‘Internationalisation’ became a key theme in the 1990s both in higher education policy debates and in higher education research. Starting off from a heterogeneous set of phenomena, internationalisation does not merely mean varying border‐crossing activities on the rise anymore, but rather substantial changes: first, from a predominantly ‘vertical’ pattern of cooperation and mobility towards the dominance of international relationships on equal terms; second, from casuistic action towards systematic policies of internationalisation; third, from disconnection of specific international activities on the one hand and on the other internationalisation of the core activities towards an integrated internationalisation of higher education. Though higher education policy remains predominantly shaped on a national level and tends to underscore specific traditions and conditions of individual countries, the responsibility of individual institutions of higher education in Europe for their own future grows in the process internationalisation which is accompanied, among others, by growing pressure for diversity and increasing popularity of managenalism as well as by a policy of the European Commission which seems to favour de‐nationalisation of higher education.