UCL Institute of Education

7^th May 2019, 5-8 p.m.

Room 802, IOE, 20 Bedford Way, London

Part I (5:05- 6:10)

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In this session, we hosted Ayse Gur Geden, a doctoral researcher from the Department of Culture, Communication and Media.

Please find her abstract below.

Language Training and the Making of Brokers: Sub-Saharan African Students in Turkey 

Internationalisation of higher education (IoHE) has shaped trends and strategies for higher education institutions in various corners of the world. Although well-established in universities in the Global North, the aims of these strategies and their accompanying rationales often differ from those of the higher education systems of developing and non-Anglophone countries in which IoHE is a relatively more recent phenomenon. This is the case of Turkey where such strategies are aimed to harness so-called “soft power”, a developmental political economy that encourages public and private universities to draw more students from developing and underdeveloped countries. It also operates an attractive funding scheme that targets students in the regions it recognizes as its hinterland based on historical ties dating back to the Ottoman Empire. Among these regions, the Sub-Saharan Africa holds enormous potential for business and trade. Great attention has been paid to various aspects and impacts of Turkey’s IoHE strategies and funding scheme for both parties involved, specifically focussing on economy and diplomatic relations. Yet, there is a pressing need to further investigate the ways in which these processes are enabled by the discursive production and enactment of changing forms of citizenship via Turkish and English (in English-medium instruction universities) language training programmes that aim to bridge between Turkey and students’ countries. By detailing the intersection of these processes, practices and formation of selves, this presentation draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a public university in Turkey, with focus on policymakers, institutional stakeholders, students, lecturers and external stakeholders such as NGOs and student-led organisations.

Dear all,

In the fifth session of our CCM Seminar series, we have discussed the following article:

John Gray, John P. O’Regan & Catherine Wallace (2018) Education and the discourse of global neoliberalism,Language and Intercultural Communication, 18:5, 471-477, DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2018.1501842

Please find the video recording below.