Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education ISSN: 0159-6306 (Print) 1469-3739 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cdis20 Higher education, English, and the idea of ‘the West’: globalizing and encountering a global south regional university Phan Le Ha To cite this article: Phan Le Ha (2018): Higher education, English, and the idea of ‘the West’: globalizing and encountering a global south regional university, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2018.1448704 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1448704 Published online: 09 Mar 2018 Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cdis20 DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1448704 Higher education, English, and the idea of ‘the West’: globalizing and encountering a global south regional university Phan Le Ha Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This article is about ‘global south’ actors and global south–global south interactions in the context of the internationalization of higher education (IHE), with a focus on a Vietnamese university and the mobilities of students moving through this educational space It discusses in what ways this university sees its multilayered association with the Philippines as a bridge, a catalyst that could fulfill its aspirations for internationalization which is largely attached to English, ‘the West’, the idea of ‘the West’, and becoming global The article shows how the participation in and consumption of such aspirations/desires by new IHE players could reproduce and widen social inequalities between and within ‘global south’ actors but also bring about (unexpected) possibilities and transformations in a context of considerable educational mediocrity It points to the contradictions inherent in these developments and the ways in which these developments may feed into uneven access to and experiences of IHE Global south; internationalization; Asia; Vietnam; the Philippines; mobility; English; desire The global south, desire, and higher education English as a global language, the internationalization of higher education (IHE), and the movement of people and ideas have been central to the understanding of the changing landscape of higher education (HE), with Asia playing a significant role in the picture These global forces, factors, and processes have not only transformed ‘old’ players but also created new actors and stakeholders of HE, particularly those in the global south (Barnawi, 2018; Collins, Sidhu, & Yeoh, 2014; Ho, 2014; Jenkins, 2014; Knight, 2014; Ma, 2014; Phan, 2017; Robertson & Komljenovic, 2016; R Yang, 2012) ‘Global south’ as a geographic, conceptual, social, and geopolitical term has been employed to conceptualize and examine practices, strategies, logics, and markets of HE and IHE in the context of post-1980s north–south and south–south interactions, whereby ‘old’ and ‘new’ players, driven by and driving varied aspirations of HE and IHE, have formed complex, multi-layered, multi-directional relationships These players include governments, tertiary institutions, branch campuses, local and international students, and academics ‘Global south’ has predominantly been defined as territories CONTACT Phan Le Ha halephan@hawaii.edu © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group L.-H PHAN geographically located in ‘Africa, Central and South America, and Asia’ (Robertson & Komljenovic, 2016, p 2), and as being ‘relational’ and ‘social’ largely with regard to economic development (p 2) For Robertson and Komljenovic, global south also embodies certain marginalized communities and individuals within the boundaries of ‘global north’ who not enjoy social and economic advantages deemed equivalent to the ‘developed’ status of their developed economies In this sense, ‘global south’ means communities and individuals of certain social, political, racial, and ethnic status within ‘global north’ Following Robertson and Komljenovic’s (2016) focus on marginalized communities and individuals, I have focused on a group of actors from the global south They are individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds in provincial, remote, and agricultural areas, who can access HE following varied IHE aspirations and social imaginaries Included in this study are lower-tier institutions whose desires for IHE and recruitment strategies have matched with those individuals’ desires to pursue international education These populations and entities, both in the geographical global south and north, are among new targets of HE recruiters and brokers They are, too, new players and actors in HE and IHE spheres This phenomenon is increasingly discussed in the literature (Baas, 2014; Ortiga, 2015, 2018; Robertson, 2013; Robertson & Komljenovic, 2016; Song, 2016; Yang, 2018) Desires in the context of global English and IHE have been engaged with as a conceptual and theoretical tool from diverse disciplines, ranging from philosophy to economics, gender to identity studies, psychology to marketing, geography, and anthropology to critical literacy and education (Collins et al., 2014; Motha & Lin, 2014; Nonaka, in press; Takahashi, 2013; Yang, 2016) Desires are seen as being many things including being socially (co)-constructed, institutionally shaped, relational, collective, personal, self-initiated, selfdetermined, market-and-politics driven, culture-specific, value-informed, and identification-bound Desires, hence, are manifested in aspirations and promises of, dreams and fantasies about, and associations with a certain future and quality of life and experiences enabled by English, HE, and IHE I have also argued that desires can be conditionspecific, detached, work-in-progress, involving, and adjusted, as individuals’ experiences, exposures, and circumstances change and are transformed and/or not resemble one’s initial imaginations (Chowdhury & Phan, 2014; Phan, 2017) This article interrogates how desires attached to