Internationalization of Higher Education in Argentina upon the Arrival of COVID-19: Reactions and Lessons from the Perspective of International Relations Office

Abstract

The interdependence between countries in relation to the production and transfer of knowledge has grown steadily since the 1980s. As a result, in the past two decades the number of students crossing borders to pursue an education abroad skyrocketed. However, the arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020 imposed a series of restrictions on this exponential expansion. Closed borders and semi-frozen economies resulted in unprecedented challenges for university administrators. The International Relations Offices (IROs), responsible for the promotion and administration of collaboration agreements, nobilities, joint academic activities, international positioning, and overseas student recruitment, were especially challenged by the pandemic and its consequences. This chapter’s objective is to assess how the IROs reacted and shifted their activities in response to the restrictions in global mobility brought about by COVID-19. To capture this behavior, we conducted a series of interviews with key actors at two public and two private universities in Argentina. To contrast theory and evidence, we used some principles that emerge from Resilience Theory.