Winter 2026 Special Issue

2025-02-10

Call for Proposals for Winter 2026 Special Issue:

Artificial Intelligence in Comparative & International Higher Education: Envisioning Education in a Digital Space

Guest Editors: Roy Y. Chan, Lee University; Kun Dai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Tyler Watts, Mercer University; Weina Li Chen, University of Massachusetts Global

Artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai, is rapidly transforming the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) in higher education, presenting both opportunities and challenges for policy, practice, and procedure around the world. As AI technologies like chatbots, virtual assistants, and predictive analytics become more prevalent in the United States and abroad, there is a critical need to examine their impacts from a comparative and international perspective. Using the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) 2025 conference theme, Envisioning Education in a Digital Society, this special issue examines the use of AI’s in shaping the future of comparative and international higher education, with special attention to developing and transitional economies from diverse perspectives. Articles can be from diverse (inter)disciplinary perspectives from faculty, students, or practitioners within all higher education contexts (2-year, 4-year, private, public, etc.) in all regions and countries of the world to assess implication of AI for educational equity, access, and quality in comparative and international higher education. This special issue invites contributions to submit empirical or conceptual submissions that considers one or two of following questions:

  • What is the history of AI in your country, what should we learn from it, and how should we respond?
  • What is the relationship between the current discourse on AI in higher education and the adoption of AI policies, procedures, and practices?
  • How are international higher education leaders making the case for AI that have enacted or are currently considering implementing AI in higher education?
  • Are there any colleges or universities that could be considered models for inclusive excellence? What best practices could we learn from them?
  • How are AI technologies impacting students, faculty, and/or staff mental health?
  • How are AI initiatives impacting pedagogy?
  • What are international higher education institution leaders doing for people who have lost jobs due to AI implementation?
  • Are there any opportunities for new, creative, and/or innovative approaches to generative AI that have improved institutional effectiveness at your selected institution?

Submit a 500 word proposal on or before April 1, 2025. Authors will be notified of their acceptance by May 1, 2025, with completed articles due by September 30, 2025.

All articles will undergo a double-blind peer review process and must follow the JCIHE guidelines: https://www.ojed.org/index.php/jcihe/about/submissions. Proposals can be submitted directly to the Guest Editor at rchan@leeuniversity.edu or can be submitted via the JCIHE website.