Mirror and instrument: Higher education as reluctant partner of the nation-state

Higher education plays a double role vis-à-vis the nation. It is a mirror of a nation’s politics, reflecting the needs and aspirations of a populace and a government. Simultaneously, it is an instrument of those very politics, operating not just as a set of institutions where teaching and learning happen, but a locus of national identity, legitimation, economic and scientific action, and societal progress. The seven articles in this issue are shining reminders of these dynamics and, most importantly, evidence that the mirror/instrument dual identity extends across vastly different contexts of time, geography, and nationhood. At the same time, the articles make clear that the process of developing that identity is hardly natural or automatic. It is instead the fruit of contestation, extending my own remarks on the higher education system in the United States: “It is the product of contests and compromises, attacks and counterattacks, ideas and exigencies” (Ris, 2022).