Research by the British Council regarding national policies on openness to international higher education, has singled out Malaysia and Germany as the best performers.

Published today, the study, titled the 'Shape of Global Higher Education: National Policies Framework for International Engagement', examined policies in 26 countries, assessing them against 37 qualitative indicators.

Apart from Malaysia and Germany, others in the top five are the United Kingdom, Australia and China.

Times Higher Education quoted British Council research manager Michael Peak, who co-wrote the research piece with Education Insight director Janet Ilieva, as saying that Malaysia and Germany have the most balanced portfolio in providing high-level support for international engagement.

Other key findings from the research were that financial support from governments was “mainly focused on student mobility and policies aimed at ensuring equitable access and brain drain prevention”.

The group of 26 nations was chosen to include representatives of leading higher education countries such as the United States and the UK.

Peak said that international openness was key in the research, not just student mobility.

Internationally mobile researchers ‘are more productive and produce research more highly cited’, he added.

“To cater for these researchers who are expecting an international career, universities need to be able to act in an international environment,” Peak said.

Malaysia is host to a number of campuses established by overseas universities and is at the same time a key sender of overseas students to nations such as the UK.

The report concludes that there is a need for greater co-ordination between policies with a view to achieving greater impact, given the growing prominence of government engagement in international higher education, and the interdependencies between national HE systems.

And this could "counteract some of the unintended consequences of internationalisation, such as brain drain", added the report.