راه اندازی یک برنامه مشارکت علمی بین المللی: مطالعه موردی بین دانشگاه های تحقیقاتی پرتغال و ایالات متحده  Setting-up an international science partnership program: A case study between Portuguese and US research  universities

1. Introduction In an increasingly global competitive environment, universities are diversifying and expanding international collaborations to strengthen the scope and quality of their research and teaching activities (Wilkins and Huisman, 2012). Governments that understand the benefits of having national universities embedded in global knowledge networks usually support this process and take an active role in promoting international collaboration between universities. International collaboration is often motivated by objectives to modernize universities and promote national competitiveness (Gornitzka et al, 2005). Some countries also capitalize on international students who pay higher tuition fees (Turpin et al, 2002) and benefit from brain gain and brain circulation phenomena (Cantwell, 2011; Wildavsky, 2010; Middlehurst, 2001). Collaboration arrangements have been implemented in the drive to internationalize higher education and thereby respond to globalization. These include alliances between universities offering twinning, franchising, dual and joint degree programs, virtual and branch campuses, and the creation of knowledge hubs (Knight, 2011, 2004; Altbach and Knight, 2007). Countries in developing/intermediate stages of development tend to invest heavily in these collaborations expecting social and economic returns from the research universities’ contribution to their science, innovation and education systems (Mok, 2008; Mazzarol et al, 2003). Yet, not all of these collaboration models have been wholly successful and there are several known cases of failures (see Ross, 2008; Healey, 2008). In this framework, policy choices for internationalization matter because expectations, risks and uncertainty are high (Wilkins and Huisman, 2012). For governments of developing/intermediate countries, public resources, i.e., taxpayers’ money, need to be allocated carefully and it is often politically problematic to explain their allocation to foreign and already affluent universities. This becomes difficult if the international collaboration fails, and disastrous if it fails in countries where public funding is scarce (Becker, 2009). Risk and uncertainty also condition the choices of top research universities. They tend to choose partners with judicious assessments and calculations (Wildavsky, 2010). Although the financial drive in these partnerships for these universities is of relevance, other important issues need to be factored in. Collaborations provide privileged access to new pools of student recruitment and give faculty greater access to international exchanges, including opportunities for long-term collaboration prospects (Ayoubi and Al-Habaibeh, 2006). These represent benefits for many universities but inevitably the faculty needs to support these initiatives (Wilkins and Huisman, 2012). Other selection criteria include training skilled labor and access to national, regional and local markets. However, collaboration failure may lead to a loss of resources and dents in their global prestige (Healey, 2008).