The global spread of national universities: modern state formation and geopolitical anxieties in higher education policy

Between the university's mediaeval structure and its postmodern qualifiers, this paper explores the distinct institutional form of the national university. Using organisational and country data with the comparative-historical sequential method, results show that 129 out of 197 countries established a national university around modern independence with most colonising powers never have established one. Their timing and distribution point to geopolitical anxieties from both internal stability and international competition as primary motivations. The paper theorises that the creation of national universities figures within three centripetal tendencies of modern state formation: centralisation, politicisation, and homogenisation.