The role of internationalisation in 40 years of higher education research: major themes from Higher Education Research & Development (1982–2020)

Internationalisation represents a significant disruptive force for higher education over the last four decades, impacting teaching, research, and service provisions in many countries. In response, much scholarly literature has focused on internationalisation’s causes and effects in the sector, leading recent systematic literature reviews to consider it a thematic field of higher education research. To mark the 40th anniversary of Higher Education Research & Development, we consider the extent to which the journal has made a contribution to this thematic field and how the framing of internationalisation has developed or changed over time. A systematic literature review of 151 articles about internationalisation published since the journal’s founding in 1982 demonstrated that this theme is of substantial interest and contribution. We have highlighted through a qualitative discourse analysis of article titles and abstracts that the journal has developed growing criticality towards internationalisation over time through recognition of underlying power differentials and inequalities. Several areas are suggested to move this thematic field forward in the journal and the wider higher education field, including the inclusion of more authors from the Global South and increased criticality towards deficit narrative framings of international students.