Higher education, innovation and employability

Higher education in the world has experienced tremendous growth with increasingly marketized and privatized services in order to meet society's pressing demand for education (Mok, 2016). Governments in many countries have considered education an effective strategy to enhance international partnerships, public diplomacy, and economic growth. The ‘education as trade’ perspective comes with increased competition and pressures higher education institutions (HEIs) to transform and innovate to achieve excellence so they can attract and retain high-quality students (Hewitt-Dundas and Roper, 2018) and produce quality graduates to meet the growing demands of the work force (Boden and Nedeva, 2010; Mason et al., 2009; Yorke, 2006).