Digital transformation and global inequality in higher education
Higher education is currently undergoing major changes due to digital transformation despite the different levels of implementation across social and institutional contexts. This paper investigates how digital transformation connects to finance, institutional communication, and academic diplomacy using a comparative approach based on two cases of study: Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco and the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in People’s Republic of China. From an intersectional political-economy perspective, the research aims to assess how institutional differences impact both participation and access to digitally mediated higher education. Using a mixed-methods design, combining surveys and interviews, the findings demonstrate that digital transformation does not lead to reduced inequality; rather, its outcomes are affected by the interaction of political economy, funding structures, institutional capacity, and the complexity of the lived experience of students and faculty.