English, English-medium instruction (EMI), ‘the West’, the idea of ‘the West’, IHE, and global mobility can reproduce and widen social inequalities between and within groups and individuals in the global south It also shows in what ways participation in and consumption of such social imaginaries could bring about (unexpected) opportunities and transformations to the aforementioned new players While universities in Asia seek to emulate notions of becoming global through association with such social imaginaries, I argue, students themselves see these as desirable features of HE regardless of their uneven qualities Likewise, while students’ desires can be exploited, they can also co-construct new narratives of desires and possibilities I have termed, conceptualized, and theorized this very phenomenon as ‘transformative mediocrity’ (Phan, 2017) English, ‘the West’, and the idea of ‘the West’ in the internationalization of HE Globally, countries, territories, and their universities under varied conditions have fueled their IHE aspirations with English and EMI They have consumed, consolidated, and DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION reproduced the by-default global status of English in implementing education reforms and IHE initiatives They exercise a preference for a particular ideology and variety of English that could best serve their IHE agendas and that they regard as being ‘wanted’ by students Systems of HE have promoted the development of EMI programs and partnerships with overseas universities, almost invariably through the import and export of English and English language products and services, the majority of which are from and/or associated with Western-English-speaking countries The projection of IHE largely aligns with the intensity of EMI and the extent to which institutions are committed to English on all fronts At the same time, IHE policies and practices have been criticized for intersecting with Westernization, the reproduction of colonial Self-Other dichotomies, neo-colonialism, neo-imperialism, and neoliberalism, and by the complexities concerning the dominance of English (Altbach, 2013; Barnawi, 2018; Choi, 2010; Jenkins, 2014; Knight, 2014; Phan, 2017; Phillipson, 2009) These complexities, nonetheless, include the increasing ownership of and multi-layered attachment and responses to English The English–IHE entanglement, hence, while embodying and generating social segregation, social class widening, and the racialization of English language speakers, could also enable empowerment, growth, agency, self-determination, and multi-directional identity formation processes ( Baker, 2016; Chowdhury & Phan, 2014; Clifford & Montgomery, 2014; Marginson & Sawir, 2011) As further demonstrated, these complexities could self-transform and/or be transformed into unexpected conditions leading to liberation, increased self-esteem, and opportunities among marginalized agents of IHE and IHE, in the midst of embedded risks and uncertainties This population is increasing in HE, as clearly shown in this special issue To bring all these different threads together, I now interrogate the IHE vision, strategies, and practices of Mountain University (MU) (pseudonym), a regional university in Vietnam, a fast-expanding HE player in the global south I also observe international students’ mobilities and experiences in this new ‘global south’ IHE space I explore how all these happenings can enable low socioeconomic background students to realize and achieve their education dreams, who otherwise would remain ‘little people’ in poor areas in various parts of the global south Embedded in these discussions and arguments is the essential role of English, and global south actors’ desires for and appropriation and exploitation of the idea of ‘the West’, whether imagined, cultivated, real, distorted, or symbolic Built further on my earlier work (Phan, 2017), this article puts at the center of inquiry the roles played and cultivated by often ‘unexpected’ and ‘untraditional’ new players of IHE MU: the place and its internationalization MU is one case study in my multi-sited multi-year project on the IHE in broader Asia that also includes the Middle East Mountain is also the name of the province where MU is based Within Mountain, there is a city, semi-rural, surrounded by mountains, and home to ethnic minorities in the region The city is fast growing, although Mountain as a whole is still classified as a poor area in need of much support MU has a large student body, about 30% of which are from ethnic minority backgrounds and low socioeconomic farming backgrounds in Mountain and from the surrounding provinces MU has played an important role as one of Vietnam’s strategic regional universities 4 L.-H PHAN I did not approach the university randomly I chose it based on my knowledge about the overall internationalization environment in Vietnam I was curious about how a regional university would participate in IHE and whether it would come up with any distinctive strategies compatible with its location and local status I also chose MU particularly because of its dynamic yet allegedly notorious range of activities frequently brought to my attention during data collection Several scandals related to the University’s internationalization had been reported by the media, with rather unfavorable comments from governmental authorities The University’s dynamic range of activities was seen as being problematic and somewhat damaging to Vietnam’s internationalization efforts, particularly because of its association with the Philippines, a perceived low-quality commercialized global south HE system I noted the following comments from several officials (not from MU) during my fieldwork and at professional meetings in Vietnam, when I mentioned MU as an IHE active player • There is little quality there because they collaborate with institutions in the Philippines • While everyone is going with Western universities or at least with