Modern Social Science Research

Against the backdrop of China’s initiative of “Double First-Class” construction and the inland opening-up strategy, the internationalization of higher education in Hunan Province holds both strategic importance and practical urgency. Taking four “Double First-Class” universities in Hunan as case studies, this paper systematically examines their internationalization status by analyzing undergraduate teaching quality reports, international cooperation data, and policy documents from 2022 to 2024. The findings reveal that Hunan’s universities display a pattern characterized by “leading institutions driving the front while uneven development persists.” Structural challenges are identified in several key areas, including student mobility, Sino-foreign cooperative education, international faculty composition, and strategic coordination. Specifically, these challenges manifest as an imbalance between “going global” and “bringing in,” homogeneity and lack of branding in cooperative education programs, a low proportion and high turnover rate of foreign faculty, and difficulties in reconciling “Double First-Class” ambitions with regional service responsibilities. Drawing on Knight’s theory of higher education regionalization, this study proposes a systematic reconstruction path from three dimensions: functional, organizational, and political. Functionally, it suggests promoting two-way student mobility, co-developing distinctive academic brands, and implementing international scholar recruitment programs. Organizationally, it advocates establishing a provincial internationalization alliance and scholar mobility posts to enhance resource sharing. Politically, it recommends incorporating regional contribution into performance evaluation and formulating a provincial education opening-up action plan to guide the deep integration of internationalization and regional development through high-level policies. This research aims to provide theoretical references and policy insights for universities in Hunan and other similar regions to enhance the quality and efficiency of their internationalization processes and to address coordination challenges effectively.

“Double First-Class” construction; Internationalization of Hunan universities; Uneven development; Structural challenges; Path reconstruction