MANIFESTATIONS OF INTERNATIONALISATION OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES OF ECONOMICS IN POLAND REGARDING STUDENT MOBILITY – FINDINGS*1

The article’s main objective was to identify the propensity of students to participate in foreign exchange programmes and the expectations they formulate towards the HEI (Higher Education Institution) in creating conditions conducive to foreign mobility. The article presents a broader context of this mobility, presenting in the first part considerations concerning the essence of the process of internationalisation of HEIs and the strategies created for this process. The research used a multi-method approach (survey method and desk research method), with data triangulation. The assessment of the models of the range of internationalisation of these universities indicated the use of elements of the ‘import’ and ‘export’ models. An important aspect of internationalisation is the foreign mobility of both employees and students. Although students perceive the importance of international exchange, their level of knowledge about exchange programmes and interest in foreign mobility is low.


Introduction
The conditions for the functioning of higher education institutions are changing. Aswiththeeconomy,bothsocietyandlabourmarketareglobalising,andtheneeds andexpectationsofalluniversitystakeholdersareevolving.Today'suniversitiesare expected to be actively involved in building and developing relations with the environment, educating future 'citizens of the world' predisposed to work in aculturallydiverseenvironment.Asaresult,thepressureontheinternationalisation ofuniversitiesisincreasing,whichKnightdefinesas"...theprocessofintegrating the international/intercultural and/or global dimension into goals, functions, teaching,learning,researchandservices,andservicedeliveryinhighereducation" (Knight,1994).
Amanifestationofinternationalisationisthemobilityofuniversitystudentsand employees, the internationalisation of the curriculum, the recruitment of foreign academic and administrative staff, lectures by foreign scientists, cooperation and partnership with foreign institutions, and the creation of inclusive campuses, as wellasacademicjoint-ventures.Whatmotivatesuniversitiestointernationaliseare not only the financial benefits, acquiring knowledge, learning foreign languages, anddevelopinginterculturalcompetencies,butItalsoexpandingresearchcapacity. AsnotedbyQiang,theamountofinvestmentnecessaryforsomeareasofresearch anddevelopmentrequiresjointeffortsandintenseinternationalcooperationfrom universities (Qiang,2003).

Polish universities facing up the challenges related to the internationalisation strategy
Theinternationalisationofhighereducationisadynamicsystemthatchangesover time.Whatisresearchedandmeasuredisjustastatic'snapshot'ofthisconstantly evolvingprocess (Zhou,2016).ThestudybydeWitandAltbach(deWitandAltbach, 2021)summarisedtheinternationalisationofuniversitiesoverthepast30years,and showedthatitisusuallyadhoc,fragmentary,andmarginal,withmoreemphasis placedoninternationalisationabroadthanoninternationalisationathome,andthis benefits a small, elite group of students, lecturers, and institutions, instead of creating conditions for global and intercultural results/outcomes for everyone. Moreover, it is driven by an ever-changing range of political, economic, socio--cultural,andeducationalrationaleandnational,regional,andglobalrankings. Overthelasttwodecades,Polishuniversitieshavemadeconsiderableprogress in the internationalisation of their activities. Promoting the internationalisation of universities,especiallythe international mobility ofstudents, is high on the Polish political agenda and receives unanimous support from all government institutions (Bryła and Ciabiada, 2014). The fastest-growing aspect of the internationalisation strategyistheshort-termmobilityofemployeesandstudents,whiletheslowest-the creationofpublicationsindexedininternationaldatabases(ECORYSSp.zo.o.,2020).
Polishuniversitiesaresystematicallyexpandingtheireducationalprofilewith educationprogrammesinEnglish.Thisisduetothedesiretoaddprestigetothe university,thegrowingnumberofforeignstudentscomingtoPolandaspartofthe Erasmusstudentexchangeprogram,aswellastheincreaseinthenumberofforeign candidates for studies who are interested in the offered paid studies (competitive to those of universities from English-speaking countries). On the official website oftheEuropeanCommission,intheEurydicetab,itisstatedthatPolandhasnot developed a separate strategy for internationalisation or mobility at the level of education or higher education, but mobility and internationalisation are included in the priority areas of the "Integrated Skills Strategy 2030" (ZSU), adopted by the government in January 2019 (the general part of the strategy) and December 2020(thedetailedpart).Inaddition,theinternationalisationofhighereducationand sciencewasincludedintheobjectivesoftheStrategyforresponsibledevelopment until 2020 (with a perspective to 2030) adopted by the government in 2016, assumingthecreationofconditionsconducivetotheinternationalisationofHEIs as well as the innovation and the commercialisation of research results, together withfacilitatingtheemploymentofforeignscholarswithacademicachievements at Polish universities and encouraging students from outside the EU to study in Poland(EuropeanCommission,2020).TheEducationalFoundation"Perspektywy" annuallyannouncestherankingofUniversitiesinPoland.Oneofthecriteriafor evaluatingschoolsistheirinternationalization(Table1). ThedatacontainedinTable1clearlyindicatetheleaderofinternationalisation amongpubliceconomicuniversities-theWarsawSchoolofEconomics(SGH)which,overseveralyears,hasadvancedbynineplacesintheranking,comparedto theotheruniversities.