universities in Japan, Singapore, or Malaysia, Mountain relies on the Philippines for internationalization It’s all about money, easy entry, easy exit • What kinds of students would pay to study with international programs offered by Mountain and universities in the Philippines? Their students can’t even use English well Money-oriented, all for commercialization, and only low quality students would go for such programs • We don’t accredit those programs and we don’t know anything about the quality of such programs We’re not responsible if students pay, graduate and their qualifications don’t get accepted by employers We’ve warned students in advance One may wonder why a semi-rural, agricultural, and faraway mountainous place like Mountain could become a destination for international education MU, in particular, has been one of the most dynamic institutions in Vietnam in terms of IHE (interview data, notes taken at conferences and seminars in Vietnam between 2011 and 2016) It has also been active and proactive in implementing the government’s initiative to import curricula from foreign universities to diversify its programs, teaching staff, and student body What stands out from MU are its Advanced Programs introduced since 2005 using EMI curricula transferred and/or adapted from foreign universities including those in the US One strategy adopted by MU as a whole has been to reach out to universities in the ASEAN region, mostly those in rural and semi-rural regional areas of the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Laos It has identified the Philippines in particular as a source country for staff and student recruitment to stimulate its English-medium Advanced Programs MU has developed strong and sustained relationships with institutions in the Philippines for the past decade Staff members from universities in the Philippines have been employed as consultants for English language and international US-informed curricula and programs at the University So alongside doing internationalization the usual way, meaning going directly with the West which is what many other institutions in Asia and in Vietnam often do, Mountain has been pushing its internationalization agendas towards the Philippines It sees this neighboring country as a bridge, a catalyst that could fulfill Mountain’s aspirations for internationalization I elaborate this point in the subsequent sections DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION Mountain University member MU is an umbrella university with affiliated member universities located close to one another Although the data collected were from colleagues working across several member universities within MU, I focus specifically on one member university, referred to as Mountain University Member (MUM) hereafter The data reported were collected through in-depth semi-structured face-to-face and phone individual interviews with 10 colleagues (working in various MU campuses) between 2011 and 2013, face-to-face and phone follow-up individual discussions with five colleagues, two of whom were from the previous group, who worked at MUM (between 2013 and 2015), two focus-group discussions with five international students and six international students respectively (in 2014), and regular email communication with one international student (between 2014 and 2016) This student reached out to me after the first focus-group discussion to learn more about my research and to share with me her everyday experiences in Mountain All these students are from Southeast Asian countries The data collection (2011–2015) with colleagues from MU and MUM was based on open-ended questions focusing on the participants’ perspectives, understandings, experiences and practices of IHE in general and with regards to their institution in particular The questions also specifically asked them to discuss their institution’s conceptualization, vision, strategies, and justifications of its approach to IHE over the above period Because of concerns about confidentiality, I am not going to specify which participants I spoke to on what occasion The data collected with 11 international students focused on their journeys to Mountain, their experiences in Mountain, and at MUM Out of my several trips to Mountain, the one I describe below was special because we almost got lost and had to take a detour when the main road leading to MUM was closed for construction The following excerpt gives a sense of the surroundings of the university So many bumps on the narrow road I saw cows, buffalos, and chicken A woman was burning straws and branches on one side of the road The smoke was flying high, bringing with it the scent of the countryside Closing my eyes, I was letting myself daydream and inhale every wisp of smoke out there … The taxi driver must have been very patient because of the confusing directions given to us from the various local people we had approached in the area, although we were only a few kilometres away from the university It had taken us an hour and 45 minutes to move back and forth and across villages surrounding the university, to drive along a very narrow and rocky path parallel with the railroad, and to get lost at village intersections where directions to the university were based on knowledge of the position of very specific objects along the way We were supposed to turn left as soon as we saw a round-shaped pond; we had to turn right three more times before we could see a blue wall surrounding a house on the left; and we would then need to drive past vegetable farms until the main road appeared in front of us … (Fieldnotes, December, 2014) Starting with the Philippines while reaching out to Southeast Asia The colleague participants explained why MU and MUM identified the Philippines as their best ASEAN strategic long-term partner 6 L.