In China’s Shadow on the Westward Road? Global University Rankings and Eurasian Academic Anxieties

Abstract

The post-Soviet Eurasians can easily relate to China’s transformation strategies, given the similarities in their shared discourse and practice championed by the Soviet university model. However, they are also cognizant of the dilemmas that accompany global academic competition, with its demanding standards and international audits. Drawing on insights from scholarly publications, policy reports, expert interviews in research universities in China and Russia, and expert communities in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, this paper employs critical discourse analysis to examine how the reinterpretation and reengagement of the Soviet political, economic, and educational legacies contributes to mitigating anxieties in the Eurasian higher education when it is trying to catch up with the Chinese progress in global university rankings. The paper argues that China has significant impact in the like-minded intellectual space (especially in Russia), when political forces seek to redefine the global hierarchy of knowledge development for defiance of Western hegemony