Abstract: | The premise of this article is that international academic relations as a field of study need to be defined and given a theoretical underpinning. The authors therefore analyse various approaches to the study of international relations in general and propose ways by which the particularities of international academic relations might be linked to the larger subject. Of importance here is the development of a framework which will take into account the political‐economic role of the university both as a cultural institution and as a knowledge institution. The framework they suggest is then tested with regard to an examination of the international academic relations of the OECD countries, particularly Canada, with the universities of China. |