Projects

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Awards & Grants:

Professor (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee received a major research grant (2022-2023) of Rs. 14 Lakhs from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) with letter dated th 10 March 2023 and Rs. 9,66,000/- from JGU Faculty Research Grant Committee with letter dated 17th Jan 2024 to conduct empirical research on the topic: “Motivations and Experiences of International Students: An Evidence-Based Approach to Internationalisation of Indian Higher Education”. The project went through a very competitive and rigorous selection process by ICSSR experts. As the Project Director, she will work on this collaborative research project with project partners, Dr. Venesser Fernandes (Monash University) and Dr. Shekhar Tokas (Ambedkar University)

(Dr.) Reshma Vats received an internal JGU research grant to work on a project titled “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”. The research grant approved for the medium-term (18-months) project is Rs. 5,10,000.

IIHED Doctoral Research Fellow, Ms. Tenzin Dolma working under the supervision of Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee, received the prestigious non-residential Fellowship of Rs. 3 Lakhs from the Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama with a th letter sated 13 March 2023 to write a monograph on Dalai Lama’s Philosophy of Education titled:- “The Becoming: The XIV Dalai Lama on Education”

Deputy Director of IIHED, Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee receive a Community Excellence Award as Early-career alumni researcher from the University of Melbourne on the 8th year of her career post-PhD. She was also appointed an Honoray Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. Dr. Mukherjee has been teaching and researching in the higher education sector in India, US and Australia over the past 24 years.

Mousumi Mukherjee received the 2021 Best Published Article Award from the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) South Asia (SIG) for the article: “Southern Theory and Postcolonial Comparative Education” published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Oxford University Press during the 65th Annual Meeting of CIES on the theme, “Social Responsibility within Changing Contexts” held virtually from April 25- May 2, 2021.

Professor Kalyani Unkule, Fellow, IIHEd, received the Commonwealth Peace and Reconciliation Challenge Grant 2021 awarded by the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Professor Unkule’s project aims to transform the study abroad officer into an agent of peace and reconciliation, building on her monograph “Internationalising the University: A Spiritual Approach” published in 2019.

Grant Application For Future Project

Dr. Mousumi Mukherjee submitted a large grant application to the Spencer Foundation to work on a collaborative research project with Prof. Sahan Rajan (JGBS) and Prof. Riyad Shahjahan (Michigan State University, USA) studying “Temporality and Faculty Life in Urban India”

Other Ongoing Projects

(Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee and Prof. Ram B. Ramachandran have completed data collection for project on “Student and Faculty perceptions of ChatGPT and AI in Higher Education”. Data analysis is ongoing. This is an empirical study to investigate the undeniable impact that Artificial Intelligence and more specifically large language models like ChatGPT will do to transform learning, teaching pedagogy and academic administration.

This study’s objectives are:

Understanding the adaptive and iterative learning process for students

Exploring the impact of changes to ChatGPT assisted teaching

Investigating potential changes to assessment and evaluation methods This survey will focus on the perceptions and current usage of ChatGPT By students and faculty. Later studies will be further enhanced to address the broader objectives stated above.

(Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee along with Prof. (Dr.) Indrani Bhattacharjee have launched a call for paper for Scopus listed Taylor & Francis Journal- Educational Philosophy and Theory special issue on: – “Shiksha Darshana”: Indian perspectives on Educational Philosophies and Theory to be guest edited by both of them. https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/shiksha-darshana-indian-perspectiveseducational-philosophies-theory/?

Deputy Director, Dr. Mousumi Mukherjee has initiated a collaborative research project with Prof. Maresi Nerad, Founding Director, Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE), University of Washington, Seattle for a project focused on understanding the state of doctoral education in India, along with IIHED Senior fellow, Prof. K.K. Pandey and Prof. T.A. Abhinandan of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. Indian Institutie of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), are also partnering for this project.

(Dr.) Deepak Maun has initiated a project to further understand the complexities and challenges of doctoral education within Indian higher education context. Funding (internal/external grants) will be sought upon completion of the systematic literature review.

“Students’ Experiences with Distance Learning under COVID-19” (Completed) in collaboration with SERU Consortium, University of California, Berkley Project Leads: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee, Prof. (Dr.) Tatiana Belousova and Prof. (Dr.) Deepak Maun This research study aimed 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-reections 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 3.

“International Indian students ‘stranded’ during the COVID-19 pandemic”- (Completed) This collaborative research project with Dr. Surjeet Dhanji, the University of Melbourne aimed to investigate how Australian education and migration policies affect the international Indian students stranded in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students’ Experiences with Distance Learning under COVID-19

External Collaboration- SERU Consortium, University of California, BerkleyProject Leads: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee, Prof. (Dr.) Tatiana Belousova, Prof. (Dr.) Deepak Maun

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

Other Ways of Knowing and Doing: Globalizing Social Science Knowledge in Higher Education
Oceania Comparative and International Education Society Networking Grant 2017
Project Leads: Prof. (Dr.) Mousumi Mukherjee and Ms. Nandita Koshal

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 are being 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

3) Ongoing Book Project: Mukherjee, M & Bera, A. “Tagore @Illinois: Researching Global Connections in Education”

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 refugee/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.

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 AIl 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.

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

“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.