Nice to see my review included in Nature’s summer reads alongside some very good company. A small summer pleasure. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Rights for rivers and ice cream for all: top reads for the summer holidays

Ten Nature contributors share their current book obsessions.

nature.com

New paper: how does international study actually shape returnees' work at home? Via 393 interviews, I trace 5 mechanisms - reflexive agency, knowledge translation, civic & intercultural understanding, transnational ties - plus a stance I call presence doi.org/10.1177/2212...

Tonight the UK sings "Eins, Zwei, Drei" at Eurovision. A month ago we signed back into Erasmus+. But will it reach apprentices and vocational learners? I wrote about this for Wonkhe:  wonkhe.com/blogs/erasmu... #eurovision #erasmus

In a new op-ed in @statnews.com, Professor Maia Chankseliani explores evidence on happens when internationally trained health professionals return home, and what health systems need to do to make that return meaningful: www.statnews.com/2026/05/05/b...

The ‘brain drain’ narrative about health professionals misses half of the story

52 health professionals returned home to 43 countries. Here are the unexpected challenges and opportunities they faced.

statnews.com

What Role for Higher Education in the New Global Agenda? Delighted to contribute to NORRAG’s new Policy Insights. My piece argues that international education matters because it reshapes how people see the world and contribute across borders. resources.norrageducation.org/resource/102...

My new op-ed in STAT on ‘brain drain’ and health professionals. Evidence shows that reintegration is often the real challenge, and opportunity. Rethinking global health mobility means taking return seriously. www.statnews.com/2026/05/05/b... (free registration required)

The ‘brain drain’ narrative about health professionals misses half of the story

52 health professionals returned home to 43 countries. Here are the unexpected challenges and opportunities they faced.

statnews.com

🌍 Beyond 2030: What Role for Higher Education in the New Global Agenda? 🗓 13 May | ⏰ 15:00–17:00 CET 📍 Online (Zoom) As 2030 approaches, what comes next for global development—and how can universities shape it? 🔗 Register:https://buff.ly/BThlLAA #HigherEducation #SDGs

“Perhaps most alarming is the rhetorical shift we are now seeing, with universities being seen as legitimate targets in war. This signals a potential normalisation of their inclusion within the strategic logic of conflict,” says @mchankseliani.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iran-ce...

Iran ceasefire brings hope after university attacks ‘normalised’

Escalating conflict in the Middle East has seen institutions increasingly drawn into the fighting, with material and physiological damage leaving long tail

timeshighereducation.com

In this NORRAG blog I reflect on UNESCO's new higher education roadmap, highlighting its strengths and the tensions it raises around academic freedom, equity, internationalisation, and AI. www.norrageducation.org/unescos-high...

We are recruiting: Associate Professor in Comparative & International Education at Oxford (Dept of Education, St Antony’s College). Deadline: 1 May 2026 (12:00 UK time) Further details and the application link can be found here: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Attending #CIES2026? Join our panel on Sunday 29 March, 4:30–5:45 pm, Ballroom Level, Continental 8. International Student Mobility and Societal Impact: Reframing the Civic, Political, and Institutional Reach of Global Higher Education

🎉Last night we celebrated @mchankseliani.bsky.social & @veldaelliott.bsky.social, now Oxford professors. From doctoral students to leaders in scholarship, their lectures highlighted universities’ global impact and the power of teaching. Catch up on the recording: shorturl.at/6H8Ef

Global Public Seminar in Comparative and International Education Universities at a Crossroads: State Power, Academic Freedom, and the Future of Higher Education in Georgia 16 March 3–4pm UK | 7–8pm Tbilisi This is a virtual event and the teams link is below

Interview with DAAD on international student mobility and its longer-term social and democratic significance, drawing on 700+ interviews across 70 countries. The piece reflects on slow, institutional change and growing political pressures around mobility www.wissenschaft-weltoffen.de/en/2026/02/0...

