Forum guidelines

Under pressure

Deadline to submit: 23 November 2026.

Institutions and international educators across the world find themselves under pressure, needing to respond to geopolitical shifts, cope with uncertainty, and navigate defunding, restructuring, or downsizing. It can be questioned whether the 'old days' are over, and the ways of working once established are simply not fit-for-purpose anymore. 

This issue aims to share lessons learnt and foster mutual support in navigating changing national and institutional landscapes. How can international educators and their institutions rise to the challenges of today's pressure-filled circumstances? Where can support be found in times of uncertainty? 

Submissions are invited in the form of reflections, actionable insights from current research, institutional case studies, examples of practice and programming, as well as personal storytelling pieces. Contributions may explore experiences of being "under pressure", lessons learnt, including learning from setbacks and failure; and reflections on what may lie ahead and how individuals, teams, and institutions are preparing for it. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• The sector under pressure: How is the international education sector responding to growing demands to demonstrate impact, justify investment, and tell the story of internationalisation? What evidence, advocacy, and storytelling approaches are proving effective? 
• Student mobility and recruitment: How are changing mobility patterns, recruitment pressures, and institutional priorities reshaping the work of international education professionals and the future of student mobility? 
• The profession under pressure: How are international education professionals managing careers in uncertain environments? Is the professional identity of international educators being challenged? How can the sector respond through reskilling, peer support, wellbeing and mental health support, and resilience-building? 
• Leadership under pressure: How are leaders responding to shifting priorities, geopolitical developments, and institutional instability? 
• Partnerships under pressure: Are international partnerships and university alliances proving resilient in the current environment? How are partnership professionals adapting to growing administrative demands, changing priorities, and expanding expectations for global engagement? 
• Internationalisation of the curriculum: The need to design a wide range of learning experiences across different pedagogical and administrative modalities (from COILs to joint degrees to internationalised curricula and more) continues to grow. Doing more and doing it all well presents real challenges. How are these challenges being met? What new capacity-building and support needs are emerging for the many actors involved in these initiatives? 
• New ways of financing and working in international education: How are institutions reorganising internationalisation activities when existing models no longer work? What entrepreneurial or innovative approaches are emerging in response to changing circumstances? 
  Submit your article

Reputation matters

Deadline to submit: 01 March 2027

In an increasingly competitive and complex international education environment, reputation plays a key role in institutional positioning and performance. Institutions are navigating demographic shifts, geopolitical uncertainty, changing student expectations, and growing pressure to demonstrate their value to society. Against this backdrop, questions of institutional identity, purpose and relevance are becoming more important than ever. 

While rankings continue to influence perceptions and decision-making, they are only one lens through which institutions are viewed, and the weight assigned to them differs considerably across regions and education systems. Reputation is also shaped by student and alumni experiences, employability outcomes, partnerships, sustainability efforts, research and innovation, community engagement and international collaboration. For many institutions, particularly those with applied, vocational or regional missions, visibility and credibility depend on communicating strengths that may not be reflected in traditional measures of prestige or value added. 

This theme invites both critical reflection and practical insight into how institutions build, protect, and project their reputation in international education. We welcome contributions that explore emerging trends, challenge conventional assumptions and share concrete strategies, lessons learnt, and examples of effective practice. How can institutions develop distinctive identities that reflect their missions and strengths? How can internationalisation support reputation-building? And what does meaningful visibility look like in a landscape shaped by both local relevance and global engagement? 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• Institutional identity, mission and positioning: Aligning internationalisation, partnerships, teaching and engagement with institutional purpose and distinctiveness.  
• Attracting and retaining talent: The role of international recruitment, admissions, student experience, mobility, alumni engagement and employability in shaping reputation. 
• Reputation in practice: Lessons learned, case studies and "how-to" approaches for building, measuring, communicating and safeguarding institutional reputation internationally. 
• Local roots, global reach: Balancing regional relevance with international ambitions, and leveraging place, community and employer connections to strengthen visibility and credibility. 
• Strength through collaboration: How partnerships, networks and international cooperation contribute to institutional reputation, recognition and influence. 
• Building reputation with and beyond rankings: Alternative indicators of quality, impact and success; and lessons from institutions that have opted out of rankings and redefined how they measure and demonstrate excellence. 
• Navigating visibility and prestige: Rankings, alternative quality markers, branding strategies and responses to reputation challenges in increasingly competitive and politically sensitive contexts. 

Identity and belonging in a divided world

Submissions are closed. The issue will be published at the beginning of December. 

International higher education increasingly engages with questions of individual identity, inclusion and belonging. As mobility patterns diversify and campuses become more transnational, through alliances, networks and internationalisation at home, institutions must improve their capacity to ensure all members of their communities can belong and thrive. What are the key challenges higher education institutions (HEIs) face in fostering belonging amid internationalisation and what systemic approaches can make a difference? 

For this issue, we invite contributions that explore topics including (but not limited to) the following: 

• Student and staff belonging: How can local and international students and academic and professional staff co‑create inclusive environments characterised by mutual recognition, participation and care? 
• Academic hospitality: What does academic hospitality look like in practice, and how does its meaningful implementation foster belonging? 
• Mental health and identity: What wellbeing challenges arise as international students and staff navigate identity and belonging, and how can institutions respond proactively? 
• The politics and practice of DEI: Who gets to belong to internationalised HEIs, and how do policies, procedures and everyday practices sometimes create unintended exclusions? How can institutions foster participation while avoiding bias in administrative systems? 
• Belonging in the (online) classroom: How can curricula, pedagogy and virtual exchange initiatives promote authentic intercultural belonging across physical and digital campuses? 
• Partnerships and networks: How can international HEIs networks and partnerships be designed to support mutual belonging and equitable collaboration? 
• Diasporic communities as resources: What role do diasporas play in creating belonging for mobile students, and what do institutions need to keep in mind as they engage in transnational networks for the purposes of student support?