About the Journal

The Journal of Global Higher Education is an open-access, independent, community-run, peer-reviewed scholarly journal focused on global higher education and the opportunities, issues, and challenges that international and global engagement presents. This journal is a key publication outlet for the Research with International Students Network (RIS), and the Critical Internationalization Studies Network (CISN). We are a scholarly collective which aims to purposely disrupt traditional, hierarchical models of journal publication and management, and are open to experimentation. We welcome submissions that take a critical perspective on global higher education and challenge established norms and practices in this area of inquiry. We seek to broaden the scholarly conversation and disrupt normative publication practices regarding gatekeeping and participation.

The journal adopts a broad definition of higher education to include all forms of tertiary and postsecondary education and/or vocational/technical education. We particularly encourage authors to submit work that is multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary. The journal publishes original empirical research; critical reflections; and practice-based essays (described in detail under "Submissions"). 

Our understanding of ‘critical’ work means that we encourage work of a critical disposition, not necessarily aligned specifically with critical theory. This means that submissions are expected to interrogate, rather than accept, the assumptions of previous literature, challenge policy and practice, and explore new perspectives that add value to scholarship. By criticality, we do not mean ‘being negative’ or focusing solely on problems or flaws. Rather, the journal aims to interrogate why certain assumptions, norms, and trends exist in global higher education and who benefits from them. 

We use 'global' to broadly refer to an awareness of the wider world, including the processes of global engagement, globalization, internationalization, and international mobilities, among others. We expect authors to be aware of the specificities of national contexts, situating local practices, research issues, and reflections within a critical awareness of world history and contemporary politics. Single-site case studies in one institutional or national context have value in this frame, provided they recognize local particularities, explain these, and identify connections with other institutions, countries, or regions. For example, studies conducted in global research universities in very different national contexts may have a great deal in common, due to similarities of institutional context. Such transnational connections underpin the critical global awareness expected of submissions.

Although we publish contributions from scholars from anywhere in the world, we are particularly interested in supporting the work of scholars from underrepresented and marginalized groups, those in and from the Global Majority/Global South, and early career researchers. We seek to balance the need for scholarly rigor with a central value of inclusivity and accessibility; our goal is not to gatekeep.

More specifically, the journal publishes articles that:

  • Critically challenge established norms and practices in global higher education
  • Explore, theorize, explain, and contextualise experiences, practices, or policies in global higher education
  • Include practitioners, teachers, and leaders in scholarly conversations about global higher education 
  • Make unique, original contributions to scholarly and practitioner conversations in global higher education
  • Draw on innovative theories and conceptual frameworks that are critical in nature
  • Are grounded in higher education literature, even if they draw from other disciplines
  • Speak to a broad and global audience across cultural and disciplinary contexts
  • Are multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary in nature
  • Recognize critical approaches to research designs (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) or practical approaches that interrogate underlying structures and assumptions of knowledge production
  • Reflect on critical practices of publication, academic writing, authorship, and citation

The journal does not accept articles that:

  • Adopt deficit narratives to describe students, faculty, scholars, staff, or national contexts
  • Are wholly descriptive in nature, rather than grounded in theoretical and empirical literature, without developing an analysis 
  • Focus research or practice reflections on undefined “experiences” of students, scholars, or other individuals without a specific topical focus that is grounded in a clear conceptual framework 
  • Do not provide a clear and critical argument for the implications or impact of research findings, practices, or insights
  • Focus on a single site or country case studies without reference to applicability to external and/or global contexts
  • Are book reviews

We have no sponsorship and are not working with an academic publisher. All the work of this journal is supported by voluntary contributions from the extended editorial board and the scholarly community this represents.