Since 1990 there has been remarkable growth and diversification of worldwide capacity and output in science, and a distinctive global science system has emerged, primarily grounded in research universities, fostered by Internet-mediated communication and publication in English, cross-border authorship and researcher mobility. While global science…

In this article, we take a global perspective and analyse how state institutions constitute a countries' place in the global network of transnational student mobility. We use longitudinal social network analysis to investigate transnational student mobility patterns and find that fragile institutions act as a push factor by increasing outbound…

Transnational higher education is big business. However, it is unclear what transnational universities must do to behave in a responsible way or to gain a social licence to operate. Examining the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), we discuss what universities could do to gain approval from…

This paper assesses how UK universities seek to maintain their global dominant position post-Brexit through comprehensive strategic partnerships with key European institutions as part of their internationalisation strategies. Drawing on 24 semi-structured interviews conducted from November 2017 to July 2018 in 12 UK universities vertically…

Global university rankings (GUR) have become increasingly influential as a proxy measure of higher education quality. The more recent development of regionalised forms of rankings has increased their global reach, drawing a greatly expanded range of institutions into their orbit. As a result, regionalised GUR have developed an increasing potential…

This paper examines the evolving landscape of higher education publications, focusing on the emergence of new models that are reshaping scholarly discourse and dissemination. Through a comprehensive review of literature, we analyze the trends, challenges, and opportunities presented by these new models. Our exploration encompasses diverse…

The discourse regarding globalisation and particularly 'global competition' has appeared in a range of socio-economic areas and higher education is no exception. Global competition has been the policy context in which a range of national excellence initiatives have been developed. These have often involved competitive processes with significant…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how global university rankings interact with quality and quality assurance in higher education along the two lines of investigation, that is, from the perspective of their relationship with the concept of quality (assurance) and the development of quality assurance policies in higher education, with…

This article employs critical discourse analysis of the Spear's Schools Index of 'the best private schools in the world', the first such global ranking of schools, to understand representations of elite education in globalised societies. It argues that the Index is a powerful text that exemplifies a global gaze -- an imagined perspective from…

Global university rankings (GURs) have garnered increasing media attention since their inception. Yet to date, a concerted attempt to offer an affect lens -- emotions, responses, reactions and feelings that are relational and transpersonal -- underlying the mediatisation of GURs remains absent. Drawing on affect theories, we analysed the Indian…

The expansion of university systems across the planet over the last fifty years has led to the emergence of a new policy assemblage -- 'global higher education' that depends on the collection, curation and representation of quantitative data. In this paper I explore the use of data by higher education policy actors to sustain 'epistemic…

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have long embraced a path towards sustainability and engaged in supporting sustainable development. The adoption of the sustainability development goals has forced HEIs to assess how they engage with these goals and how they address societal challenges head on. However, the emergence of sustainability rankings…

Internationalization serves as a significant hallmark of world-class universities globally. Numerous studies have underscored the strong relationship between internationalization and university development, but few have succeeded in elucidating the mechanisms and modus operandi of internationalization for university excellence. Using a qualitative…

Latin American universities have been subject to old and new forms of colonialism that act concurrently. Old forms of colonialism are based on a matrix of race and labour divisions that universities have inherited, reproduced, and reinforced. New forms of colonialism are attaching to global forces that promote a world class university model based…

Purpose: This study aims to answer the research question: How to evaluate the structure of global university sustainability rankings according to the Berlin Principles (BP) framework. Design/methodology/approach: The authors investigated two global sustainability rankings in universities, The UI green metric World University Ranking (WUR) and the…