Selective internationalisation: institutional responses to geopolitical pressures in higher education

Internationalisation has long been regarded as a central dimension of higher education development, contributing to research capacity, academic quality and global engagement. In recent years, however, intensifying geopolitical competition, technological rivalry and concerns about research security have begun to reshape the conditions under which international academic collaboration takes place. Drawing on interview evidence from research universities in China and Japan, used illustratively, this commentary offers a conceptually informed reflection on how universities are responding to these changes. Rather than retreating from international engagement, universities are recalibrating their strategies through partnership diversification, strengthened domestic research capacity and institutional risk management. The commentary argues that these developments reflect an emerging pattern of selective internationalisation, understood as an institutional response to geopolitically conditioned internationalisation in which global engagement is maintained through more differentiated, strategically managed forms of collaboration.