ABSTRACT
The past 150 years or so has been one of transatlantic academic dominance with a few notable exceptions. Even today, the top of university league tables are still dominated by American and, to a lesser extent, British universities. However, the past decade has seen a fundamental shift in this state of afffairs, with an increasing number of Asian universities, both established and new, starting to challenge this ‘Western’ hegemony. This development reflects the changing nature of global power, especially in terms of economic development, commerce and industry, and military strength. Taken together, this has produced new political trends that impact academia. It certainly belies the popular view of the early 1990s, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and as enunciated by Francis Fukuyama (1989) as ‘The End of History’. Perhaps we are now beyond the ‘end’? From an academic perspective, one sees that in 2018, Asia accounted for 26 per cent of the top 50 and 23 per cent of the top 100 universities. For comparison, other than the UK, Europe only accounts for 16 per cent of the top 100 institutions and only six per cent of the top 50 universities (with four from the Netherlands in the top 150 universities). Asia is on the move.
