Internationalisation of Universities and the National Language : Language Policy Interventions and Case Studies

Universities are pressed to compete within the global scene of international higher education. What is the status of the national or local language in higher education when the dominance of English in the academic world increases? Universities have become an interesting field for research on sociolinguistic and language policy aspects. How can the global edge and the local function of universities be effectively combined?
This book combines case study contributions from countries within and outside Europe in order to underline the key language policy challenges universities around the world face in their attempt to remain nationally leading and interna-tionally competitive institutions. The grouping of different countries and contexts leads to the scrutiny of a variety of scopes that complement each other.

Danny Pieters is the head of KU Leuven’s Institute for Social Law. He is in charge of the Research Unit Europe and Social Security (RUESS) and is the programme director of the Master in European Social Security. He was a member of the Belgian Federal Parliament from 1994 to 2003 and 2010 to 2013, presiding over the Senate in 2010–2011. From 2013 to 2017, he was vice rector for Humanities and Social Sciences as well as International Policy at KU Leuven.
Thijs Keersmaekers is staff member at KU Leuven’s Institute for Social Law. He holds a degree in linguistics and literature. His current work focuses on language legislation in small states