The Emergence of a World Academic Power: China and the Internationalization of Higher Education

This study examines the rise of China as a leading nation in the field of international higher education (IHE) studies. Although IHE has been researched at the institutional, national, regional, and global levels, Chinese participation in the field from a World-Systems Analysis perspective (Wallerstein 1974, 1976, 2012) represents a gap, and this study contributes to its analysis. Based on the SCOPUS database, this quantitative study approaches the Chinese historical productivity and quality of its scholarly publications in the field from 1970 to 2024, aiming to respond to what the historical development and main trends of Chinese participation in studying the IHE are, and what is the quality of Chinese publications in such development?

The findings indicate that although the field is still a Western, English-speaking, and Anglo-Saxon one, there is a clear trend of Chinese emergence as a core country in leading authors, institutional affiliation, and country authorship, moving from the 4th place in scholarly publications productivity in the 2000s to the 1st most productive in the 2020s. Regarding quality, the journal articles have an increasing trend in Q2 and Q1 JCR indicators. Key challenges and opportunities for semi-peripheral states in times of core countries' closing borders are discussed, and how the World-Systems Analysis perspective can be applied to produce more powerful and meaningful discussions on the IHE. Finally, the scholarly and practical implications of China’s rise are discussed, as well as the challenges China will face in the field in the years to come.