The World Yearbook of Education 2026 discusses the shifting geopolitics of Higher Education, directly engaging with an urgent call to theorize the academy as a site of power, politics, protest, and possibility.

The volume brings together leading and new generations of thinkers from across the globe who draw on theoretical resources from sociology, politics, international relations, geography, gender studies, cultural studies, and post- and decolonial studies. Taken together, the chapters show how these epistemic resources can help us understand the current state of affairs in higher education and beyond. They reflect key dimensions of shifting geopolitics and their impact on higher education: multipolar superpower rivalry, autocratic populism, decolonial justice, and digital transformations. By anchoring the study of higher education in prevailing geopolitical tensions, the volume seeks to uncover the critical role of the university in contemporary global politics.

By exploring higher education as a central institution caught within competing visions of world order; one rooted in international cooperation, another asserting the nation state, and yet another challenging the very notion of the university as territorially fixed, the book offers a perspective on the university, which is in line with pivotal global developments. It is a must-read book for anyone interested in the new geopolitics of higher education and the future of the university globally.