Problems of International Student Mobility in Georgia

Abstract

This research was designed to examine the level of internationalization of higher education in terms of international studentmobility in Georgia. The papers aims to explore Georgia as 1) the host country and 2) the country of origin of internationallymobile students, detect the most common problems and barriers existing in the process of recognizing the diplomas obtained atAmerican and European Universities and validating Georgian educational documents abroad. The study revealed that Georgia,after implementing reforms and becoming a part of the Bologna system, is increasing its internationalization level, but there aremany problems with the recognition of international education, as well as with the recognition and validation of Georgian educationabroad, which harms the reputation of Georgian higher education system. It is quite obvious that many Higher EducationInstitutions in Georgia still do not have the capacity to meet the demands of international students, which results in low numbers, especially on the masters programs. The study concludes that the majority of Georgian educational documents issued after 2005 (after the new reforms and Bologna processes in higher education - HE), have no validation problems at American and EuropeanUniversities, which stresses the fact that the quality of Georgian HEIs is increasing.