**2. Global Transitions Affecting Education Development**

The breakdown of the quasi-consensus on economic and educational development was the driving force in neoliberal globalization, but now adds to the international chaos. The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a slowdown in international academic exchange and exposed weaknesses in the global supply chain between the US, European Union (EU), and China. The Russian invasion of Ukraine also adds to the emerging international

**Citation:** St. John, E.P. Higher Education in Post-Neoliberal Times: Building Human Capabilities in the Emergent Period of Uncertainty. *Educ. Sci.* **2023**, *13*, 500. https:// doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050500

Academic Editor: James Albright

Received: 3 February 2023 Revised: 24 April 2023 Accepted: 24 April 2023 Published: 16 May 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

tensions but is not the cause of global uncertainty. I briefly review historical transitions in international alliances (Table 1) before discussing forces influencing education development and social stratification.

**Table 1.** Global transitions: shifting political ideologies, international alliances, educational development strategies, and social capital formation for cross-generation uplift.


Education systems developed within international alliances during the imperial period. Education institutions in most developing nations adapted models from colonizing countries, a systemic difference too frequently overlooked in a rush to globalize universities [2]. Both global rankings for universities and national histories influence how countries engage in education exchange and create opportunities for their citizens [3].
