Soft power and internationalisation of the higher educations system: how are they interlinked?

The 2020 work from Italian marketing expert Enrico Sartor confirms it is. In the 1990s, the American scholar Joseph Nye demonstrated how students recruited above contribute to the international acceptability of the host country.

More recently, website softpower30 releases annually a ranking of top 30 countries. Here, again, the international students components is taken into consideration.

So how does international education tie with international politics? And how significant are state-controlled agencies in the international promotion of a country’s cultural blueprints?

Virtually all states with a developed tertiary education system maintain a promotion agency. Some of them hold a tight control over them, some other prefer a looser grip. All countries fund them, less states believe in them and foster their international reputation.

Sartor’s book analyses 20 higher education international marketing agencies, checking budget, personnel, and political releevance. Further, the author generates four different categories, each grouping 5 organisations, highlighting common patterns and differences.

This research aims to highlight the solid, albeit seldom perceived as significant, links between soft power and international education. This, not least in its capacity of source of wealth for the countries promoting, advertising and marketing internationally their higher education system.

Currently available here.