With increased globalization, travel and mobility, international student education has become an academically and economically important part of tertiary education around the world. The increased commodification and marketization of higher education complicate the present challenges in ensuring culturally sensitive and competent pedagogies and enabling international students' educational rights and equal access to opportunities and knowledge. Linking the multifaceted concept of educational rights to international student education and pedagogy, we explore issues related to cultural diversity, safety, vulnerability, welfare, peaceful coexistence in a changing global environment. Opening up further discussions on inclusive, culturally competent and accountable teaching in an unstable and frequently vexed geopolitical space, this introduction argues for an inclusive education that puts learning and social justice at its centre.