An ontological transition in higher education: Space, power and technology

The paper provides an overview of geopolitical developments and tensions in universities and science, and the impact in social space-making and relations of power. Innovations in space-making in higher education combine pre-given materiality with the ideas and interpretations of agents, and the social practices they develop, some of which become part of the ongoing materiality of the sector. One example of global space-making is the Academic Ranking of World Universities (the ‘Shanghai Ranking’), an early example of China ‘going out’ in higher education to transform global university relations. Global evolution in universities and science has passed through three historical layers, all of which enter into current practice: 1) the beginnings of post-coloniality and the 1945 UN Charter and its sovereign international order; (2) from 1990 onwards the strengthening of neo-coloniality in Pax Americana and U.S.-led processes of accelerated globalization; (3) in the last 15 years the partial fragmentation of the neo-colonial order amid growing multi-polarity and the rise of China. The paper expands on present issues and tensions, including the advent of AI in education and research (which should be the subject of international cooperation but is not), and the U.S.-driven closure of relations with China in science and technology. It argues that the decoupling strategy is ill-conceived, and while it has been disruptive it is unlikely to achieve its goals. Despite the geopolitics universities need to find ways of nurturing and developing a cooperative global space based on mutual respect.