The Process of Transnational Higher Education System Creation

The work to be presented has as theoretical reference the reciprocal relationship between the process of globalization and higher education. It aims to emphasize the contemporary higher education at the international level. It is immersed in a swirl of profound social, political, economic and cultural changes that affect most countries. In this perspective, the paper emphasizes that an adequate sociological analysis of the transformations that are taking place in contemporary higher education at the international level needs to consider both the global context, in which it is situated, and the national systems. The paper seeks to highlight that in the context of globalization, economic, political, cultural and academic activities are not confined within the limits of national societies, but tend to overflow beyond their borders. This same dynamic of the process of globalization is also present in contemporary higher education, in which the global level and national systems have a reciprocal relationship. It aims to analyze certain trends of transformation that are occurring in the international context of higher education in contemporary societies. Supported by apropriate literature and also observations by the author (France, England, Hong Kong and Singapore), the information collected to date tends to indicate that in the context of globalization, higher education is not confined more within the limits of national societies, but has transpired beyond the borders of their countries.The exhibition will focus on certain dimensions that, in establishing mutual relations, gradually come to form a transnational space for international higher education, such as: (i) the process of deterritorialization of higher education; (ii) increasing academic mobility; (iii) the impact of international rankings in the field of higher education; (iv) race in certain countries and / or institutions of higher education to build world class universities, in a context of fierce international competition for academic prestige.