Delighted to invite you to my inaugural lecture Seeing Otherwise: International Higher Education and the Possibility of Change as part of Oxford’s Recognition of Distinction Professorial Lectures. Monday 9 March 2026, 5pm. In person & online. Details & registration ⬇️

Health professional mobility debates still focus on numbers. Who leaves. Who returns. How to offset shortages. This paper shows something else: international education reshapes how health professionals judge responsibility and act within constrained systems. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Internationally educated health professionals and health-system change: A global qualitative study

This article examines how internationally educated health professionals contribute to health system change on return to their countries of origin. Rather than treating return as reintegration or sk...

tandfonline.com

The UK has confirmed it will rejoin Erasmus. This matters enormously because Erasmus lets students experience other societies from the inside, shaping judgement and civic understanding in ways no domestic scheme can. Rejoining it restores openness at the heart of higher education

Our new paper shows how the European Universities Initiative choreographs collaboration. A competitive call pushed alliances into both waltz-like orderly moves and mosh pit collisions as partnerships were formed and reconfigured. doi.org/10.1016/j.ij... #EuropeanUniversitiesInitiative

Our new article examines how international study shapes democratic consciousness among returnees in autocracies and anocracies, and how that consciousness is put into practice through five pathways of engagement. Open access. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My piece on Centralising Power: Georgia’s Troubling University Reform published in CHELPS e-journal Universities & Intellectuals chelps.eduhk.hk/page/detail/...

Centralising Power: Georgia’s Troubling University Reform | Centre for Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies

chelps.eduhk.hk

Some reflections on the UK government’s new Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper

Planning your UKFIET 2025 conference: A walk through the programme All you need to know to plan your sessions & networking for next week's #UKFIETConf! www.ukfiet.org/2025/plannin...

Planning your UKFIET 2025 conference: A walk through the programme

If you are joining us for the UKFIET September 2025 conference, these highlights will be useful for deciding what sessions to take part in.

ukfiet.org

I'll be joining a panel with fellow Harvard alumni next week to discuss academic freedom. I'll speak about how international study, when it takes place in a context of academic freedom, can influence civic responsibility and institutional change. Register: www.harvardaed.org/calendar

Intercultural competence beyond international student mobility: insights from a global study Natalya Hanley & @mchankseliani.bsky.social Open access → doi.org/10.1177/1028... #InterculturalCompetence #StudyAbroad #InternationalStudents #StudentMobility #Transnationalism #TransformativeLearning

My work on international student mobility & global knowledge featured in Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报). I argue that international students shape knowledge and civic life, & that today’s restrictions risk narrowing our shared horizons www.cssn.cn/skgz/bwyc/20...

How does international education shape poverty reduction? Returnees adapt, translate, and embed reform through four mechanisms, far beyond skill transfer. Based on interviews in 57 countries, building on our earlier quant study in IJER. Links in comments.

“Let’s put the worst people in the world in charge and see what happens.” “I love that video game concept!” “Game?”

My opinion piece that will appear in tomorrow’s issue of Nature. It is about what we lose when international students are treated as risks rather than as contributors - when border controls override civic imagination www.nature.com/articles/d41...

British Council 90th Anniversary Research Fellowships at the University of Edinburgh List of eligible countries in the screenshot www.britishcouncil.org/research-ins...

Join us today A timely and wide-ranging Oxford-Georgia Forum: political turmoil, civic resistance, foreign policy shifts—and what all this means for the future of Georgian Studies abroad. Grateful to be part of the conversation. 🇬🇪🇬🇧 @osgaoxford.bsky.social #GeorgianStudies

Maia Chankseliani@mchankseliani.bsky.social · last yr.

4th Annual Oxford-Georgia Forum Theme: Quo Vadis, Georgia? Date: 28 May 2025 9:30–18:45 Venue: Investcorp Lecture Theatre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford Register here: forms.office.com/pages/respon... Agenda here: talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/971...