Global Competition in Higher Education: Strategies in a Glonacal Context

This article considers the notion of the ‘global competition phenomenon’ in higher education in terms of the following questions: 1) what strategies have various stakeholders used to position their higher education institutions (HEIs) as globally competitive? and 2) how have various strategies been used in different ways within different contexts? The findings are set within Marginson and Rhoades’ (2002) ‘glonacal agency heuristic’ which posits that while global forces impact higher education, a variety of agents ‐ including national governments, HEIs, regional blocs, and others ‐ must be viewed as actors that launch ‘counter-movements’ to global trends. The analysis of existing literature on global competition strategies reveals that the trend towards global competitiveness does not engender uniform practices or strategies; rather, it manifests itself in a variety of ways across national, regional, and local contexts.