The Linguistic Internationalization of Higher Education: A Study on the Presence of Language Policies and Bilingual Studies in Spanish Universities

The process of internationalization at university has become one of the objectives in the strategic plans of these institutions in Spain. During the last two decades this objective has included the offer of studies in English as a means of furthering the international profile of universities. This interest has led to two alternative models ideated to achieve this goal. That is, on the one hand, the motivation to increase the number of credits taught through English may have originated in the Faculties or Schools, stemming from highly motivated groups of teachers; whereas, on the other, the university as a global institution may have opted for designing an educational policy aiming at expanding this particular proposal. However, we can observe that there is a lack of identification in scientific literature of the presence of global language policies at the university level, and of the general tendencies in the offer of credits in a foreign language. In this paper, we will try to cover this gap by reviewing the current situation of Spanish universities with regards to the delineation of language policies in general and in particular regarding the implementation of bilingual degrees.