| dc.description.abstract | Internationalization has grown over the last two decades and especially higher education (HE) institutions have implemented this in their scripts. As a tool of internationalization, English has been playing a bigger and bigger role in these institutions and, in many cases, language policies have been revisited. Not everyone is content with these changes and media outlets are full with stories about the deterioration of the quality of higher education, however not many stories and studies have looked into the influence of internationalization and use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) on students and their educational performance. This thesis focused on students’ perception of internationalization and language policy in higher education institutions, especially Utrecht University. In this student-based research students have been asked to share their views and experiences in order to find out if EMI affects grades and educational performance. The results showed that students mostly agree with their university’s language policy as long as use of English is well-grounded. It has also been shown that teachers’ proficiency could cause distraction among students, but at the same time it has not been proven that this leads to lower grades or to poorer educational performance. | |
