Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Internationalization of higher education involves mutual exchanges as well as a
consensus based. Political, economic, sociocultural, and scientific reasons recommend the need to
move toward the internationalization of higher education. The current study highlights the strengths
of the internationalization of Iran’s medical sciences education.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive exploratory study was carried out in 2016–2017 in
Iran. The techniques used for data collection included review of articles, interview with subject experts,
and the focus group and the nominal technique group to explore the views of various stakeholders.
The data were analyzed with the qualitative content analysis method.
RESULTS: The inductive qualitative content analysis of all data generated 13 categories and 88
subcategories. The categories were geographical and geostrategic position of Iran; the historical,
cultural, religious, and tourist attractions of Iran; the security of Iran; priority to internationalization
policies and programs in Iran’s macro plans; the existence of regulations, laws, and approvals for
international activities; same language with neighboring and regional countries; the low cost of
studying and living in Iran; the ability of Iranian faculty members and experts for internationalization;
the background, reputation, and the progress of medical education, health, and care in Iran; the
cheaper forces of Iran and their welcome to foreigners; the existence of motivation, zeal, and belief
for internationalization; the existence of proper infrastructure; and the existence of a suitable capacity
for internationalization.
CONCLUSIONS: Iran has some positive points that can be used to promote international activities,
provided it does some good advertising in this regard. It is suggested that the challenges, opportunities,
and threats to Iran’s internationalization should be collated from the perspective of the various
stakeholders.

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Studies about globalization and internationalization demonstrate different attitudes
in explaining these concepts. Since there is no consensus among Iranian specialists about these
concepts, the purpose of this study is to explain the concepts of internationalization and globalization
in Iran.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is a systematic review done in the first half of 2016.
To explain the concept of globalization and internationalization, articles in  Scientific Information
D atabase, Magiran database, and Google Scholar were searched with the keywords such as
globalization, scientific exchange, international cooperation, curriculum exchange, student exchange,
faculty exchange, multinational cooperation, transnational cooperation, and collaborative research.
Articles, used in this study, were in Persian and were devoted to internationalization and globalization
between 2001 and 2016. The criterion of discarding the articles was duplicity.
RESULTS: As many as 180 Persian articles were found on this topic. After discarding repetitive
articles, 64 remained. Among those, 39 articles mentioned the differences between globalization
and internationalization. Definitions of globalization were categorized in four categories, including
globalization, globalizing, globalization of higher education, and globalizing of higher education.
Definitions about internationalization were categorized in five categories such as internationalization,
internationalization of higher education, internationalization of the curriculum, internationalization of
curriculum studies, and internationalization of curriculum profession.
CONCLUSION: The spectrum of the globalization of higher education moves from dissonance and
multipolarization to unification and single polarization of the world. One end of the spectrum, which
is unification and single polarization of the world, is interpreted as globalization. The other side of the
spectrum, which is dissonance and multipolarization, is interpreted as globalizing. The definition of
internalization is the same as that of globalizing. In other words, it is possible to say that internalization
is similar to globalizing but different from globalization.