Contemporary developments in HE are taking place in the wider context of globalisation. Internationalisation, the process of systematisation of HE, is an old phenomenon in HE, which has gained importance both at the national and institutional levels, in setting up joint programmes, establishing common education and training paths based on transferable credits and recognisable qualifications, strengthening distance learning, quality assurance systems, and the establishment of centres of excellence.
Globalisation and the emergence of new challenges, threats to humankind, ignorance, and widening gaps in mutual understanding have made the need for dialogue among peoples more pressing than ever (Odin, 2004; Rifkin, 1994; Coleman, 1988). Globalisation increases the demand for educational quality from the economic, as well as socio-political perspective: the case of EMUNI shall represent that democratic ideals pressure universities to provide access to groups of knowledge that traditionally have not met the needs of the globalised knowledge. University education has been prolonged in most of the world's societies. Furthermore, governments in global economy yield to stimulate investment, innovation and corporate management, and are aware of the fact that the knowledge triangle functions only in the multilateral context of economy-education-policy, where internationalisation and knowledge are the corresponding answers (OSI, 2005).

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