Online tool for measuring internationalisation
Nuffic offers a free online tool called ‘MINT’ that helps higher education institutions to map their internationalisation efforts. It allows users to get a better insight into the results of their internationalisation activities. It also supports comparing with peers and benchmarking. MINT helps institutions to make strategic choices.
MINT is an acronym of ‘Mapping Internationalisation’. It has been running successfully since 2009. The institutions can look at results of internationalisation activities in relation to institutional, faculty or programme goals.
Improving quality
Institutions can use MINT to test whether they have a fully-fledged internationalisation strategy in place including goals, activities, facilities and quality assurance.
Internationalisation becomes measurable quantitatively in the final section on key figures. However, the tool is explicitly not meant to focus on numbers of student exchanges or partners alone.
The distinctive idea behind MINT is the assumption that internationalisation is a way to attain policy goals. Reports generated by the tool will offer institutions insights into the quality of their internationalisation activities and facilities.
They will receive a clear indication of points where there is room for improvement. This will help the institutions to reach the goals set in their policies.
Drawing up a strategy
MINT is also of interest to those institutions which have not (yet) implemented internationalisation in their strategy. It offers assistance in including internationalisation purposefully and structurally in the vision, mission and strategy of the institution.
Moreover, the tool can create an overview of activities, to help an institution determine, for instance, which activities could contribute to its mission and should therefore be stimulated. In other words: MINT helps institutions to make strategic choices.
How it works
Users fill out an online questionnaire, which results directly in a self-evaluation report. Additionally, once a year users can request a comparison report in which data of two institutions are presented alongside each other.
Given the fact that the tool is in English and was set up to be applied in international settings, comparisons with international partners are also possible.
More information
Worldwide, MINT is the first comprehensive online evaluation-tool for internationalisation of higher education. International interest in the tool is growing. For more information, please visit www.nuffic.nl/mint. Click Contact and you will be put in touch with Adinda van Gaalen and Hendrik Jan Hobbes, policy officers in the Expertise-department at Nuffic.