International Education After the Covid Years: Recovery, Rebuilding, Reimagining - Towards a New Chinese Internationalism

Abstract This synoptic paper enquires into the status of international education after the Covid years in terms of the themes of ‘recovery, rebuilding, reimagining’. It reviews some recent adjustments to international education strategy to recapture the market for international students and looks to unesco’s new social contract for education as a barometer and index for futures of education in a very uncertain world that faces multiple crises. The paper argues that the unesco vision is a strength but must be tempered by a recognition of the shift of gravity in world economy and politics. International education took root based on the values of British and American liberal internationalism. Today it is recommended that scholars in the west also recognize the characteristics and development of Chinese internationalism that has come to inform Chinese international education.