TY - JOUR
T1 - The shifting geopolitics of higher education
T2 - Inter/nationalizing elite universities in Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, and beyond
AU - Koch, Natalie
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper has benefited substantially from comments on earlier drafts, from participants at the Fall 2013 Maxwell Research Workshop, and the SSRC Inter-Asia IV: Istanbul Workshop, ‘After Neoliberalism?’ The Future of Postneoliberal State and Society in Asia, organized by Emel Akçalı, Ho-fung Hung, and Lerna K. Yanık. The research in the GCC was made possible by the Geography Department and the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, as well as Princess Noura University. The fieldwork in Kazakhstan was supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 1003836 , a Graduate Research Fellowship, and an Nordic Research Opportunity grant. It was also made possible by an IREX Individual Advanced Research Opportunity Grant and a US State Department Title VIII Grant for work at the University of Illinois Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, or any other granting organization.
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - This article examines recent higher education projects in two resource-rich, developmental states: Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. These projects are indicative of broader trend across Asia to move beyond previous national universities, toward a state-initiated model of the globally competitive university, which is designed to become an regional hub for elite education. Drawing on a range of qualitative methods, I consider the geopolitical context in which these projects have been conditioned and materialized, with a focus on how they are legitimated by policy-makers in the two case countries. By reframing discussions about the globalization of higher education in terms of a geopolitics of higher education, I argue that the cases of Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia are not exceptions set outside of the hegemonic liberal system, but that they are 'mirrors' of recent internationalization agendas undertaken by elite Western universities. Through considering localized discourses of promoting knowledge-based economies, I consider how elites simultaneously work with and reconfigure globally-hegemonic discourses, and specifically how these elite university projects are part of broader authoritarian political configurations in Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.
AB - This article examines recent higher education projects in two resource-rich, developmental states: Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. These projects are indicative of broader trend across Asia to move beyond previous national universities, toward a state-initiated model of the globally competitive university, which is designed to become an regional hub for elite education. Drawing on a range of qualitative methods, I consider the geopolitical context in which these projects have been conditioned and materialized, with a focus on how they are legitimated by policy-makers in the two case countries. By reframing discussions about the globalization of higher education in terms of a geopolitics of higher education, I argue that the cases of Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia are not exceptions set outside of the hegemonic liberal system, but that they are 'mirrors' of recent internationalization agendas undertaken by elite Western universities. Through considering localized discourses of promoting knowledge-based economies, I consider how elites simultaneously work with and reconfigure globally-hegemonic discourses, and specifically how these elite university projects are part of broader authoritarian political configurations in Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.
KW - Academic capitalism
KW - Geopolitics
KW - Higher education
KW - Kazakhstan
KW - Nationalism
KW - Saudi Arabia
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U2 - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.06.014
DO - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.06.014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84904327033
SN - 0016-7185
VL - 56
SP - 46
EP - 54
JO - Geoforum
JF - Geoforum
ER -