“Perhaps most alarming is the rhetorical shift we are now seeing, with universities being seen as legitimate targets in war. This signals a potential normalisation of their inclusion within the strategic logic of conflict,” says @mchankseliani.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iran-ce...
In this NORRAG blog I reflect on UNESCO's new higher education roadmap, highlighting its strengths and the tensions it raises around academic freedom, equity, internationalisation, and AI.
www.norrageducation.org/unescos-high...
We are recruiting: Associate Professor in Comparative & International Education at Oxford (Dept of Education, St Antony’s College).
Deadline: 1 May 2026 (12:00 UK time)
Further details and the application link can be found here:
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Attending #CIES2026? Join our panel on Sunday 29 March, 4:30–5:45 pm, Ballroom Level, Continental 8.
International Student Mobility and Societal Impact: Reframing the Civic, Political, and Institutional Reach of Global Higher Education
🎉Last night we celebrated @mchankseliani.bsky.social & @veldaelliott.bsky.social, now Oxford professors.
From doctoral students to leaders in scholarship, their lectures highlighted universities’ global impact and the power of teaching.
Catch up on the recording: shorturl.at/6H8Ef
teams.microsoft.com/meet/3877406...
Global Public Seminar in Comparative and International Education
Universities at a Crossroads: State Power, Academic Freedom, and the Future of Higher Education in Georgia
16 March
3–4pm UK | 7–8pm Tbilisi
This is a virtual event and the teams link is below
Interview with DAAD on international student mobility and its longer-term social and democratic significance, drawing on 700+ interviews across 70 countries. The piece reflects on slow, institutional change and growing political pressures around mobility
www.wissenschaft-weltoffen.de/en/2026/02/0...
Delighted to invite you to my inaugural lecture Seeing Otherwise: International Higher Education and the Possibility of Change as part of Oxford’s Recognition of Distinction Professorial Lectures. Monday 9 March 2026, 5pm. In person & online. Details & registration ⬇️
Health professional mobility debates still focus on numbers. Who leaves. Who returns. How to offset shortages. This paper shows something else: international education reshapes how health professionals judge responsibility and act within constrained systems.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The UK has confirmed it will rejoin Erasmus. This matters enormously because Erasmus lets students experience other societies from the inside, shaping judgement and civic understanding in ways no domestic scheme can. Rejoining it restores openness at the heart of higher education
Our new paper shows how the European Universities Initiative choreographs collaboration. A competitive call pushed alliances into both waltz-like orderly moves and mosh pit collisions as partnerships were formed and reconfigured.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
#EuropeanUniversitiesInitiative
Our new article examines how international study shapes democratic consciousness among returnees in autocracies and anocracies, and how that consciousness is put into practice through five pathways of engagement. Open access.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
My piece on Centralising Power: Georgia’s Troubling University Reform
published in CHELPS e-journal Universities & Intellectuals
chelps.eduhk.hk/page/detail/...
Some reflections on the UK government’s new Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper
Planning your UKFIET 2025 conference: A walk through the programme
All you need to know to plan your sessions & networking for next week's #UKFIETConf!
www.ukfiet.org/2025/plannin...
I'll be joining a panel with fellow Harvard alumni next week to discuss academic freedom. I'll speak about how international study, when it takes place in a context of academic freedom, can influence civic responsibility and institutional change. Register: www.harvardaed.org/calendar
Image of the title and abstract of the article.
Intercultural competence beyond international student mobility: insights from a global study
Natalya Hanley & @mchankseliani.bsky.social
Open access → doi.org/10.1177/1028...
#InterculturalCompetence #StudyAbroad #InternationalStudents #StudentMobility #Transnationalism #TransformativeLearning
My work on international student mobility & global knowledge featured in Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报). I argue that international students shape knowledge and civic life, & that today’s restrictions risk narrowing our shared horizons
www.cssn.cn/skgz/bwyc/20...
World Development: doi.org/10.1016/j.wo...
IJER: doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
How does international education shape poverty reduction? Returnees adapt, translate, and embed reform through four mechanisms, far beyond skill transfer. Based on interviews in 57 countries, building on our earlier quant study in IJER. Links in comments.
“Let’s put the worst people in the world in charge and see what happens.”
“I love that video game concept!”
“Game?”
My opinion piece that will appear in tomorrow’s issue of Nature.
It is about what we lose when international students are treated as risks rather than as contributors - when border controls override civic imagination
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
British Council 90th Anniversary Research Fellowships at the University of Edinburgh
List of eligible countries in the screenshot
www.britishcouncil.org/research-ins...
Join us today
A timely and wide-ranging Oxford-Georgia Forum: political turmoil, civic resistance, foreign policy shifts—and what all this means for the future of Georgian Studies abroad. Grateful to be part of the conversation. 🇬🇪🇬🇧 @osgaoxford.bsky.social #GeorgianStudies
Some thoughts on the UK-EU youth mobility scheme that’s being discussed early next week
#youthmobility
Good morning 🐾
The link to our report has been updated
ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid...
