ABSTRACT This editorial essay discusses Chile's National Antitrust Authority's 2025 study on the competitiveness of the country's higher education market for undergraduate programmes, in the context of the ongoing debate over whether higher education should be conceived as a set of markets and evaluated in those terms. Over the past few decades, practitioners and scholars in law and economics have treated higher education as a complex ‘industry’ subject to the same competitive criteria as for-profit corporations, driven by landmark legislation, judicial decisions, and evolving economic theories. The study, grounded on the prevailing notions of expanding antitrust law and economics of higher education, finds that conventional indicators of concentration, prices and markups in Chile's higher education signal a sector with problems of competition. A second set of results, based on net present value calculations of return on investment on degree programmes, suggest problems with the information available and used by prospective students, as 40% of them would have enrolled in programmes with a negative net present value in 2024. Finally, some regulations may be stifling competition, such as public administration rules and procedures that public universities and vocational institutions are subject to, which saddle their capacity to compete with unburdened private institutions.

ABSTRACT Higher education has gained significant political salience globally, driven by continuous massification, increased public and private investment, and its central role as a driver of modern knowledge economies as well as a provider of solutions for societal challenges. This attention, however, occurs within an environment of growing populism, neo-nationalism, and challenges to liberal values such as academic freedom, creating both opportunities and threats for universities and their leadership. Building on the work by Krücken and Meier regarding organizational actorhood of universities, this paper argues that the contemporary, contentious political landscape sets incentives for universities to move beyond being merely organizational actors and become political actors. This shift is necessary for universities to actively shape their political environment and secure their legitimacy, which is increasingly challenged by colliding interests of various national and global stakeholders. To navigate this reality, universities are increasingly adopting strategies associated with policy entrepreneurs. This development demands fundamental adjustments from higher education institutions and their leadership. Acknowledging universities as political actors invites research to re-conceptualize established ideas about higher education governance and policymaking, moving past the notion of universities as passive recipients of policies and steering signals from their political or social environments.

ABSTRACT This study assessed the effectiveness of multilateral educational technology policies across five Latin American countries during 2015–2025 using panel data analysis. A Technology Integration Index measured higher education digitalisation outcomes while multilateral policy alignment scores quantified intervention intensity from World Bank, UNESCO, and Inter-American Development Bank programmes. Fixed effects regression analysis of 55 country-year observations showed that each unit increase in policy alignment corresponded to 2-point improvements in technology integration scores. World Bank programmes generated larger effects than UNESCO or IDB interventions, with policy effectiveness increasing during the post-COVID period. However, countries required alignment scores above 4.5 to experience measurable benefits, indicating that substantial multilateral commitment was necessary for observable technology integration improvements in Latin American higher education systems.

ABSTRACT Set against the backdrop of the complex dynamics of international student mobility and migration resulting from neoliberal globalisation and other global challenges such as climate change and the rise of neo-nationalism, this paper examines UNESCO's attempts to frame the growing imperative for inclusive mobility in normative and regulatory terms. Particular attention is given to the Global Convention Concerning the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications, adopted in 2019 and presented as the first legally binding instrument aimed at regulating higher education globally. The Global Convention expands the remit of existing UNESCO-supported regional recognition conventions to establish a framework for the fair, transparent and non-discriminatory recognition of higher education credentials. Through a network ethnography of key actors involved in the production and implementation of the Global Convention, we examine the reasons, timing and process of the Convention, as well as how power dynamics influence the design and evolution of the UNESCO agenda. Our study reveals how regional, national, and organisational logics contribute to the creation of a fluid yet codified and ritualised discursive space of dialogue and influence within UNESCO that both challenges and promotes UNESCO’s credentials as a regulatory alternative to market-driven ideologies that dominate the global governance of higher education.

ABSTRACT International student mobility is increasingly shaped by intertwined logics of cooperation and competition, yet many internationalisation frameworks still overlook their synergistic potential. Adopting a Yin-Yang lens as a de-Westernised theoretical framework, this study examines how the competition–cooperation dynamic is constructed within China’s international student education policies and how international students are represented beyond the conventional framing as para-diplomats. Based on a critical policy discourse analysis of 50 national-level policy texts, the findings show that China’s competitive (Yang) logic operates on two interlinked fronts: an outward-oriented pursuit of global influence through soft power and an inward-facing alignment with domestic development priorities. This competitive orientation simultaneously produces and deepens cooperative (Yin) outcomes, including value-based narratives and development-oriented partnerships. Within this hybrid policy logic, cooperation actively functions as an integral mechanism that disciplines competition and promotes global solidarity. International students in China are no longer constructed solely as para-diplomats, but increasingly as multifaceted policy subjects: cultural intermediaries, contributors to innovation, and relational actors facilitating international understanding. Through the Yin-Yang perspective, this study extends existing debates on coopetition in international higher education and offers transferable conceptual insights for non-Western contexts seeking to reconcile national development ambitions with global responsibility.

