An earlier draft of this paper was presented as a keynote address at an international workshop on mainstreaming small states in higher education, organised by the Islands and Small States Institute at the University of Malta, Msida, Malta, in November 2009.In spite of the large number of small sovereign states, there have been limited attempts at mainstreaming the study of the small as a small state in higher education. This paper reviews the context and development of both the category of, and research on small states; it then reviews the challenges involves in implementing any of the four broad ways of mainstreaming the study of the small state in higher education.peer-reviewe
