My research explores how and why education policy changes across contexts and the implications of policy change and reform.
Focussing on higher education policy, I research the intersections between the policy process and lived experiences and the actors who are leading policy change. I study the role of different actors involved in policy processes across the world to understand how educational change is initiated and led. Cutting across my research is a commitment to increasing equity by examining the historic barriers and current challenges to inclusion in higher education.
By working with a range of actors in education and policy, I am not only able to better understand change, but can also explore how power relations shape how policy change happens in education. This also supports my aspiration to improve theorizing on education policy by drawing from different qualitative and critical lenses and by developing new conceptual frameworks. My work is usually comparative and international, and I have regional specializations in Central Asia, Canada, Europe, and Latin America.
I have published widely in peer-reviewed journals and books and also write for a more general audience. Recordings of my seminars/podcasts are also available.
Currently, my research falls into three broad areas: the new geopolitics of higher education, equitable internationalization, and the right to higher education.
The new geopolitics of higher education
Geopolitical shifts during the late twentieth century triggered waves of remarkable growth in the scale and scope of international cooperation in higher education and science. As the twenty-first century progresses, a new series of geopolitical shifts has emerged characterized by weaknesses in global governance, growing political populism and authoritarianism, the COVID-19 crisis, and more. I term this new domain of knowledge the new geopolitics of higher education. My work with Hannah Moscovitz sets outs a conceptualization of the new geopolitics of higher education, setting the scene for our co-edited special issue in top journal Globalisation, Societies and Education and for future research in this area.
Publications in this area (click to expand)
(as Emma Sabzalieva)
Moscovitz, H., & Sabzalieva, E. (equal co-authors). (2023). Conceptualising the new geopolitics of higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 21(2), 149–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2166465
Sabzalieva, E. (2022). Surviving a crisis: Transformation, adaptation, and resistance in higher education. Higher Education Governance & Policy, [open access] 3(1), 1-15. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/hegp/issue/69503/1054946
Sabzalieva, E., El Masri, A., Joshi, A., Laufer, M., Trilokekar, R. D., & Haas, C. (2022). Ideal immigrants in name only? Shifting constructions and divergent discourses on the international student-immigration policy nexus in Australia, Canada, and Germany. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 6(2), 178-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2022.2096106
Sabzalieva, E., Sá, C. M., Martinez, M., & Kachynska, N. (2021). Science diplomacy policy processes in comparative perspective: The use of bilateral and multilateral agreements on scientific cooperation in Canada, India, Norway, and the UK. Minerva, 59(2), 149-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-020-09429-y
El Masri, A., & Sabzalieva, E. (equal co-authors). (2020). Dealing with disruption, rethinking recovery: Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in higher education. Policy Design and Practice [open access], 3(3), 312-333. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741292.2020.1813359
Sá, C. M., & Sabzalieva, E. (2018). The politics of the great brain race: Public policy and international student recruitment in Australia, Canada, England and the USA. Higher Education, 75(2), 231–253. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-017-0133-1
Sá, C. M., & Sabzalieva, E. (2018). Scientific nationalism in a globalizing world. In B. Cantwell, H. Coates, & R. King (Eds.), Handbook on the politics of higher education (pp. 149–166). Edward Elgar.
Recent research projects (click to expand)
The ‘great brain race’ in the post‐pandemic era: Addressing Canada’s increased vulnerability in international education (2023-24). Principal Investigator. Funded by McGill Social Sciences and Humanities Development Grants Program.
Equitable internationalization
The changing world order has highlighted existing inequalities between and within higher education systems. This is particularly visible in higher education internationalization processes, where the differential effects of the new geopolitics plays out with important implications for power dynamics and knowledge hierarchies between countries. On the one hand, my research in this area maps and examines recent changes in policies and practices, whether globally or focussing on a particular region – often Central Asia/the former Soviet space. On the other hand, I investigate the possibilities for alternative ways of internationalizing education that are more equitable and just.
Publications in this area (click to expand)
(as Emma Sabzalieva)
Sabzalieva, E., & Pedró, F. (2022). Achieving mutually inclusive internationalization of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Introduction to the Dossier B. Revista Educación Superior y Sociedad (ESS), 34(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v34i1.649 (also available in Spanish)
Jafar, H., & Sabzalieva, E. (equal co-authors). (2022). Faculty experiences of higher education internationalization in post-conflict Iraq and Tajikistan. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education [open access], 14(2), Article 2. https://www.ojed.org/index.php/jcihe/article/view/3453
Leskina, N., & Sabzalieva, E. (equal co-authors). (2021). Constructing a Eurasian higher education region: “Points of correspondence” between Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union and China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 62(5-6), 716-744. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2020.1866997
Sabzalieva, E. (2020). Emerging issues in the internationalization of Canadian higher education. Canadian Journal of Higher Education [open access], 50(4), i–x. https://journals.sfu.ca/cjhe/index.php/cjhe/article/view/189213
Sá, C. M., Sabzalieva, E., & Martinez, M. (2020). Moving beyond “North” and “South”: Global perspectives on international research collaborations. Journal of Studies in International Education, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315319889882
Sá, C. M., & Sabzalieva, E. (2018). The politics of the great brain race: Public policy and international student recruitment in Australia, Canada, England and the USA. Higher Education, 75(2), 231–253. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-017-0133-1
Tamtik, M., & Sabzalieva, E. (2018). Emerging global players? Building international legitimacy in universities in Estonia and Kazakhstan. In M. Chankseliani & I. Silova (Eds.), Comparing post-socialist transformations: Education in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union (pp. 127–145). Symposium Books.
Recent research projects (click to expand)
Review of Climate Change Education Ambition in Central Asia (2023-24). Co-PI (with Dr Blane Harvey, McGill University). Funded by UNESCO Almaty.
International students are “ideal” immigrants: A critical discourse analysis of study-migration pathways in Canada, Australia and Germany (2018-23). Collaborator (PI Dr Roopa Desai Trilokekar, York University). Funded by Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council Canada.
The right to higher education
I am passionate about the right to higher education, which I understand not only as who has access to higher education – and how the overall education pipeline can be prevented from narrowing as students progress through education – but how to support students to persist and succeed in a holistic manner. At UNESCO, I developed a social justice framework through which to study the right to higher education as part of the evolving right to education. I also do research more broadly on the right to education.
Publications in this area (click to expand)
(as Emma Sabzalieva)
UNESCO IESALC. (2022). The right to higher education: A social justice perspective. UNESCO IESALC. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381750 (also available in Spanish)
Sabzalieva, E., Liu, B. L., & Mutize, T. (2021, May 8). The impact of the digital divide on student mobility. University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210504145617353
Sabzalieva, E. (2017). The policy challenges of creating a world-class university outside the global ‘core.’ European Journal of Higher Education, 7(4), 424–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2017.1292856
Recent research projects (click to expand)
Distance Education to Improve Quality and Access to School Education in Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan (2021-24). Collaborator. (PI Dr Jyldyz Doolbekova, Taalim-Forum Public Foundation, Kyrgyzstan). Funded by IDRC and Global Partnership for Education.
The right to higher education in troubled times: A social justice perspective (2021-23). Co-Investigator (PI Dr Francesc Pedró, UNESCO IESALC). Funded by Open Society Foundations.
Emma Harden-Wolfson 