-H PHAN The Philippines has it all: English (American-English) and American-like HE The availability of English, particularly American-English, and American-like HE in the Philippines were described as the Philippines’s comparative advantages in the ASEAN region The colleague participants also considered American-English and American-like HE as a desirable combination This combination would be attractive to their own students in Vietnam, students from the Philippines, and other students in ASEAN countries that are similar in terms of economic development such as Laos, Indonesia, and Cambodia These places have been Mountain’s recruitment targets These participants, hence, regarded English and American-like HE to be central to Mountain’s internationalization agendas, which would involve forming an English-speaking environment in Mountain, promoting Mountain as a whole to an international audience, and creating opportunities for local students and staff to be internationally exposed The association of the Philippines with American-English and American HE was consistent in my interviews Some colleagues described this US connection as key to attracting many students from Korea and Japan to the Philippines (see Ortiga, this issue) Therefore, it would be ‘highly beneficial’ and ‘strategic’ for Mountain to be indirectly linked to that connection by building strong relationships with institutions in the Philippines • The Philippines has English and these days English is the weapon When I visited it, I saw many Japanese and Koreans learning English at language centres there That gave me an idea and pushed me to come up with plans to create something similar at our university If you have teachers and students from the Philippines you can attract many students (Colleague 1) • The Philippines is close to America in many ways such as their English Yeah, they speak American-English, their universities and people are familiar with US education and so they have a lot that we can learn from And our university and students need to be exposed to English as much as possible Not everyone can go overseas, but everyone can learn English from home, particularly if we bring students from the Philippines here (Colleague 4) • Our students benefit from having international students on campus You know that most of our students here come from the countryside or rural areas, and so interacting with foreigners, any foreigners, would be great for them Students from the Philippines are good at English and so they can teach our own students English and inspire them to learn (Colleague 6) English is central to internationalization, but not all Englishes are equally desirable (Tupas, 2015) That the Philippines had a colonial connection with the US ironically puts it in an advantageous position As I have argued in my earlier work, colonial ties with Britain and the US tend to be celebrated, commercialized, and exploited in various aspects and domains of internationalization (Phan, 2017) These very ties have continued to set countries and institutions apart In today’s growing commodification of HE, they have become sought after ‘goods’, as this article further shows Ortiga (this issue) also discusses the commerciality of coloniality in the IHE of the Philippines Internationalization, oddly, has turned colonial ties into desirable symbols and an exploitative space that almost every agent can benefit from varying degrees, as elaborated below We work with the Philippines (and other ASEAN countries) via ‘the US’ because we are all attracted to this shared idea of US and Western education DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION MU as a whole has participated in the Vietnamese government’s Advanced Program initiative launched in 2005 to boost Vietnamese universities’ capacities in teaching, research, and international integration Under this initiative, Vietnamese universities have been assisted by American universities to create English-medium programs using so-called American modern methodologies, curricula, and instructional practices MUM, specifically, has been paired up with Sunshine University (pseudonym) in the US to develop its English-medium Advanced Program Academics from MUM have received some training from Sunshine regarding EMI course deliveries, but several participants reported the training was rather limited However, they saw the Advanced Program as a catalyst for transforming their university and its internationalization trajectory Recognizing Mountain students’ rather low English proficiencies and its lack of academics who could deliver content courses in English, MUM had to think strategically regarding sustaining this program once the funding for the initiative ended In this very context, the Philippines came into the picture While seeing partnerships with the Philippines as facilitating its internationalization agendas and enhancing its domestic competitiveness, MUM also positions its tie with Sunshine as a selling point to attract Filipino institutions and to set the tone for its IHE MUM had first traveled to the Philippines (and later to Indonesia and Laos) to promote its Advanced Program and highlighted the Sunshine tie as being its most tempting element, summarized as follows: Come to Vietnam to study Sunshine University curriculum and be exposed to international opportunities while paying small fees or competing for scholarship awards Both MU and MUM have employed Filipino staff to help with activities required English including teaching in international programs, proofreading paperwork and documents, advising students, curriculum development, and facilitating international relation activities Filipino/a staff has also served as recruitment agents for Mountain and have helped solidify partnerships with institutions back home Informed by its IHE strategies with the Philippines, MUM has also formed partnerships with Indonesian institutions and made efforts to attract fee-paying international students from Indonesia and Laos It has invited academics from Indonesia to Mountain, for example, to teach in English a portion of its Sunshine curriculum, and then encouraged these academics to promote its Advanced Program and the Sunshine connection to students in Indonesia In addition to the above strategy, MUM has also developed English-medium exchange programs with ASEAN institutions The MUM–Sunshine tie has proved to work in MUM’s favor The presence of ASEAN students in these exchange programs is another advantage MUM is now drawing on to further enhance its image and internationalization agendas The Philippines are so similar to Vietnam Colleagues in Mountain referred to MUM’s ASEAN-oriented approaches as being vital to their IHE It, hence, identified institutions in the Philippines that share this sentiment The participants elaborated on their perceived similarities between Vietnam and the Philippines, between the nature of MU in general and that of many universities in the Philippines, and between people in the two countries 8 L.