Too simplistic and problematic: a decolonial critique of the North–South binary in international higher education

In higher education and internationalisation, partnerships are frequently framed around the Global North–South division of the world. While this terminology is typically used, it is often not well understood or explained. In this conceptual paper, we critically examine the North–South binary as a dominant framework for understanding global relations, collaboration in higher education and international academic partnerships. Drawing on decolonial perspectives, we highlight that the term ‘North–South’ is an overly simplistic, problematic and reductionist binary that obscures important regional, national and institutional complexities, including ‘Norths’ in the South, ‘Souths’ in the North, and regions and actors that fit neither category. We argue that the continued use of the North–South binary is conceptually inadequate, analytically incoherent and increasingly untenable in a complex, interconnected and multipolar world. We conclude with a call to abandon the Global North–South binary and to seek frameworks capable of accounting for the multiple individual, institutional, national, regional and global complexities, inequalities, intersections and shifting power relations that characterise the contemporary world, higher education and international academic collaboration.