Institutional and Faculty Predictors of Medical Education Internationalization: Evidence from Qilu Medical University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/ajet.v5i3.8116Keywords:
Educational Mnagement, Faculty International Development, Higher Education Internationalization, International Collaboration, Medical Education, Virtual MobilityAbstract
This study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the factors that shape medical education internationalization and to propose evidence-based institutional management strategies. Internationalization effectiveness was defined as institutional performance in international academic exchange, English-medium instruction, faculty and student mobility, and international research productivity. Quantitative data were collected from 126 faculty members through a structured questionnaire, while qualitative data were obtained from 12 semi-structured interviews with university administrators and teaching staff. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression were used to analyze the quantitative data, and thematic analysis was applied to the interview data. Results showed that institutional policy support, international academic cooperation, curriculum internationalization, and faculty international development were all significant positive predictors of internationalization effectiveness. Faculty international development emerged as the strongest predictor, followed by international academic cooperation. Interview findings supported the quantitative results and revealed key implementation barriers, including limited funding for long-term overseas engagement, shallow international partnerships, and the low proportion of English-medium instruction. By incorporating recent post-pandemic literature on virtual mobility and digital internationalization, the study extends existing internationalization frameworks to the context of Chinese medical education. The findings suggest that medical universities should prioritize systematic faculty international training, develop hybrid academic partnerships, and advance curriculum internationalization to strengthen global competitiveness. The findings should be interpreted in light of the study’s limitation to a single institutional context; future research should include multiple medical universities and student perspectives to improve generalizability.
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