Internationalisation as an Adaptive Strategy

: Implementing Bilingual Programmes at a German University of Applied Sciences

Abstract

As globalisation accelerated in the post-Cold War era, higher education institutions (HEIs) adopted internationalisation strategies in response to changes in their operating environment. While internationalisation has received significant scholarly attention since the mid-1990s, efforts to conceptualise the phenomenon have often been inductive and descriptive, resulting in definitional ambiguity. This study addresses this by taking a deductive approach, utilising Generalised Darwinism as a theoretical lens through which to analyse the internationalisation strategy of a German university of applied sciences. The aim is to evaluate whether this evolutionary framework provides a coherent, explanatory model for understanding institutional adaptation in higher education.

The study employed a qualitatively driven mixed methods approach. Data were collected through institutional document analysis, a survey questionnaire (n = 207), and 18 semi-structured interviews with academic and administrative stakeholders. Thematic analysis was used to examine qualitative data, supported by descriptive statistics for the quantitative components.

Findings suggest that the implementation of an internationalisation strategy was an adaptive response to environmental pressures that reduced the case institution’s access to critical resources. Generalised Darwinism, operationalised through the variation-selection-retention (VSR) model, proved effective in describing this adaptive process.

This study contributes to the field by offering a deductive, transferable framework for analysing internationalisation and other transformative processes as adaptive organisational behaviour shaped by resource dependence. It also generates testable propositions for future research and provides practical recommendations for institutional stakeholders and decision-makers. The findings suggest that shaping selection environments is as important as understanding institutional routines when it comes to guiding equitable and sustainable forms of internationalisation.

Date of Award	18 Feb 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Ludovic Highman (Supervisor) & Gina Wisker (Supervisor)