Motivations and Experiences of International Students: An Evidence-Based Approach to Internationalisation of Indian Higher Education

ICSSR Major Project Grant ID: F.No.02/47/2022-23/ICSSR/RP/MJ/GEN
JGU Faculty Research Grant: JGU/RGP/2023/010

Project Lead: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee, Co-PIs (Dr. Venesser Fernandes, Monash University and Dr. Shekhar Tokas, Ambedkar University)

According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE, 2020), India attracts approximately 49,000 international students annually, accounting for less than 1% of global International Student Mobility (ISM). Internationalization of Higher Education as a strategic policy to attract international students is a relatively new phenomenon in India. The NEP 2020 and the guidelines on Internationalization of Higher Education (IoHE) by UGC envision “internationalization at home” to enhance the number of international students in India and restore its role as a Vishwa Guru. The contemporary discourse and research on the “Internationalization of Higher Education” (IoHE) is primarily situated in a Western context, and the increased mobility of international students for revenue generation has been the main agenda globally. Most of the theoretical and empirical research on IoHE is conducted through a Western-centric lens. In contrast to the Western discourse on loHE, this study intends to conceptualize IoHE through contextual lenses, in particular decolonialization, regionalization, and South-South cooperation.

“Redefining Global Citizenship Education from Asia-Pacific Perspectives”

UNESCO-APCEIU funded research project

Project Lead: Hyun Mook Lim, Director, UNESCO-APCIEU Research Team: Aigul Kulnazarova, Tama University Jun Teng, Beijing Normal University, China Mousumi Mukherjee, O.P. Jindal Global University, India Seol Kyu Joo, Gyeongin National University of Education, South Korea Sicong Chen, Kyushu University, Japan

Suzanne Choo, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Tania Saeed, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Pakistan Tanya Samu, University of Auckland, New Zealand Thippapan Chuosavasdi, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

If global citizenship is not to be relevant only to certain regions of the world, it must be open to reinterpretations and redefinitions from diverse perspectives of different regions. Without these, global citizenship may remain to be an abstract concept that is bound in a fixed meaning and lacking relevance to the lives of people on the ground. Only when global citizenship education and global citizenship competencies are reinterpreted and redefined from local perspectives and contexts, will people view it as rooted in their lives and therefore a matter of their concern. Against this backdrop, the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), a UNESCO center specializing in the promotion of education for international understanding and global citizenship, proposes this research project to embark upon the task of reinterpreting and reconceptualizing global citizenship education in the context of the Asia-Pacific region. APCEIU has invited 9 experts in the region to contribute to redefining the concept of global citizenship competencies according to their own perspectives and contexts. Overall, this project is intended to reinterpret and reconceptualize global citizenship education in light of the historical and cultural contexts and political and economic conditions of the Asia-Pacific region, noting the abstractness of the concept of global citizenship education and competencies proposed by various international organizations, groups, and researchers, including UNESCO.

A Study to Assess The Impact of Welfare Scheme: “Creation of Employment Generation Opportunities By Setting Up Employment Oriented Institutes/Training Programmes” In Sc-Dominated Districts of Haryana

JGU Faculty Research Grant” Project Number: JGU/RGP2023/014 Project Lead: Prof. (Dr.) Reshma Vats

A scheme namely “Creation of Employment Generation Opportunities by setting up Employment Oriented Institutes/ Training Programmes” started from the year 2009-10 with a motive to provide employment opportunities to Scheduled Castes, under which Scheduled Castes persons whose family income does not exceed Rs. 2.50 lacs p.a. were provided short term training for different trades like driving, paramedical, automobiles, food processing, Airhostess etc. During the training, a stipend was also given to the trainees. This scheme was implemented through the Technical Education Department, Haryana. The objectives of the study are to Explore the distribution structure of Employment Oriented Institutes/ Training Programmes” courses and its effect on the employability of the SC population, assess how does graduates’ employability vary in terms of selective demographic factors., evaluate the influence of employment-based courses on the employability of the target population and identify key aspects of courses offered by the scheme which must be improved in order to offer better employability opportunities to the target learners. The study would be conducted in four densely populated districts of Haryana namely Fatehbad, Sirsa, Ambala and Gurgaon. The mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) would be used for data collection and data interpretation. This study is therefore conducted to assess the benefits of the welfare scheme for the target population by assessing the impact of state and centrally sponsored schemes being implemented by the state as a measure of Social Welfare.

UGC-NET Exam: Does it measure the things that matter?

