Explore how geopolitics and policy shifts are reshaping international education, student mobility and global research collaboration.
This symposium addresses how intensifying geopolitical tensions and policy shifts are reshaping mobilities in international education, including the mobilities of knowledge and students. The geopolitical landscape is marked by a transition from a largely Americentric global order to a more contested and multipolar system. Escalating geopolitical rivalries, particularly between the United States and China, alongside major global conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip and the U.S–Israel military campaign against Iran are affecting international relations and global knowledge networks. At the same time, the return of protectionist nationalism in many countries, including Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, has intensified debates around migration, national security, technological competition and knowledge sovereignty. These developments are increasingly influencing how universities engage in international collaboration, recruit students and manage regional and international partnerships.
These geopolitical dynamics intersect with significant policy changes across many countries, including Australia, where international education and migration policies have undergone substantial reform since 2021. Policy changes relating to international education, visas, migration pathways, research security and international collaboration are increasingly framed through national security and economic priorities and are often politically driven. While frequently presented as technical governance instruments, these policy shifts have far-reaching implications for universities and international students alike. Universities that have historically relied on global partnerships to build research capacity and enhance internationalisation are now navigating new regulatory environments that scrutinise research collaborations, intellectual property and knowledge transfer. At the same time, domestic policy debates linking international students to migration management, labour markets and housing shortages are reshaping patterns of inbound and outbound student mobility.
Keynote
Geopolitics and internationalisation: inevitably intertwined?
Professor Elspeth Jones (Leeds Beckett University)
International higher education is being reshaped by intensifying geopolitical tensions, strategic competition and the growing securitisation of knowledge, in the context of increasing nationalism and protectionism across the globe. Universities that once operated under assumptions of openness and global collaboration must now navigate a landscape defined by risk, regulation, political scrutiny and limits to academic freedom. Australia is not immune to these pressures, with its highly internationalised HE system intersecting with shifting regional dynamics, national security concerns and an ideologically diverse political climate.
But is this new or just the latest set of challenges we face? This talk will explore the changing geopolitics of internationalisation, examining tensions such as collaboration versus competition, openness and security, market priorities and public good responsibilities. It will reflect on some ethical dimensions in an era of increasing political hostility to immigration, and the imperative of building equitable global partnerships. The implications for internationalisation and ‘interculturalisation’ in domestic contexts will also be considered.
Panel
Geopolitics and policy change in international education: mobilities and regionalisation
This panel examines how intensifying geopolitical tensions and policy changes are reshaping mobilities and international education. Drawing on findings from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery project, it eaxplores shifting student mobility, research collaboration, knowledge exchange and institutional responses in an increasingly multipolar global order. The panel considers the growing regionalisation of higher education as an adaptive response to geopolitical pressures, alongside the ways policy reforms, particularly in Australia, reframe international education through national security and political priorities. The panel also highlights how these dynamics are experienced by students and staff, foregrounding the emotional, aspirational and relational dimensions of mobility in a volatile landscape.
The panel is moderated by Dr Qiuping Pan and includes Professor Baogang He, Professor Ly Tran and Dr Trang Le.