Justification for undertaking research
Theliteratureonthesubjectcontainslittlereferencetotheinternationalisationof universities of economics. Whereas business universities are responsible for educating ethical and entrepreneurial leaders who think globally, they also understand the systemic effects of business decisions (Business Education Jam, 2015).Itisexpectedthattheywillconductresearchtomeetsocialandenvironmental challenges,suchasthoserelatedtoclimatechangeandsocialintegration,andwill prepare the "leaders of tomorrow", equipped with the skills needed to run aproductive,inclusiveandsustainableeconomy(Pitt-WatsonandQuigley,2019), whocaneffectivelymanagepeopleandfinances(CABSCharteredAssociationof Business Schools, 2021). As noted by MacIntosh, "scientific breakthroughs are important but not enough on their own -they need an interface with business researchtoensuretheirtransitiontoviableproductsandservicesforthebenefitof society" (Chartered ABS and ITN Launch "Business Schools for Good" film, CharteredAssociationofBusinessSchools,n.d.).
This article's main objective was to identify the propensity of students to participate in foreign exchange programmes and the expectations they formulate towardstheHEIincreatingconditionsconducivetoforeignmobility.Thearticle describes a broader context of this mobility, presenting in the first part the considerationsconcerningtheessenceoftheprocessoftheinternationalisationof HEIsandthestrategiescreatedforthisprocess.
Using the desk research method, an additional analysis of the organisational documentation of the three above-mentioned universities was conducted, both onlineandthoseprovidedbye-mailtotheauthorsofthestudybytheDepartments of International Cooperation/International Cooperation Centres. In this way, secondarydataontheuniversities'internationalisationstrategieswereobtained.

Desk research results
The University of Economics in Krakow (UEK), the University of Economics in Poznan (UEP), and the University of Economics in Wroclaw (UEW) have been intensifying their activities related to internationalisation for a number of years. Each university has an internationalisation strategy with a developed monitoring systemofitsprogress.Itisnoticeablethatthedesiretostrengthenthepositioninthe international arena translates into the pursuit of new international accreditations, the intensification of international research and teaching cooperation, and the internationalisationofteaching.AllthreeuniversitiesjoinedthePRME(Principles forResponsibleManagementEducation)initiative,aglobalforumforresponsible management education. PRME is an initiative established in 2007, enabling the UnitedNationstocooperatewithbusinessschoolsfromaroundtheworld.Itsvision istoimplementthesustainabledevelopmentgoalsthroughresponsiblemanagement education,whileitsmissionistotransformeducationinbusinessandmanagement andtodevelopresponsibleleadersoftomorrow.
A high priority in internationalisation strategies is to strengthen the research potential and foreign mobility of both employees and students. To promote and recruit students from abroad, the studied universities cooperate with recruitment agenciesandportalsfromallovertheworld.However,mobilityactivitiesarethose relatedtotheimplementationoftheErasmus+programme.Table2providesdataon studentmobilitystatisticsfrom2018to2020. The data included in Table 2 clearly show that in each case the number of studentscomingtostudyinPolandishigherthanthenumberofthoseoutgoing.This canbereadasaconfirmationoftheeffectivenessofactivitiesaimedatmakingthe educationalprogrammesoftheseuniversitiesmoreattractiveforforeignstudents,as wellasbeingaresponsetothefavourableconditionsduetowhichstudents,including thosefromtheEUande.g.UkraineandBelarus,obtaintheso-called"Pole'scard". However,thelowerresultsregardingthemobilityofPolishstudentsmayindicate thattheinformationpolicyconcerningstudentexchangeprogramsisinsufficient, there is a lack of motivation or unwillingness to take risks related to going to a foreignuniversityamongstudents,lesserknowledgeofforeignlanguages,andalack ofincentivesforthistypeofactivity.Inturn,thedecliningnumberofbothoutgoing and incoming students over the period 2018-2021 is the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented and/or seriously impeded all forms of travel between countries.Yet,consideringthedeclarations,strategies,andcommunicationplansfor thedevelopmentoftheinternationalisationofuniversitiesandthenumberoffunds allocatedtotheErasmus+programmein2021-2027,itseemsthatalongwiththe liftingofpandemic-relatedrestrictions,theinterestinstudentandacademicstaff exchangeprogrammesshouldincrease.Moreover,itisimportantthatuniversities undertake various promotional and informational activities, as well as support interestedpartiesinpreparingforthetrip,bothformallyandorganisationally.
The analysis of the scope of internationalisation shows that the surveyed universities use the elements of the import model (without significant national differentiation among students and university employees) and the export model (lackofimplementationofcurriculaabroad).

