Abstract:
Higher education offers the potential to support glonacal (global, national, and local)
development. This study presents new empirical and conceptual insights into the ways in
which higher education can help to achieve and exceed the outcomes enshrined in the
Sustainable Development Goals. Open-ended online surveys were used to learn how
academics in Georgia and Kazakhstan view the contributions of universities to addressing
self-identified development challenges; and how universities work with the government and
the private sector for realising their glonacal development potential. While the study
provides ample evidence on the national manifestations of the developmental role of
universities, it also shows that limited academic freedom and institutional autonomy impede
the full realisation of the potential of higher education. The assumptions underpinning the
academics’ views on how higher education can support development are discussed in the
light of an innovative framework of essentialist and anti-essentialist approaches. Juxtaposing
the national with the global development missions of universities, the paper raises questions
on the possibility of delinking higher education from the immediate human capital and
modernisation needs of the nation-state and becoming concerned with the global, on
promoting freedom to cultivate intellectual curiosity through education and research, and
stimulating a more holistic imaginary of the developmental purposes of higher education