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the experiences of international students during the abrupt transition to emergency remote teaching in Portuguese higher education institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on 42 in-depth interviews, four focus group discussions with international students from China, Brazil, Syria, and Portuguese-speaking African countries, and 15 interviews with institutional staff, the study explores the pedagogical and structural challenges faced during this crisis. Framed within critical pedagogical theories, particularly Paulo Freire’s and bell hooks’ concepts of engaged and care-informed pedagogy, the analysis reveals how emergency remote teaching exacerbated pre-existing inequities and deficit narratives surrounding international students. Findings highlight the persistence of transmissive teaching models, limited institutional preparedness, and discriminatory assumptions based on nationality, which collectively undermined inclusive learning environments. The pandemic is interpreted as a ‘revelatory crisis’ that exposed systemic failures in international student support and pedagogical adaptation. The study argues for a transformative shift towards ethically engaging pedagogies that recognise international students as equal co-contributors to the academic community. Recommendations are offered to reform institutional practices and teaching strategies in the post-pandemic landscape, emphasising the need for inclusive, dialogic, and diversity-sensitive approaches.

ABSTRACT Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have transformed the landscape of higher education. U.S. universities often develop policies in a reactive manner without a knowledge-base or with minimal understanding of the approaches undertaken by other institutions, leading to unintended governance gaps. Our analysis spanning the top 50 U.S. universities finds that most universities adopt a restrictive or centralized approaches across key dimensions, including the default prohibition of AI-generated content in academic integrity policies, explicit guidelines for AI use in instructional communication, prohibitions on inputting sensitive data into AI tools, mandatory disclosure of AI use, and structured revision processes for AI policies. While most institutions favor a top-down approach, some implement innovative and community-based policies emphasizing continuous engagement, inclusivity, and critical thinking. Building on these insights, we propose four recommendations: shifting towards flexible approaches, exploring community-based strategies for AI policy development, balancing flexibility with caution to meet educational and research needs, and embdarcing AI-integrated classrooms. Additionally, we identify four gaps: aligning AI policies with evidence-based pedagogical approaches, establishing a unified dissemination strategy, developing policies that regulates and promotes AI tools for personalized learning, and practical implementation challenges.

ABSTRACT Introduced into the Ukrainian higher education sector in 2019, the performance-based funding policy has experienced volatile implementation. Reinstated in 2024, it coincided with the public grants reform and consolidation of the higher education network. This article presents an implementation analysis conducted to understand the organisational responses of Ukrainian higher education institutions towards the performance-based funding policy and to uncover the possible changes it has prompted in their behaviour. The analysis relies on primary data collected from 28 respondents representing leadership and operational and research managers at 22 higher education institutions, including those that have benefitted from the performance-based funding policy implementation and those that have not. The concurrent mixed-method research design is anchored in parametric factorial analysis of the respondents’ perceptions and thematic analysis of their confidential semi-structured interviews. Drawing on Oliver’s strategic response framework, the article elicits diverging strategic responses of higher education institutions adopted in reaction to the performance-based funding policy and outlines the institutional changes triggered by it, including with regard to internal incentive systems. The article brings forward policy recommendations for better implementation of the performance-based funding policy, including during the full-scale Russian war on Ukraine.

ABSTRACT This study presents the first sector-wide application of the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) framework to Australian public university annual reports. Using a mixed methods design that combined qualitative thematic coding with quantitative frequency analysis, 1,312 macro-environmental references were identified across 37 institutions. Findings reveal universities’ responses to shifts in government funding, visa regulations, enrolment volatility, inflationary pressures, digital transformation, regulatory complexity, and sustainability imperatives. Results also indicate considerable institutional variation in how these external forces are interpreted and reported. By treating annual reports as strategic artefacts rather than administrative outputs, the study highlights their value as tools for systematic environmental scanning in higher education. The study’s contribution is twofold. First, it fills a gap in higher education research by demonstrating a replicable, evidence-based methodology for analysing institutional reporting. Second, it provides practical insights for policymakers and university leaders, supporting the alignment of strategies with external dynamics and strengthening decision-making. In doing so, the analysis advances understanding of how Australian universities respond to shifting macro-environmental conditions and provides a model adaptable to other national contexts.