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sis in its policies and practices and in increasing inequality
between different types of institutions and higher education
systems. Innovations, in particular digitalization, have entered
the system but have not resulted in a revolution, as predicted
by some and stimulated by the Covid-19 pandemic. MOOCs
and other forms of online delivery have become part of the
sector but have not replaced the brick and mortar campuses
around the world, on the contrary, the closure of campuses
and the need to deliver teaching online during the pandemic
have made clear that in person teaching and learning is more
essential than ever. At the same time, it has opened the eyes
of the sector that online teaching and learning is possible and
can be integrated in the classroom, as well as that it can be a
more inclusive alternative of physical mobility: the rise in vir-
tual exchange and collaborative online international learning.
The call for a more active role of higher education in
reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the
United Nations, has placed the third mission of universities,
its social responsibility, more at the forefront. As a result of
shifting geopolitical alliances and tensions, we are likely to
see changes in who collaborates with whom; anti-international
calls for more nationally focused research; growing political
interference in international academic collaborations; and in-
creasing securitization of universities, knowledge, and indivi-
duals (DeLaquil et al, 2022). These limitations on international
collaboration for reasons of knowledge security and geopo-
litical tensions, and the many attacks on academic freedom
and autonomy as a result of nationalism and populism, are
counterproductive to the needs of our global society.
Moving away from a more competitive and exclusive
higher education towards a more socially responsible and in-
clusive higher education is more necessary than ever given
the serious challenges our global society stands for: climate
change, pandemics, poverty and inequality, and others. In-
ternational collaboration and exchange are important instru-
ments to reach the SDGs. International networks of universi-

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