-H PHAN • There are so many universities in the Philippines, and many of them are also regional like our university They are also interested in internationalization and in developing partnership with universities in the ASEAN region They seem to like Vietnam, maybe because we are more similar to them than other countries (Colleague 5) • Regarding economic development, the Philippines is similar to or even behind Vietnam, so it is not arrogant and can look up to Vietnam as a good model Moreover, our international programs are in English and use American-based curricula, something that students in the Philippines are attracted to (Colleague 1) • ASEAN countries are encouraged to work together, but we know where we are and we know it is very difficult to have students from Singapore and Malaysia come to us because their education systems are much more advanced They have so many good foreign universities there already But the Philippines is different If we have students from the Philippines here we can also attract students from Laos, Cambodia, rural Thailand, and rural Indonesia These countries and places are still poor and so the living standard in Vietnam is reasonable for their students We shake hands with those who want to the same with us (Colleague 2) • Our university is located in a rural agricultural area Our strengths are agriculture, forestry, and climate change As a developing country with a high percentage of people doing agriculture the Philippines needs to develop its workforce in all these areas Given these similarities and needs, we want to introduce our international programs to students there Our Philippine colleagues have been helping us promote and recruit These colleagues are very helpful and so similar to Vietnamese people (Colleague 3) As seen in these interview excerpts, a perceived power hierarchy among ASEAN countries appeared to be a factor influencing Mountain’s and MUM’s internationalization strategies These Mountain colleagues were interested in partnerships in which they could maintain a good bargaining position and play a significant part in the development of joint activities They did not see collaborations with universities in Singapore and Malaysia as being realistic, compatible, and fruitful When it comes to Thailand and Indonesia, a colleague specifically mentioned ‘rural Thailand’ and ‘rural Indonesia’ as being on par with Mountain and places where Mountain could recruit students and establish relationships These Mountain colleagues appeared to be realistic and aware of their own university’s position as well as its own strength and distinctive identity as a regional university locating in a rural agricultural area They highlighted its emphasis on climate change, agriculture and forestry, the very areas that the Philippines and rural areas in Southeast Asia can relate to Therefore, they saw investment in these areas as a stepping stone in their overall IHE Via partnerships with the Philippines we can recruit students and internationalize our campus The participants also explained in what ways reaching out to ASEAN institutions had been an effective strategy to enhance Mountain’s and MUM’s domestic competitiveness and status They rationalized how focusing on the Philippines as a strategic partner could enable them to reach out to other ASEAN countries • While other institutions are busy competing among themselves for domestic students, we think bigger Why not look out to other Asian countries for students, and why limit our capacity locally? This outlook is shared among many of us here and we want to put it in practice ASEAN is our primary focus, while our core partnership is with the Philippines (Colleague 2) DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION • We focus on the Philippines but we are now expanding to other countries like Indonesia and Laos We have already had international students from all these countries I can say that we’re quite ahead of most universities in Vietnam regarding recruiting fee-paying degree-seeking students from ASEAN Our own students have been motivated by this international aspect (Colleague 5) • When I did my postgraduate study overseas I had ASEAN classmates, and we have recently reconnected and developed collaborations to promote our institutions and to continue our work on rural development across the region This way our own campus gets enriched and internationalized while things are affordable You know, we’re not like universities in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City with abundant resources and great locations, but we have our unique characteristics too Working with ASEAN institutions helps us focus on our uniqueness Institutions in the Philippines are more ready to work with us in our English-medium programs via which we attract ASEAN students (Colleague 7) The case of MUM is a good example of employing internationalization for both collaboration and competition purposes: seeking collaborations with ASEAN institutions to enhance its domestic competitiveness, seeking collaborations with the Philippines to set apart its advantages