The Interplay between the International and European Dimension: a Case Study of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano

Abstract

In the European context, higher education institutions (HEIs) interpret uniquely the impulses from international and supra-national influences, playing a core role in implementing the international and European dimensions of higher education. However, international and European dimensions do not develop in parallel ways, and they can converge and diverge inside HEIs, generating organisational changes. The rationales and modalities explaining how HEIs prioritise one dimension over the other are still unexplored. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the interplay between international and European dimensions, focusing on the case of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, which includes a public HEI and a private HEI. The study utilised a qualitative case study design, conducting documental and thematic analysis on, respectively, data collected from institutional documents and from semi-structured interviews with 10 participants, who foster internationalisation and Europeanisation inside the organisation. Adopting the institutional logics perspective, the analysis investigated how the international and European dimensions converge and diverge within the School of Management. From the findings, it can be concluded that the international and European dimensions overall diverge because of their supporting institutional logics, embedded in the activities of the School of Management. Moreover, the individuals emerged as a cornerstone for the successful inclusion of international and European dimensions inside HEIs. Furthermore, the findings showed the transformative potential of the European dimensions, which could shape the logics of a HEI. This study provides researchers and practitioners with a new perspective on internationalisation and Europeanisation, connecting the two processes to the organisational dynamics of the HEIs.