Faculty Directory
Hans De Wit
Emeritus Professor of the Practice; Distinguished Fellow (Center for International Higher Education)
Hans De Wit
Ph.D.
Contact
Campion Hall 207C
Telephone: 617-552-4236
Email: johannes.dewit@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0003-3437-4345
Education
- B.A., University of Amsterdam
- M.A., University of Amsterdam
- Ph.D., University of Amsterdam
Research Interests
Hans de Wit is a globally recognized scholar in the internationalization of higher education, previously working as professor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sceinces and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. His current research interests are catholic identity and internationalization, comparative doctoral education in the world, inequalities in higher education.
Expertise
- Educational Leadership & Policy
- Comparative & International Education
- Catholic Education
- Curriculum
- Higher Education
Department
Biography
A globally renowned scholar, Hans de Wit has made his name studying the internationalization of higher education. His research focuses on national and institutional policies, internationalization strategies, misconceptions, and differentiators in postsecondary education around the world.
Before joining the Lynch School as a professor and Director of the Center for International Higher Education (CIHE, 2015-2020), de Wit was Director of the Center for Higher Education Internationalisation (CHEI) at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy, and taught at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. He served as founding member and president of the European Association for International Education and as founding editor of the Journal of Studies in International Education. He was vice-president International affairs at the University of Amsterdam. Currently he is Distinguished Fellow of CIHE and Professor emeritus of the practice at the Lynch School. In 2019 he is provided the honorary title of Senior Fellow of the International Association of Universities (IAU), Paris, France.
De Wit earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at the University of Amsterdam. He has won awards from NAFSA (Association of International Educators), the Association of International Education Administrators, The Mexican Association for International Education, and the European Association for International Education. He was named a Fulbright New Century Scholar, has coauthored and edited several publications on the internationalization of higher education, and has consulted for a variety of international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UNESCO, European Parliament and the World Bank.
De Wit was instrumental in launching the Lynch School’s Master of Arts in International Higher Education program in 2016, the Certificate Program in International Higher Education, 2017, and the dual Degree MA in International Higher Education with the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico. When not guiding students through their own educational journeys, he is focusing on the future of international higher education post pandemic, the impact of nationalism and populism on internationalization of higher education, and internationalization in the Global South. He is co-editor of two Handbooks on internationalization of higher education published in 2021: the Handbook on International Higher Education, 2nd edition (Stylus) and the Bloomsbury Handbook of Internationalization of Higher Education in the Global South.
He serves as Editorial Consultant of the academic journal Policy Reviews in Higher Education, and on several other editorial boards. He is member of international advisory boards of several universities: Stenden University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands, the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) in Moscow, Russia, the Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico, and Symbiosis International University in Pune, India. He is chair of the Board of Trustees of World Education Services, New York as well as a member of the Scientific Committee of the ‘Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation’ (CHEI) in Milan, and UNESP’s PrInt Project Management Group in Brazil,. He is an Associate of Higher Education Training and Development (HETD), Kwazulu Natal University, Durban, South Africa. In 2020-2021 he is a member of the institutional review on teaching and learning of the University of Luxembourg, and of the quality assurance review team for the European Universities Initiative Networks.
GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT
- Senior Fellow International Association of Universities
- Co-editor of two Handbooks on Internationalization of Higher Education, 2021