Factors Affecting Internationalization Degree of Higher Education Institutions in Portugal and Spain

The aim of this study is to evaluate the degree of internationalization of Iberian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the factors that influence their internationalization process. The study begins with the contextualization of the HEI internationalization process through a brief historical synthesis and the establishment of the levels of analysis of this process, to focus, in more detail, the organizational level. To this end, it is supported in an organization dimensions model to define the components of the internationalization process and the data collection by questionnaire. The results were processed for each of its components, and the degree of internationalization was obtained by calculating the mean values of the components total. The study concludes that the Iberian HEIs have an interesting level of internationalization, which is higher for institutions with more than 5.000 students, with simultaneous focus on teaching and research, conferring the master's and doctor's degrees.