Internationalization of Universities as
Internationalization of Bildung
Carol Steinhaus
Northern Michigan University
Rainer Lenz
University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld
September 2010
Internationalization receives top priority in nearly any university mission state-
ment. But why? What is the value of internationalization for a university? Is the
purpose to improve a university’s ranking, or to explore new revenue sources by
entering foreign, mostly Asian, educational markets? Internationalization is not -
or better - should not be an institutional end in itself. Internationalization is a
powerful means to fulfill a university’s central task “Bildung of individuals” as it
significantly contributes to the learning process of students and professors within
the university system. By focusing on the individual’s learning process this article
provides a new perspective to internationalization and develops a different ap-
proach for reaching the university’s mission of internationalization.