This work in progress explores how internationalisation policies and instruments affect perceptions of quality, relevance, and learning in higher education (HE) and how these perceptions travel with internationally mobile students and academics. Inherent in the word inter-national is a focus on geography; this begs the question how geography can improve the quality of HE: how can the integration of a ‘non-national’ dimension or the mobility between countries enhance the relevance and quality of education? We propose that drawing on spatial theories help us tease out implicit understandings of geographies of internationalisation; i.e. what come to be seen as ‘the right knowledge’ when teaching in English, who becomes the ‘good student’ in a classroom with students from all over the world, and how perceptions of pedagogy is negotiated by international staff. After discussing arguments for a spatial approach to HE internationalisation, we present the ongoing empirical study and its first results.
