Paradigm shift in higher education: Learning, internationalisation and development

The challenges of globalisation have led to the great expansion of higher education in different parts of the world. In this global context, the implications for the development and reform of higher education in the twenty-first century have become a worldwide concern for policy-makers, social leaders, change agents and educators. Aiming to address the concern, this chapter proposes that a paradigm shift in higher education is needed. Tertiary learning must shift from a traditional site-bounded model towards a new model of globalisation, localisation and individualisation to create unlimited opportunities for students to learn and develop world-class competences and contextualised multiple intelligences for lifelong development in the twenty-first century. To facilitate such a paradigm shift, the chapter further presents a conceptual framework to re-define and develop internationalisation as one of the key strategies for transforming higher education, and a four-scenario typology to map out the possible directions for higher education development in the future. Copyright © 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.