ABSTRACT
The term Higher Education may carry distinct meanings to different readers. This discourse uses the UNESCO definition of higher education that includes, all types of studies, training or training for research at the post-secondary level, provided by universities or other educational establishments that are approved as institutions of higher education by the competent State authorities. The English idea of liberal education is oriented around the cultivation of the individual but also focuses on education as personal empowerment through the development of broad intellectual capacity and transferable skills. The field of Comparative or International Education continues to be enriched by illuminating writers speaking from their own environmental labs without being affected by the 'othering' aspect that many post-colonial critics have voiced. In exploring the sociopolitical struggles, tensions, and competing ideas and values, the chapter considers the factors that have influenced the structure of higher education historically and to date.
