was the instrument used for data collection and it was constructed by the researchers and its validity was ascertained by measurement experts. The reliability was computed at 0.75 coefficient using the Cronbach Alpha Statistic. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation scores and t–test statistic. Results of the findings revealed among others, that global research collaboration for international relevance and institutional reformation for excellent achievement, constitute internationalization strategies that universities can adopt to improve on their ranking. Sequel to the findings, the implications, conclusion and recommendations were made.