Internationalising the University by Kalyani Unkule

Author:Kalyani Unkule
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030281120
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

In Chap. 2 I have mentioned Desjardin’s claim that the neoliberal rhetoric on the function of universities allows them a role in addressing emerging economic challenges but has little, if anything, to contribute on how they can address social and cultural challenges thrown up by globalisation. In conversations on internationalisation we find the student characterised as merely a job-seeking individual who needs to invest their learning time as efficiently as possible to in future have access to more than just one (geographical) employment market.

Phan observes a mixed picture in attempting to assess the impact of internationalisation strategies of universities in the Global South. In Phan’s analysis the investment in English as the medium of instruction in taught programmes is key among such strategies. By her estimation, while this model of internationalisation can result in “social segregation, social class widening and the racialization of English language speakers”58 (thanks to the preference for English language speakers and institutions based in the west as partners in internationalisation), it also has the potential to deliver “empowerment, growth, agency, self-determination and multi-dimensional identity formation” for the same communities and regions. Through an in-depth study of a regional university based in Vietnam, Phan demonstrates the role played by similarly situated institutions in opting for internationalisation models that favour a western orientation. Even in conceding such agency to these institutions, however, we must take care to contextualise it in historical and broader systemic terms.

Rabindranath Tagore was a champion of education in local and regional languages. He viewed support for English language instruction in colonial India not just as harming local languages but as facilitating the rapid retreat of an entire civilisational approach to thinking, learning, expressing, and being. In the following lines, Tagore explains why the dominance of one particular language over education is not as innocuous as commonly argued59: It is good to remind the fettered bird that its wings are for soaring; but it is better to cut the chain which is holding it to its perch. The most pathetic feature of the tragedy is that the bird itself has learnt to use its chain for its ornament, simply because the chain jingles in fairly respectable English.

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