The role of English language as a medium of instruction in internationalization of higher education: a comparative study in Europe

In developing countries, one of the challenges of higher education is internationalization followed by using English-medium instruction as one of its factors. Nowadays, applying English-medium instruction has increased about 10 times in a decade, and is one of the concerns of policy makers for higher education policy making. Assuming the importance of this tool in the internationalization of higher education in leading countries and it's per found impact on the success of Europe's higher education is strengthen. Using a comparative study, the purpose of current paper was to find the role of English language in internationalization of higher education and to know which different language learning approaches European countries use in their higher education system. Therefore, European countries were chosen as a sample population based on the developed countries. The stratified purposeful sampling and theatrical saturation was used. Qualitative content analysis of texts and top-level documents were applied utilizing Bereday comparative method. After triangulation of findings, criteria and factors were chosen and a framework was developed. The findings were evaluated in an expert panel to be verified and refined using the feedback provided by experts in the field. The panel of subject-matter experts was used to examine the proposed framework. During the evaluation process, useful recommendations were received and the framework was improved. The findings provided appropriate strategies as well as a testing ground for our country.