regarding English from other institutions in non-English-speaking countries such as Indonesia and Laos Again, the package combining English, internationalization, international students, and English-medium programs is no longer anyone’s sole weapon This global south regional university in a rural agricultural area of Vietnam has been proactive in engaging with this package So, all in all, English, the association of English with the Philippines and America, the attractiveness of US-informed curricula, many similarities between Vietnam and the Philippines, the perceived hierarchy among countries and institutions in ASEAN, and the need to push Vietnamese students to learn English are the main reasons driving Mountain’s and MUM’s strategies to place the Philippines at the heart of their internationalization visions Such strategies, unfortunately, were often intepreted as commercialization and low-end internationalization by the media and by governmental authorities in Vietnam, as seen in the accounts I presented earlier They have, therefore, received little recognition International students pursuing American-informed education in a regional Vietnamese university in a mountainous area Come to Vietnam to study Sunshine University curriculum and be exposed to international opportunities while paying small fees or competing for scholarship awards This recruitment motto has appeared to work well for MUM According to the focus-group discussions I had with 11 international students from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Laos, they had been very enthusiastic about the link to Sunshine University They come from poor to average background families The four Filipino students had been in Mountain for nearly two years – the longest, compared to the three students from Laos and the five students from Indonesia The Indonesian students had just arrived for several weeks when I met them Only the four Filipino students and one student from Laos were able to communicate in English comfortably, while the other two Laotian students were not ready for extended conversations in English and all the Indonesian students were still taking English courses before they could start the main program Out of the five Indonesian students, 10 L.-H PHAN one could speak some English, and thus was able to help involve the rest of the group in the conversation with me and with one another I had to rely on the six students with higher English proficiencies to translate and interpret our conversations with the rest Two Filipino students volunteered to facilitate my conversations with the students from Laos and Indonesia All the participants reported they had chosen MUM largely because of the Sunshine University curriculum and the prospect of having something related to this American university for a better future They revealed they had known little about Vietnam and had never heard of MU when they were introduced to the idea of going there to study The only information standing out was Sunshine University They acknowledged they did not know anything specific about Sunshine University but they were assured by and attracted to the advertised MUM’s association with an American university Together with MUM’s link to Sunshine, these students also referred to MUM’s low tuition fees and scholarship opportunities as important factors influencing their pursuit of education in Mountain The Indonesian students graduated from the same high school where they first learnt about MUM and its English-medium Advanced Program Their Indonesian teacher promoted this program to them They decided to come to Mountain together • We didn’t know anything about Mountain University or MUM I know Vietnam but never thought of going to Vietnam to study But when my teacher advertised MUM and their Sunshine University curriculum in my high school, I liked it I didn’t know anything about Sunshine University either, but it is an American university and so I thought it should be good The program is not expensive and my family can afford it, so I came here Everyone in our group from Indonesia is the same, I think (An Indonesia student) • I never heard of Mountain University or MUM Nobody in my area knows anything about them either I hear about Vietnam but it’s only the name of the country that I know Nothing more than the name But when this Filipino teacher told us about Mountain offering Sunshine University curriculum in their programs, I was attracted to the idea So it wasn’t MUM or Vietnam that influenced my choice, it was the Sunshine University connection (A Filipino student) • I came here with the help of my university in the Philippines I agreed to come here because of what they’ve promised us [Sunshine University curriculum and English-medium education], I don’t need to pay for tuition fees and they’ll help me find scholarships to support my living and travel expenses Considering the living status of my family, we’re very poor, I didn’t hesitate to take the opportunity I actually have finished one year studying BS in Secondary Education before I was sent here And I believe that gave me confidence to enjoy part time teaching jobs here in Mountain (A Filipino student) • I never thought of going to study in a Vietnamese university, but when I heard about this program through some older Lao students who had graduated from Mountain University, I wanted to explore the opportunity I asked about it and thought it would be a good way to study the American curriculum and could save money by studying in Vietnam (A Laotian student) The data show how the students’ desires for international education had been generated by the idea of the West/America and by the specific link to Sunshine University, an American university Sunshine served as the safeguard of quality, future, and perhaps a necessity for the participants’ international education journeys to begin The desire for DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION 11 international education among many