Survey results
The first question concerned the foreign experience of the respondents (Table 3). Onecouldchooseanynumberofoptions.Moststudentshadbeenabroadfortourist purposes (91.6%), while 60.6% of the respondents travelled to family/friends/ acquaintanceslivingabroad.Abusinesstripwasinthirdplace.Only24persons statedthattheyhadgainedresearchexperienceabroad.Theleastfrequentlyindicated formofforeignexperiencewasvoluntarywork;fourpeoplehadneverbeenabroad. The research also tried to determine the level of respondents' knowledge of international student exchange programmes, as well as their degree of interest in participating in such projects. The distribution of answers to the first question is showninFigure1. Thesurveyshowedthat57%oftherespondentsassessedtheirlevelofknowledgeabouttheseprogrammesas"low"or"verylow",39%as"high"or"veryhigh".

Conclusions
Allthreeuniversitiesofeconomicshaveambitionstobecomemodernandglobally significantacademicand researchcentres supportingthedevelopmentofmodern business. These HEIs have clearly defined internationalisation goals which they pursue through specific policies and procedures. These universities have special organisational units responsible for various aspects of internationalisation. Theassessmentofthemodelsoftheinternationalisationrangeindicatedtheuseof elementsoftheimportandexportmodels.Animportantaspectofinternationalisation istheforeignmobilityofboththeiremployeesandstudents.
Students understand the importance of international exchange, but their level ofknowledgeaboutexchangeprogrammesandinterestinforeignmobilityislow. Thismaybeaderivativeoftheuncertaintycausedbythepandemicandtherelated limitations(thetravelban,andthedistancelearning,whichmadestudyingabroad lessattractive),aswellastheexcessivebureaucracyconnectedwiththeorganisation of the study trip, the lack of integrational meetings for domestic and foreign students, poor language skills, and finally insufficient promotion and problems withthechannellingofinformationabouttheprogrammes.Undertheseconditions, itseemsadvisabletoconductactivitiesincreasingstudents'awarenessofthebenefits ofthebroadlyunderstoodinternationalisationofuniversities,andinparticulartheir ownactivityinthefieldofbuildingculturalcompetenciesduringtheiruniversity studies. It would be advisable to conduct parallel research to verify whether the changes introduced in the field of information policy and generally related to enablingtheshapingofhigherandhigherculturalcompetenciesofbothstudents anduniversitystaffthroughanever-widerrangeofpossibleactivities(implementing variousmobilityprogrammes,organisinglanguagecoursesandtrainingcourseson multiculturalism,organisingjointandinternationalprojects,creatingaphysicaland virtualspacetodeepeninterculturalrelations,buildinganatmosphereofopenness to diversity and encouraging joint meetings not only in the context of scientific developmentbutalsostrengtheningculturalintelligence,etc.),actuallytranslateinto higherindicatorsofinternationalisationofeachoftheinteresteduniversities.