CIRS Lunch Talk: Western Higher Education in Global Contexts

On February 13, 2019, The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) Lunch Talk featured Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar speaking about her edited volume “Western Higher Education in Global Contexts.” Mohana, a prolific novelist and educator with a Ph.D. in English Literature, discussed the rising popularity and complexity of International Branch Campuses (IBCs). The focus of the talk was on the classroom and teaching challenges that can arise between students, faculty, and the administration at multiversity international branch campuses (IBCs) such as Education City.  

“There has been an assumption that IBCs offer the exact same degree as the main institution, and that there won’t be any changes, and that seems to trickle down to the faculty. Do exactly what you do on the main campus and all is well. That’s one set of expectations,” she said. In addition, “students go to a student orientation that exposes them to ideas of academic life and community but aren’t given much idea about the IBC premise other than the degree.”

This confusion over expectations and lack of understanding of the impact of pedagogical and cultural differences requires further consideration, she argued, illustrating the complexity of the issues through a case study extracted from the collective experiences of IBC institutions.

Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar has written extensively about gender, race, and writing pedagogy. Her work has been published in a variety of peer reviewed journals and books including Gender, Teaching American Literature, and the South Asian Review, among others.