Higher education has faced many challenges in its long history, including the 30 years in which International Higher Education (IHE) has been in press. Some of these crises have been called existential, such as the move toward neoliberalism at the turn of the twenty-first century, the financial crisis of 2008, and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as several technological innovations, such as distance education, MOOCS, and currently artificial intelligence (AI). Yet each time higher education recovered, and its essence for economy and society, for innovation and change was reconfirmed.

However, global higher education is currently under stress as perhaps never before. Many of the characteristics of the current crisis in higher education are unique. As Angel Calderon states in University World News: “The global higher education and research scientific community is entering into unchartered territory, and this is likely to result in detrimental impacts for the sustainable development agenda.” In this editorial, we describe some of the primary characteristics of the current crisis and ask: Is the 2025 international crisis truly different? Will it transform higher education fundamentally? Is Western dominance in higher education coming to an end?

Geopolitical Realities and the Rise of Nationalism and Populism

Top of mind in 2025 are the geopolitical conflicts evident in much of the world, combined with the rise of nationalism and populism. In many ways, higher education is a pawn in a complex set of fundamental and rapidly changing geopolitical realities. These are well known. The conflict between China and the Western world continues. The Russian invasion of Ukraine also continues and has resulted in a break between Russian higher education and the Western world, largely restoring the cleavages of the Cold War era, with the important exception that, under the Trump administration, Europe no longer sees the United States as a reliable ally. The Trump-inspired tariff wars, now getting under way, may have an impact on higher education by ramping up national hostility. National and regional knowledge security concerns are eclipsing the value of international academic collaboration.

The issue of immigration is also of paramount importance in most high-income contexts. While complex and with many national variations, the politics of the wealthy world are increasingly opposed to large-scale immigration, regardless of rational economic arguments or humanitarian needs. Of course, immigration policy has direct implications for student and faculty mobility—in most cases making it more difficult to gain access for study or employment.

The dominance of the Global North—a result of strong cooperation in the spheres of trade, defense, education, and research—is under enormous internal threat due to the shifting, inward-looking “America First” position of the Trump administration in the United States. This enhances the self-confidence of Asia, in particular China but also India, to position itself as the new global power. The implications for higher education and research globally are still to be seen, but recent events will for sure have an enormous impact. Budget cuts for higher education in the United States and also in much of Europe are also affecting research universities for the first time, thus weakening scientific capacity in the West.

Financial and Demographic Constraints

Higher education faces a combination of financial challenges, due to a combination of factors playing out in many countries, and to changing demographic realities. In the Global North, massification of enrollments has been achieved. Many countries now face a decline in the number of young people, leading to enrollment declines and accompanying financial crisis. In much of the Global South, the challenge is the opposite—supporting massification and the growing numbers of students seeking access. With more than 250 million students studying in over 22,000 universities worldwide, higher education continues to be truly a global enterprise. However, with decreasing public funding and ongoing demand, we will witness further privatization of the public sector and expansion of private postsecondary education, including online education, which will raise additional concerns about ethics and quality.

Big Data, Technology, and AI

Higher education worldwide is rapidly being reshaped by emerging digital technologies, big data, and AI. Although information technology has been influential in universities for decades, current advances in AI represent a fundamental shift with transformative potential across teaching, research, and institutional governance. On one hand, AI-driven tools can greatly enhance efficiency, enable deeper insights through data analytics, and personalize educational experiences, potentially democratizing access to quality higher education globally. On the other hand, these same technologies introduce significant ethical dilemmas and practical challenges. Issues around data privacy, algorithmic biases, and potential threats to academic and scientific integrity are growing concerns that institutions must urgently address. Additionally, digital divides between technologically advanced and resource-limited institutions risk deepening inequalities within global higher education. The ability of universities worldwide to adapt thoughtfully and ethically to these fast-paced technological changes will profoundly shape the future landscape of higher education. Global higher education is at the beginning of the impact of AI—but the result will no doubt be more far-reaching than the changes from earlier technological innovations.

From Westernization to Internationalization?

Finally, global higher education is, for the first time in recent history, becoming less international. For the past several centuries, higher education has become increasingly international (albeit largely dominated by Europe and North America), due to the mobility of students, academics, and ideas. There are now more than 6 million mobile students per year—reflecting complex global mobility patterns that include significant South-to-North movement but also growing South-to-South, North-to-South, and North-to-North flows—as well as an untold number of postdocs, mobile professors, and others. International branch campuses, now numbering more than 300, and other types of transnational education are also part of this global environment. The number of students participating in cross-border programs and institutions is now close to surpassing the number of internationally mobile students. Similar to the case of student mobility, in cross-border delivery, the traditional dominance of the Global North is likely to be threatened as a result of recent events. The current internationalization ecosphere, South–North student degree mobility and North–South mobility in transnational education, development cooperation, and accreditation will be dramatically challenged, although, at this point, it is impossible to accurately predict specific trends.

Internationalization has so far been a Western concept. Now, its dominance is more challenged than ever, which is in itself a good and necessary development. More concerning is the fact that core values that have always been advocated for by the West and in particular the United States—such as academic freedom, academic integrity, as well as responsibility of society for higher education and of higher education for society—are no longer guaranteed. It remains to be seen if these academic values will survive the current transformation as well as the other challenges outlined here.

The articles in this special anniversary issue, celebrating 30 years of IHE, seek to unpack many of these complex, deeply challenging, and generally negative realities, as ever taking a global perspective and stressing the implications for higher education internationalization. Unfortunately, at the present moment, we cannot present a rosy future for one of the world’s most important intellectual and economic enterprises—global higher education. We can, however, provide a platform for the articulation of a research agenda that might help to mitigate many of these challenges and perhaps even help to safeguard higher education’s future.