Second-tier Higher Education Institutions (HEI) tend not to have structured and tailored internationalisation strategies and approaches and to be excluded by the mainstream programmes for internationalisation. Most of the second-tier universities remain “isolated” in their realities of limited internal capacity to connect with the international academic domain, often limiting their research capability leading to underperformance in international rankings, outdated teaching and curricula, low integration in global dynamics of knowledge creation and exchange. In the case of Cambodia and Vietnam, the national educational strategies confirm the quality divide between HEIs that participate in internationalisation programmes and those that are left out. The general objective of the BEST project is to contribute to the modernisation and internationalisation of the second-tier HEIs by building and reinforcing the capacity of their staff to identify opportunities for international collaboration in research, teaching and exchange. BEST HEI will work with the International Relations Offices (IRO) but also with the teaching staff and other admin departments to improve the internal governance mechanisms that are currently unable to broker international collaborations in second-tier HEIs in Cambodia and Vietnam. The project will generate participatory capacity building activities to enhance the IRO operations by building six working groups focused on Institutional Internationalization, Academic and Curriculum Internationalization, Faculty Development and Research, Student and Staff Mobility, Partnerships and Networks, Technology Integration. Moreover, the collaboration between EU and Asian partners will lead to the development and adoption within the Vietnamese and Cambodian HEIs of Inclusive Mobility Strategy for Diverse Needs, Comprehensive Mobility Protocols for Inclusion and Strategic Internationalisation Frameworks.