Lexington Books Western Higher Education in Global Contexts (Expansion and Internationalization of Higher Education in Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East)

The globalization of American style higher education is a field of study that is undergoing a significant phase with the current expansion of American branch campuses and curricula around the world. This volume contributes to the scholarship on the project of implementing and expanding U.S. influenced curricula in the Middle East and Asia. Many of the branch campus projects are only a few decades old making this a liminal moment in the translation and development of higher education worldwide that needs to be captured. What are the challenges, opportunities, and considerations faculty encounter in classrooms in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia? How do faculty translate western higher educational principles in new contexts? Projects like the multiversity international branch campuses of Education City, in Doha, Qatar, demonstrate the interest of foreign governments in western education and training. Other collaborations, like the Yale National University of Singapore College, demonstrate a nationalistic approach, where the nation's premiere university maintains as high a profile as the invited collaborator. Such a wide range in mission and matriculation of students deserves further study. We open the conversation about the complex teaching and learning environment of American style education in a global context. Contributions include case studies, pedagogical interventions, and reflections. This volume features chapters by faculty teaching at international branch campuses (IBCs) or institutions using western curricula, such as the worldwide, privatized American University system Review Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar's edited volume takes a much-needed comparative look at the internationalization of western higher education, investigating its challenges and opportunities through both theoretical lenses and detailed pedagogical interventions. In particular, the collected essays dive deeply into the experiences of American universities in the Middle East, with three case studies of Qatar's Education City alongside contributions from the American Universities of Beirut and Kuwait. Full of provocative and unique insights, Western Higher Education in Global Contexts invites the reader to better understand the interactive negotiations between the imported universities and the local communities they are meant to serve.--Jocelyn Sage Mitchell, assistant professor in residence at Northwestern University, Qatar This book makes an important contribution to the growing literature on the spread of American higher educational models and institutions throughout the world. Rather than theorizing abstractly about the meaning and significance of the internationalization of curricula, academic personnel and institutions, this volume provides a view from the inside out. Academics who have confronted the pedagogical and political-sociological issues associated with higher education transplantation write perceptively about their experiences. As a result, this collection provides the reader with a richly critical analysis of the promises and pitfalls associated with our present moment of higher educational transformation.--John Willoughby, American University, Co-author of Higher Education Revolutions in the Gulf: Globalization and Institutional Viability The authors in this volume explore how American higher education gets localized though curricular adaptation in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, thoroughly challenging claims of uniform cultural imperialism and neoliberalism. The rich case studies presented here, often based on first-hand teaching experiences, are a unique and welcome addition to the scholarship on globalized higher education.--Neha Vora, Lafayette College About the Author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is assistant professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department at Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar.