The  article  examines  how  national  digital  transformation strategies in higher education articulate divergent institutional futures in India, China, and South Africa. A  comparative  analysis of policy documents  from  2013–2024 demonstrates how governance rationalities  and infrastructural  designs redefine  the epistemic role, operational  logic, and autonomy of universities. Digital transformation is conceptualized not as technical modernization but as a sociopolitical project encoding institutional imaginaries and normative frameworks.  Three  dominant  models are identified:  the Chinese model a technocratic centralized strategy with algorithmic monitoring and STEM prioritization; the Indian  model – open digital architectures preserving institutional discretion within a federal  governance structure; the South African model – flexible decentralization emphasizing equity and epistemic decolonization.These  models reveal contradictions between  strategic coordination and autonomy, equity and efficiency, infrastructural control and pedagogical reflexivity. The  study demonstrates that digital infrastructures determine not only access to education but also academic temporality, agency, and epistemic authority. The proposed understanding of digital  transformation as an infrastructural imaginary contributes to critical debates on higher education reform and global governance under conditions of systemic uncertainty.