Critical reflection on the course of the Western university system has never been more important than at the juncture of its exportation around the world. The importation of Western academic institutions in the modernizing states of the Muslim world is fraught with contradictions, responding to the desire to craft a citizenship recognizable to the…

In this article, the author looks at several popular international relations textbooks in light of his experience teaching students in the Middle East. He finds that, for their many strengths, most of the books lack some key features that would make them more useful for students abroad.

Who benefits from the rapid development of transnational education institutions? Despite concerns of academic capitalism or neocolonial imperialism, both the sending institutions and the host countries can benefit from these educational initiatives. I suggest that American liberal education is uniquely placed to combine local and foreign expertise…

Qatar can afford to purchase pretty much anything--including top-quality American university education. However, given the vast differences in culture, dress, religion, and social mores, along with youth's global unemployment rates and their hankering for all things technological, does it make sense for Qatar to import a course in acting?…

The international branch campus is a relatively new but growing phenomenon that raises many questions of values, pedagogy, and culture and is also receiving increasing scrutiny. What an international branch campus imports unchanged from its home country, in terms of curriculum, student services, and culture, and what it adapts to local populations…

Western pedagogy and its preconceived notions of the non-Western world can limit scholars from developing accurate understandings of culturally different societies. Western academics teaching at foreign and Western institutions abroad must be mindful of how ingrained and subconscious Orientalist thinking can distort and hinder their interactions…

Examining the growth, incentives, and progress of overseas campuses of major American educational institutions is an important academic pursuit. To have a complete picture, one must also consider the impact these branch campuses are having on the lives of their students. The Northwestern University in Qatar's journalism program was invited to…

The lingua franca promoted at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar belongs to few as a first language. The implementation of an English-medium curriculum at Qatar's only medical school has proved a double-edged sword. Despite English being deployed out of necessity as part of a strategy geared to improve health care provision and medical…

The United Arab Emirates is developing higher education institutions that will contribute to an educational sector providing premium degree programs. There was a belief that the recognition and achievements these institutions attained over decades in their native land would be transferable in the implementation of international branch campuses.…

The author looks at the traditional lofty goals set for students in study abroad programs in the United States, such as enhancing students' intercultural skills and helping them become global citizens. But he finds that students at Northwestern University in Qatar are already multiethnic and multicultural and speak at least two languages.…

Most students enter Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) poorly prepared to face the challenges and seize the opportunities of an American-style education grounded in the liberal arts owing to their inadequate preparation in grade school. NU-Q's mission is to produce graduates who will be leaders and innovators in the media industry and…

This essay uses the experience of one community engagement program at the American University of Beirut (AUB), a prominent private university in Lebanon, to reflect on the value and challenges of civic engagement in a non-Western context. It describes the Lebanese sectarian political system, provides an overview of the AUB Neighborhood Initiative,…

The dominant model of university education featuring one-way communication in a desocialized setting that celebrates competition is fundamentally at odds with the evolutionarily attuned attributes of the human brain. Quest University Canada represents an alternative of engaged, collaborative learning that builds on the eusocial nature of our…

In 2009 and 2010, the author was involved in two University of Botswana initiatives on graduate employability. The first was a university-wide task force exploring the attitudes of students and staff and recommending reforms both in learning and teaching and in support services for students. The second was a Faculty of Humanities tracer study, in…

This essay argues for the importance of quantitative reasoning skills as part of a liberal education and describes the successful introduction of a mathematics-based quantitative skills course at a small Canadian university. Today's students need quantitative problem-solving skills, to function as adults, professionals, consumers, and citizens in…