Page 37 - UNAM-GCUB2022

In the third place, the massification has increased in-
equality in access to higher education, between higher edu-
cation systems and between institutions of higher education.
This inequality has even become more dominant during the
Covid-19 pandemic. Higher education—globally and within
countries—is characterized by inequalities of all kinds. Di-
fferentiation is perceived as strengthening the dominance of
the top-ranked research universities in Western countries in
international higher education—and of their countries. Affor-
dability is key, and the negative economic impact of the pan-
demic made access to higher education in countries where
institutions have high tuition and fees a serious challenge for
the middle class and even more so for students from low- and
middle-income countries. This will challenge international mo-
bility from the Global South to the Global North even more.
(De Wit and Altbach, 2023).

The Global Knowledge Economy

The global knowledge economy — the increasingly technology
and science-based globalized set of economic relations that
requires high levels of knowledge, skills, and sophisticated in-
ternational relations — is the other development impacting ter-
tiary education and internationalization this past half-century.
Research-intensive universities play a particularly important
part in the global knowledge economy. Not only do they edu-
cate top talent but, in most countries, they are also the main
producers of basic research. Research universities are among
the more internationally linked institutions. They have strong
links with similar institutions around the globe, host internatio-
nal faculty and students, and in increasing numbers function
in the global language of science and scholarship—English.
Excellence initiatives to develop world-class universities are
being implemented in countries all over the world, including
in China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and South Korea.
Competition for funding, talents, and access to top academic

37