Organizational Preparedness, Practices and Strategies in Internationalization of one State College in the Philippines

Abstract

The intercultural aspect of academic practices strengthens institutional identity as an inclusive and globally aware organization. However, the absence of internationalization plan leads to fragmented or reactive changes with underdeveloped organizational strategies. This study aims to evaluate the preparedness, practices and initial strategies in internationalization of one state college in the Philippines anchored in Lewin’s Change Theory. The study used mixed-methods explanatory approach to provide an overview of the institution’s internationalization status from the total enumeration of 71 respondents who served as key stakeholders to assess the institutional preparedness and practices. Results revealed that there is a high level of preparedness and moderate level of implementation in both practices and strategies in internationalization while leadership and administrative commitment were identified as strong points which reflects proactive planning and policy support for global initiatives. However, there were some gaps and limitations found in the areas of infrastructure, student and faculty mobility and intercultural campus engagement that hindered the implementation of new strategies. Through the integration of these phases of preparedness which reflects the unfreezing stage, practices for change phase, and strategies for refreezing phase into a unified framework given the limited resources, the findings contribute to the development of strategic plan and how the results fill an institutional gap to address the demands of internationalization. This research offers valuable insights for policymakers and administrators who are seeking to enhance institutional capacity for global engagement and competitiveness.