Summary

Internationalization is a key component in career development and success in the academic world. In the case of Chile, academic work has become more professionalized in recent decades. On the one hand, there has been an increase in the number of full-time professors, which indicates a greater dedication to the academic profession. This reality coexists with the predominance of part-time jobs characteristic of universities in Latin America. Additionally, an uptick of internationalization is indicated by the slight increase in the number of international professors. The activities through which academics develop internationalization activities in Chile were investigated through the Chilean version of the international survey of the academic profession, Academic Profession in the Knowledge-Based Society, applied to academics in 11 Chilean universities (2018–2019), with roughly 1,200 complete responses obtained. The results of Chile are aligned with international trends for peripheral countries. Even when different internationalization activities are reported by academics, the general image that emerges is that of a lukewarm internationalization: while most of the faculty collaborate internationally in research, they lament the lack of adequate university support for these activities and, more generally, do not see the internationalization rhetoric of the universities supported by action. Faculty are undecided on whether their institutions provide opportunities or funding for faculty members to undertake research abroad, for visiting international students, for visiting international scholars and for the recruitment of faculty members from foreign countries. On the other hand, professors claim that they emphasize international perspectives or content in their courses, and that their research is international in scope or orientation; both of these trends represents forms of internationalization at home. All benefits usually associated with increased internationalization are confirmed by respondents, except increased mobility of faculty and increased brain gain.