This paper discusses a study of senior academics' perspectives on internationalisation in three higher education systems: Czech, English and Australian which utilised a critical event narrative inquiry method. It gives a brief background on the origins of the current focus on internationalisation in higher education. It outlines the trends and dimensions. Further, it explains the research method utilised in this study – a critical event narrative inquiry method. The paper outlines the different types of critical events drawn from interviews conducted with senior academics in the three higher education systems. And finally, the overall findings of the research study are summarised drawing out general/common (not specific to any one HE system) and culture-specific (unique to an individual HE system) aspects/issues within their higher education contexts of internationalisation highlighted in the critical events described by academics.