Towards Global Knowledge Society: A SWOT Analysis of Pakistan Higher Education in Context of Internationalization

Abstract

Internationalization has emerged as one of the central issues of higher education in the global knowledge economy. Developing countries like Pakistan are in the struggle to develop their higher education system in the globalized means to survive in the 21st fast pace global competitive industry. The efforts of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan towards evolving international education settings are appreciable but still there is a need to identify basic mechanism and practices through which transformation of higher education to internationalization is possible. Current study is an overview of the trends of higher education globally, within Asia Pacific Region and specially in Pakistan. The aim of the study is to highlights the strengths and opportunities as well as weakness and threads of Pakistan’s higher education system by proposing a SWOT analysis of higher education internationalization. Pakistan is facing a number of challenges on the way towards globalization and modernization of educational institutes. The study highlights those issues and challenges and suggest a set of practical recommendations to speed up the internationalization process.

Keywords: Internationalization, higher education, student mobility, globalization