Project 9

Mapping supranational higher education space

This project explored the supranational space in higher education above or beyond nation-states, the actors that form this space, the resource and knowledge flows within this space, and the links between national, regional, and supranational higher education spaces.

About this project

Supranational actors influential in higher education include the following: international organisations, regional blocks and intergovernmental organisations, policy networks and membership associations, transnational and multinational corporations, philanthropic foundations (e.g. Ford, MacArthur, Open Society Foundations, Aga Khan Foundation), transnational higher education networks, and regional higher education organisations.

The project seeks to conceptualise nuanced differences between our understandings of ‘supranational’, ‘international’, ‘regional’, and ‘global’ spaces in higher education. It aims to map the roles and influence of new and emergent supranational actors, the ways they interact, the forms of impact on different regions and countries, and the nature of the policies, discourses, and norms developed and disseminated.

The project includes the following four strands:

European Union post-Brexit
Supranational actors and the regional higher education space in the Caucasus and Central Asia
Research capacity-building in African higher education
Higher education aid flows to lower-income countries

Team

Associate Professor Maia Chankseliani

University of Oxford

Dr Maia Chankseliani, Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, researches tertiary education and development. She is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Educational Research and Chair of the UKFIET Executive Committee. Bluesky: @mchankseliani.bsky.social

Professor Tristan McCowan

IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society

Tristan McCowan is Professor of International Education at the Institute of Education, University College London. His work focuses on higher education in the international context, including issues of access, curriculum, alternative models and sustainability. His CGHE Project 9 explored the supranational space in higher education – the ways in which this space is formed and developed above or beyond nation-states, the actors that form this space, and the resource and knowledge flows within this space, and between the national, regional, and supranational spaces.

Professor Rachel Brooks

University of Surrey

Rachel Brooks was a CGHE Co-Investigator on Project 9, ‘Mapping supranational higher education space’.

David Mills

University of Oxford

David Mills is Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education. His current research interests include the political economy of academic research and publishing in Africa. His most recent book is ‘Who Counts: Ghanaian Academic Publishing and Global Science’, co-written with colleagues from the University of Ghana and Oxford.

Dr Lee Rensimer

IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society

Lee Rensimer is a Lecturer in Education Studies at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society and a Deputy Director of CGHE. He was previously a Research Associate on CGHE Project 9, ‘Mapping supranational higher education space’, and continues to work with the co-investigators of that project on the geopolitics of regional higher education spaces.

Dr Natia Sopromadze

University of Oxford

Natia Sopromadze is a Postdoctoral Research Officer on CGHE Project 9, ‘Mapping supranational higher education space’.

Dr Natasha Robinson

University of Oxford

Natasha Robinson is a Postdoctoral Research Officer on Project 9, ‘Mapping supranational higher education space’.

Publications

Brooks, R., & Rensimer, L. (2023). “The European Universities Initiative and European Spatial Imaginaries”. Globalisation, Societies and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2210515
Chankseliani, M. (2022). “Who Funds the Production of Globally Visible Research in the Global South?” Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04583-4
Chankseliani, M. (2022). “International Development Higher Education: Looking from the Past, Looking to the Future”. Oxford Review of Education, 48(4), 457-473. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2022.2077325
Chankseliani, M., & Sopromadze, N. (2023). “Listening to Locals: Regional Spaces in Higher Education in the Global South”. International Journal of Educational Research. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035523001271?via%3Dihub
Rensimer, L., & Brooks, R. (2023). “The European Universities Initiative: Championing Excellence and Inclusion?” International Higher Education, 113, 32–33. https://doi.org/10.36197/IHE.2023.113.14
Rensimer, L., & Brooks, R. (2023). “The European Universities Initiative: Further Stratification in the Pursuit of European Cooperation?” Compare. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057925.2024.2307551?src=exp-la
Rensimer, L., & McCowan, T. (2023). “Reconceptualising International Flows of Aid to and through Higher Education” (Working Paper No. 97). Oxford: Centre for Global Higher Education. /publications/working-paper/reconceptualising-international-flows-of-aid-to-and-through-higher-education/
Rensimer, L., & McCowan, T. (2024). “Rethinking International Flows of Aid to Higher Education”. International Higher Education. https://www.internationalhighereducation.net/api-v1/article/!/action/getPdfOfArticle/articleID/3808/productID/29/filename/article-id-3808.pdf