Miguel Antonio Lim, Senior Lecturer in Education and International Development at the University of Manchester, takes us through his international education journey that started when he moved from the Philippines to France to pursue his further studies at Sciences Po. He eventually supported the university establishing academic partnerships in East and Southeast Asia attracting students to degrees offered in English, then moving to LSE in the UK one of the French university’s partners.

Miguel tells us of his interest in the social production of value which led him to undertake a PhD on university rankings, looking at their role in creating value among universities and asking questions about the value of higher education. We talk about developments and initiatives in Southeast Asia aimed at leveraging internationalisation to strengthen intra-regional cooperation and mobility, as well as a recent study undertaken for the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) on universities’ engagement with SDGs, and we reflect on the role of international education in helping think about the global commons and build a sense of solidarity across nations vis-a-vis market-driven approaches to internationalisation… and the memorable and significant question of one of his students whether it was ok to refer to non-English language sources in her essay.