Impact of English language as a human capital in the higher education institutions’ development strategy

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Abstract

Entirely evident, the English language is dominating the academic world, and higher education institutions’ development apparently depends on this skill. As Rhekhalilit and Lerdpaisalwong (2019) point out, “In the era of globalization, English has played a significant role as a global language in different communicative aspects, especially in international academic exchange among scientists, scholars, and researchers” (p. 336). The study aims to highlight the importance of English foreign language (EFL) and its role in the professional and academic development of university lecturers and the development of higher education institutions (HEI) in non-English speaking countries. The study used the qualitative method, and the data were extracted through semi-structured interviews, the data of which are presented in a way of descriptive analysis by writing the opinions of the interviewees in the form of quotes. The findings show that the academic staff strongly supports the role that the English language has in meeting these standards, which directly affects their professional development and the institution’s development they represent. In addition, the study tends to raise the motivation in improving the level of the English language among academic staff, since it concludes this ability is also considered to be a human capital in institutions of higher education. The relevance of EFL knowledge by academic staff in HEI is related closely to the institutional development goals.

Keywords: EFL, Human Capital, Teaching Staff, Research, Internationalization, HEI Development

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — L.N. and D.S.; Methodology — L.N. and D.S.; Validation — L.N. and D.S.; Formal Analysis — L.N. and D.S.; Investigation — L.N. and D.S.; Resources — L.N. and D.S.; Data Curation — L.N. and D.S.; Writing — Original Draft — L.N. and D.S.; Visualization — L.N. and D.S.; Supervision — L.N. and D.S.; Project Administration — D.S.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements: The first and special thanks to the participants of the study, not only for sharing their valuable time to provide data for this research but because they gave important and serious contributions during the interviews. We thank the project coordinators who enabled our participation in the activities that were implemented in Zagreb, Croatia and Rome in Italy, where interviews with the lecturers of these HEIs were conducted.

JEL Classification: A22, I23, I25

Received: 17.06.2022
Accepted: 05.12.2022
Published online: 08.12.2022

How to cite this paper: Naka, L., & Spahija, D. (2022). Impact of English language as a human capital in the higher education institutions’ development strategy [Special issue]. Corporate & Business Strategy Review, 3(2), 262–272. https://doi.org/10.22495/cbsrv3i2siart7