Opening Up: Higher Education Systems in Global Perspective

Abstract

Globalisation has strongly influenced higher education during the last decades. As in many other sectors, this has generated contradictory outcomes. Enhanced competition for reputation, talent, and resources was driven by the paradigm of the global knowledge economy and fuelled by global rankings, dynamic research funding, and international mobility. At the same time and in response, strengthened cooperation occurred within networks, systems, and regions. System convergence could be observed in parallel with a growing divergence and stratification of institutions. Inequality decreased at global level, while it increased within certain nations and regions. As a whole, higher education has opened up to the world and become more engaged at a global level. But how will this process continue with the current backlash against globalisation in Europe and the US and what will be the impact of other major geopolitical trends such as the rise of China? Prior assumptions and scenarios need to be critically reviewed. An equally critical review is needed of the theoretical models, methodological approaches, and concepts for the steering of higher education systems in a global context. How can system openness be effectively combined with the capacity to address globalisation effects on inequality?