Reflections on the Internationalization and Localization of China's Higher Education in the Globalization Context

As the current trend of the whole world, globalization has exerted great influences upon the higher education of all countries. Its prominent influence upon China can be seen in the conflict between internationalization and localization of higher education. The internationalization is not only the natural reflection of the essential characteristics of higher education, but also the realistic demand of globalization for higher education; while the localization is mainly determined by the concrete conditions and pluralistic factors of the cultural traditions of different countries. Although internationalization and localization seem to be contradictory against each other, yet as a matter of fact, they do not necessarily conflict with each other, and thus they could both co-exist. In the context of globalization China's higher education need to be internationalized as well as localized. At present, the following four pairs of relationships must be dealt with, namely, the relationship between the introduction of foreign culture and sticking to Chinese characteristics, the relationship between modernization and tradition, the relationship between opening and preservation, and the relationship between import and export.