|
" Exploring the Identities of Students at Western Branch- campuses in Malaysia and United Arab Emirates "
Grace Karram Stephenson
Hayhoe, Ruth E.
| Document Type
|
:
|
Latin Dissertation
|
| Language of Document
|
:
|
English
|
| Record Number
|
:
|
804454
|
| Doc. No
|
:
|
TL49285
|
| Call number
|
:
|
1883860163; 10194882
|
| Main Entry
|
:
|
Ramirez, Damian
|
| Title & Author
|
:
|
Exploring the Identities of Students at Western Branch- campuses in Malaysia and United Arab Emirates\ Grace Karram StephensonHayhoe, Ruth E.
|
| College
|
:
|
University of Toronto (Canada)
|
| Date
|
:
|
2016
|
| Degree
|
:
|
Ph.D.
|
| field of study
|
:
|
Leadership, Higher and Adult Education
|
| student score
|
:
|
2016
|
| Page No
|
:
|
213
|
| Note
|
:
|
Committee members: Heller, Monica; Knight, Jane
|
| Note
|
:
|
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-369-67310-4
|
| Abstract
|
:
|
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are rapidly growing economies with diverse ethnic and linguistic populations. In both, the need for skilled labour has increased the importance of higher education for national development goals. Lacking the capacity to provide public higher education for all their citizens both countries have recruited foreign institutions to educate those who do not have access to public higher education. This thesis examines the experiences of students at Australian and British international branch-campuses (IBCs) in the UAE and Malaysia in order to understand the influence that enrolment at an IBC has on students’ identities. Synthesizing the American and European literature on identity and higher education, this thesis conceptualizes identity as the fluctuating social categories that distinguish groups or individuals from one another. The data for this study was collected during five months of fieldwork, employing qualitative interviews with 49 students and 13 administrators/instructors. The majority of student-participants in this study were affiliated with economically powerful, yet politically marginalized minority groups. The findings suggest that Western IBCs promote a new set of identities that differ from those prioritized in the political and social contexts of the UAE and Malaysia. Students perceive that micro-divisions related to ethnicity decrease at an IBC, but new divisions emerge based on ability, language or region. These findings reflect a changing relationship between higher education and identity in the 21st Century. Cross-border higher education is not embedded in a national or local context, nor promotes identities related to those contexts. Instead, students’ identities become linked to their achievements, and thus branch-campuses support students as they forge market-relevant identities. In contexts such as Malaysia and the UAE, this role is significant as IBCs provide peripheral ethnic groups with an alternative pathway to enter the economic sector which is increasingly detached from its political context.
|
| Subject
|
:
|
Educational sociology; Higher education
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
Education;College student development;Cross-border higher education;Identity;International branch campuses;Malaysia;United arab emirates
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
Hayhoe, Ruth E.
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
Leadership, Higher and Adult EducationUniversity of Toronto (Canada)
|
| |