Globalisation vs diversity in national languages in HE context: Case of Estonia

Abstract

[EN] Given the rapid globalisation since the 1990s and the rising support of a culture of internationalisation in higher education across Europe, the position of national languages in academia deserves more attention. The “Strategy for the Internationalization of Estonian Higher Education 2006–2015” has diminished the role of Estonian by removing the requirement of the existence of Estonian-medium education from doctoral education. In 2011–2012 we surveyed Estonian doctoral students’ opinions and stances about their usage of academic languages. Only a minority of doctoral students claimed to be always unrestricted in their language choice, and many veered towards using primarily English. Recent strategies in education, research and language aim to advance Estonian-medium HE, and in 2022 we conducted a re-survey to see how the situation has changed. This paper presents some results and implications of our two studies, discussing the current academic language situation and policies.