The Transnational Politics of Higher Education : Contesting the Global / Transforming the Local

This edited volume introduces readers to the relationship between higher education and transnational politics. It aims to show how higher education is a significant arena for domestic political struggles as well as regional and international transformation. Our starting point is that the political science literature on globalisation and inter-state relations largely neglects the study of higher education and its role in polity transformation.

This edited volume introduces readers to the relationship between higher education and transnational politics. It shows how higher education is a significant arena for regional and international transformation as well as domestic political struggle replete with unequal power relations.

This volume shows:

• The causes and impacts of recent transformations in higher education within a transnational context;
• Emerging similarities in objectives, institutional set-ups, and approaches taking place within higher education institutions across different world regions;　
• The asymmetrical relations between various kinds of institutional, commercial and state actors across borders;
• The extent to which historical and colonial legacies are important in the transformation of higher education;
• The potential effects these developments have on the current structure of international political order.

Drawing on case studies from across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, the contributors develop diverse perspectives explaining the impact of transnational politics on higher education—and higher education on transitional politics—across time and locality. This book is among the first multi-disciplinary effort to wrestle with the question of how we can understand the political role of higher education, and the political force universities exert in the realm of international relations.