The Global South can reshape dominant innovation narratives

Innovation has become a defining marker of national progress and competitiveness. From digital technologies and healthcare to renewable energy and education, societies are increasingly shaped by their capacity to generate and apply new ideas.

Yet, the global innovation landscape remains highly concentrated. The United States and China dominate research and development investment, patent activity and advanced technology development, while Europe, Japan and South Korea form complementary hubs.

This geographic clustering raises familiar but urgent questions: What role can developing countries play in a world where innovation is structurally uneven? Can universities in the Global South become more than consumers of external models? And are there emerging conditions that may allow new voices, perspectives and priorities to shape global innovation narratives?

Different forms of innovation

In leading economies, innovation is rarely a standalone activity. It emerges from dense ecosystems in which universities play a central role – producing talent, generating research and partnering with industry, government and venture capital. Institutions like Stanford, MIT, Oxford or Tsinghua universities operate as nodes within systems that are well-funded, commercially agile and globally connected.

In contrast, universities in many parts of the developing world often contend with limited resources, inadequate infrastructure and competing mandates. Their place in national innovation systems is less assured, and expectations often exceed what is realistically supported. Nevertheless, this does not mean innovation is absent, only that it may take different forms, respond to different priorities and draw from different knowledge traditions.

Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, universities are increasingly seeking to redefine their role. In some cases, they are aligning more closely with local development challenges such as climate resilience, health equity or food security, where innovation is not necessarily about high-tech disruption but about appropriate, sustainable and community-driven solutions.

Reimagining innovation also involves rethinking what and how universities teach. In many developing countries, curricula still reflect colonial legacies or imported templates that may not fully prepare students to solve local problems or participate meaningfully in the innovation economy.

Curriculum reform, when pursued strategically, can be a catalyst – not only by integrating frontier areas like artificial intelligence, green technologies or digital health, but also by promoting interdisciplinary thinking, project-based learning and closer engagement with real-world contexts.

The goal is not to replicate Silicon Valley models but to nurture a new generation of problem-solvers who are grounded in their contexts while globally aware.

TNE’s capacity-building potential

One route through which universities in the Global South are seeking to broaden their horizons is transnational education (TNE). Often criticised for reinforcing asymmetrical dependencies where content flows from ‘provider’ to ‘recipient’, TNE can also evolve into a more collaborative and capacity-building mechanism.

Where partnerships are equitable and strategically aligned, TNE can enable co-developed programmes, shared research agendas and mobility pathways that enrich both sides. It can support the transfer of pedagogical models that promote innovation and help build academic ecosystems that are regionally relevant but internationally credible.

In Mauritius, Rwanda, Malaysia and the UAE, for example, efforts are underway to use TNE not merely to import global brands but to create regional education hubs that contribute to national innovation systems. Such models are still evolving, but they point to a shift: from dependency to interdependence, and from consumption to co-creation.

A changing mobility landscape

Recent changes in global student mobility further complicate and perhaps enhance these dynamics. The tightening of visa rules and post-study work opportunities in traditional education destinations like the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia is prompting students, especially from Africa and South Asia, to explore alternative destinations.

This shift presents both a challenge and an opening. While it may disrupt long-established pipelines to Western institutions, it also creates space for new education hubs to emerge. Universities in the Global South that can offer quality, relevance and international connectivity may find themselves well-positioned to attract not only local students but also international ones.

This realignment may, in turn, accelerate investment in higher education infrastructure, the development of innovation-focused curricula and the strengthening of domestic research capacity. Some governments and university networks are already responding, not just to retain talent but to reposition themselves in a more multipolar higher education landscape.

Internal strengths

These developments raise deeper questions. What kinds of innovation are most urgently needed in the Global South? How do we value socially embedded forms of knowledge and problem-solving? Can South-South collaboration challenge the dominant paradigms of innovation defined largely by the North?

Universities are uniquely placed to mediate these tensions. But doing so may require more than isolated reforms. It calls for a shift in mindset, from emulation to experimentation, from benchmarking against external models to building on internal strengths.

There is, of course, no single path. Some institutions will pursue global rankings and research excellence strategies; others may prioritise community partnerships and applied problem- solving. What matters is that the space for innovation remains open to different logics, different origins and different futures.

A moment of possibility

Innovation is not owned by any one geography. While power and resources remain unevenly distributed, the conditions under which innovation can emerge are changing. Transnational education, shifting mobility patterns, curriculum reform and evolving institutional identities are converging in ways that invite new thinking.

For universities in the Global South, this moment offers both complexity and possibility. The challenge is not only to respond to global trends, but to help reshape them from within. What remains to be seen is how these institutions will seize the opportunity, not to replicate existing models of innovation, but to imagine and nurture new ones, rooted in their own realities, yet connected to the world.

Dhanjay Jhurry is the managing director of the Uniciti International Education Hub in Mauritius. A former vice-chancellor of the University of Mauritius, he has been active in shaping regional higher education ecosystems through international partnerships, research-led innovation and transnational education initiatives.

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.