THE EUROPEAN MODEL OF INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERREGIONAL ACADEMIC COOPERATION: INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES AND DOUBLE DEGREE PROGRAMS

Abstract

This article examines the internationalization of European higher education as an institutionalized process of academic integration that develops within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The aim of the study is to identify consistent patterns in the evolution of the research agenda for internationalization and to determine the role of double-degree programs within the system of inter-university cooperation mechanisms.

The primary focus is on identifying the sustainable managerial and institutional parameters of this process based on a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications in the Scopus database for 2000–2024, conducted using network analysis and data visualization methods in VOSviewer. The analysis was structured around three themes: scientific productivity, collaboration networks, and thematic evolution, with an emphasis on the mechanisms of academic integration associated with the Bologna Process.

The results demonstrate a steady growth in research on university internationalization, with a high proportion of transnational co-authorship, the core of which is formed by universities in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France. An analysis of thematic co-occurrence of keywords demonstrates the consolidation of scholarly discourse around the key institutional elements of the European Higher Education Area. In this context, internationalization is evolving from individually focused forms, primarily academic mobility, to structured formats of institutional interaction, within which double degree programs represent the most mature instrument for achieving the goals of the EHEA.

The study concludes that the European model of higher education internationalization demonstrates significant transferability beyond the EU, which is reflected in the practices of academic cooperation between Kazakhstan and European universities. At the same time, the study's contribution lies in identifying the institutional logic of internationalization and conceptualizing double degree programs as an independent mechanism of academic integration.

Funding: This study was funded by the Science Committee of the
Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan
(Grant No. AP26100283 “Internationalization of Higher Education in
Kazakhstan: Challenges and Prospects for Integration into the Global
Educational Space”).