The transformative impact of geopolitics in higher education

Higher education institutions face an environment more difficult than at any time since World War II. Disruptive geopolitical tensions and conflicts are triggering rapid changes, especially in cross-border scientific cooperation and the movement of students and academic staff across borders. The Western (and primarily US American) strategy of universal and inclusive globalisation, which dominated international higher education from 1990 to 2015, has given way to a different global relational setting. This includes partial deglobalisation and selective closure, the US decoupling with China, the securitisation of Western research relations with China and Russia, and migration resistance, which is driving reductions in international student mobility, especially in the Anglosphere. Many governments are more forcefully imposing their will on higher education, which is expected to fall into line.