In recent decades, the issue of the internationalization of the university has acquired relevance in the political and academic sphere, by becoming one of the strategic axes that commits the university to a double function: on the one hand, projection on the stage international and, on the other hand, the challenge within the institution of institutional strengthening and quality improvement. In this field, most studies emphasize the international and national dimension that accompany these processes as well as the actors and strategies used. However, these studies leave out the local-territorial dimension that the university naturally has within the framework of its institutional functions. In this sense, the present work aims to make a journey through the approaches and perspectives that have been used to analyze the internationalization of the university, the objectives and strategies that are desired to be achieved from this perspective, and subsequently incorporate a more comprehensive and contextual linked to understanding the internationalization of the university within the framework of a broader process of articulation with the development and needs of the territory to which it belongs.