Project lead: Prof. (Dr.) Deepak Maun

UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) exam is a major criterion for joining Indian academia as a faculty (Lecturer) or Ph.D. Programs (via JRF-Junior Research Fellowship). In this project, we are aiming to evaluate the latest UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) exam papers across four disciplines (Education, Political Science, Psychology, and Management) using Bloom’s Taxonomy (Revised) as a framework. The goal is to check whether the questions asked can test the qualities required for being a good teacher or a researcher, the two aims of the exam. We do this through a systematic review of the recent question papers coding each question according to its corresponding Bloom’s Taxonomy level. The findings will provide insight to educators and policymakers about the potential gaps in the assessment framework and help them re-think ways to improve it.

Other Ways of Knowing and Doing: Globalizing Social Science Knowledge in Higher Education

Oceania Comparative and International Education Society Networking Grant 2017

Project Lead: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee

This International Research Symposium aimed to share knowledge on some of the recent theoretical and methodological trends in the field of comparative and international education. Drawing on the issues raised in the recent Special Issue of the journal, Comparative Education Review “Contesting Coloniality: Rethinking Knowledge Production and Circulation in Comparative and International Education” (Takayama, Sriprakash & Connell, 2017); this international research symposium sought to provide a forum for sharing theoretical and methodological knowledge about “Other ways of Knowing and Doing” (Raina, 2016). It sought to establish an academic alliance of OCIES scholars with educators, institutional leaders, and researchers investigating educational issues incorporating local wisdom and theories within the South Asian context and other marginalized/postcolonial contexts around the world. The two-day long international research symposium with a pre-symposium journal publication workshop was organized by the ‘Centre for Comparative and Global Education’ and International Institute for Higher Education Research and Capacity Building at O.P. Jindal Global (Institution of Eminence Deemed To Be University) in collaboration with Oceania Comparative and International Education Society (OCIES), Indian Ocean Comparative Education Society (IOCES), World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) and UNESCO-Chairs in Community-based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education.

Selected papers presented at the research symposium was compiled as the Special Issue 19 (1), 2020 of the “International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives” published by the University of Sydney Open-journal system. It is an internationally peer-reviewed flagship journal of the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society (formerly the Australia-New Zealand Comparative Education Society)

Bridging Internationalisation and Social Responsibility in Higher Education

JGU Research Project Grant ID: JGU/RGP/2018/006

Project Lead: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee

Internationalisation and social responsibility of higher education are often seen as cross-roads with each other in the existing empirical research literature on higher education. By exploring a historic connection between Tagore’s Viswa Bharati and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, this project sought to understand how Tagore and his admirers at the UIUC campus Tagore circle envisioned internationalisation and local community engagement. This project sought to explore what historic and sociological forces shaped their conceptualisation of the aims and objectives of the international university responding to the local community needs.

Publications:

1) Mukherjee, M. (2020). Tagore’s “rooted-cosmopolitanism” and international mindedness against institutional sustainability. In Special Issue on Asian Cosmopolitanisms: Living and Learning Across Differences. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 40 (1), 49-60.
2) Book chapter titled- “Creative Resistance”: Establishing a World-minded Indian University in colonial British India” submitted for an edited book on “Ubuntu and Comparative Education and International Education for Peace” to be published by Brill/Sense in 2020

Comparative and Global Perspectives on International Student Experiences: The case of Tibetan Students in India

JGU Research Grant ID: JGU/RGP/2019/006

Project Lead: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee

Globally, there are about 5 million students studying in higher education outside their home country. Out of these students, roughly 48,000 foreign students are studying in India. They represent less than 1 per cent of the global total. The Government of India recently launched the Study in India initiative to increase foreign student enrolment to over two lakhs by 2023. Though the logic of market-economics is being used these days in most policy discourse (including that of education), teaching and learning is integrally a social process. So, it is important to investigate the experiences of existing groups of international students in India, as the body of international students is also very diverse. However, little is also known about the experiences of these foreign students in Indian universities. By doing a case study of the experiences of the Tibetan students in India (who have been residing in India as “foreigners” in exile and studying in Indian institutions) we can get a glimpse of the experiences of the one of the most vulnerable refugees/exiled community of students in India, who are treated as international students in most college campuses. The findings from this study can help inform policies for Tibetan students in India and also further expand this study to include other groups of international students in India, informing policies for international students at large.

Students’ Experiences with Distance Learning under COVID-19

External Collaboration- SERU Consortium, University of California, Berkley Project Lead: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee

This research study aims to understand student experiences of distance learning during COVID-19 global pandemic. Data for this study is being collected from students in the form of auto-ethnographic self-reflections and an online survey tool developed by the Student Experiences in Research University (SERU) consortium at the Centre for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkley

Publication:
“Student Experience in the Research University (SERU)-India COVID-19 Survey” Report was published in collaboration with the SERU Consortium at the University of California, Berkley and the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). https://jgu.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/JGU-AIU+SERU+Report+21-03-2021+(Final).pdf