students, as I have argued elsewhere (Chowdhury & Phan, 2014; Phan, 2017) may first be driven by their perceptions of the idealized West, discourses of marketization, and the promotion of Western education as the optimal investment for future gain However, as they proceed in the process, their actual exposures to the surroundings and their evaluation of the day-to-day experiences could alter their prior knowledge/assumptions and offer them new insights to guide them through their education journeys The idea of highly affordable EMI American education offered in a very affordable neighboring country seemed perfect for the participants’ specific circumstances This combination, importantly, has enabled unexpected transformations concerning questions of empowerment, identity formation, and community engagement, as seen below in the case of Silvia (pseudonym), a Filipino student studying at MUM The case of Silvia discussed in this article is an extension of what has presented in a chapter of Phan (2017) Silvia: mountain, English, desires, and transformations This section reports Silvia’s educational experiences in Mountain and discusses how IHE could open up opportunities for students like Silvia, to rise to the top Those students, though not typical, are rising in number as aspirations for IHE are growing with new players marketing their EMI programs to students from rural, semi-rural villages in global south Asia Silvia comes from the poorest background in her cohort She is also the oldest student in her entire course She started her HE in her mid-20s after years of working in the Philippines to help her family make ends meet To her ‘ultimate advantage’ as she saw it, she enjoyed the highest English proficiency of all the students taking the Sunshine curriculum She, hence, became her teachers’ and friends’ ‘first reliable source of support’ when English was involved She also tutored others and earned extra incomes to send home I first met Silvia during my visit to MUM in 2014 Silvia humbly referred to herself as ‘a fat girl coming from a small town in the Philippines to Vietnam a developing country to see her dreams come true and to dream bigger dreams’ I could feel the energy, aspirations and determination to strive for something significant in this student After my visit, our email exchanges have continued to this day Silvia and her peers gradually grew an interest in environmental issues and sustainability in the ASEAN region, following their exposure to Mountain and MUM Silvia revealed her dreams to participate in and develop projects contributing to environment protection and educating others about sustainability Silvia was explicit about her ‘never-give-up’ principle, regardless of how many times she had been rejected when applying for jobs or for programs in various places She said she kept trying and looking at the bigger picture and at what she could to improve herself and to make an impact on those around her Silvia acknowledged Vietnam being her only opportunity for study abroad It was not a matter of choice, but of opportunity in every way, as she wrote in her emails to me Vietnam is my first outside country, and it is my dream to go to many countries, travel the world The scholarship offer from MUM (partnered with Sunshine University) is the only opportunity in my university in Philippines before I come here And for small people like us, this is like a life changing opportunity, because if not for the scholarship, my family cannot send me here Another reason why I was so excited to go here and study is because before this opportunity, I have been rejected many times in the Philippines when I apply to many recruitment 12 L.-H PHAN agencies when I apply to work abroad I don’t know why, I have stated all the work experiences and achievements I got, but maybe those were not yet enough, so when I had the chance to come here, I immediately grab this very chance We know that when we finished our bachelor degree in a foreign country (plus all the best efforts we are doing to contribute changes and excellence), we know that we already have edge amongst the others, this adds confidence to us and proud Also when we come here to Vietnam, we are already the third batch of students to come here from my university in the Philippines, we know them from our professors, that the program is really good and offers wonderful opportunities (Emails) English is a must, but I have been transformed by the knowledge, expertise, and energy from Mountain and MUM Describing her experiences with EMI at MUM, Silvia recalled frequent occasions when teachers could not clearly deliver the content knowledge in English and thus had to rely on students like her to help out She also mediated interactions between teachers and other students when English was required I wondered if Silvia had learnt anything when the teaching and learning seemed limited due to almost everyone’s very modest levels of English knowledge While it is tempting to interpret the educational experiences Silvia and her peers received in Mountain as being below middling, I was amazed by how respectful, appreciative, and enthusiastic Silvia was towards her program, teachers, and the educational journey She acknowledged although some teachers may not speak English as comfortably as she could, they were knowledgeable about the subject matters, evident in their written notes given to the students More importantly, they did not hide their weaknesses but invited students like her to co-deliver the teaching Silvia appreciated this experience and saw it as empowering her own learning Even more powerful was how Silvia turned the seemingly mediocre experience into her ultimate advantage by pushing herself to study all the notes on the PowerPoint slides given by teachers prior to each class She became proactive in trying to figure out concepts, theories, and methodologies in advance so as to facilitate class discussions and to help her teachers and classmates whenever needed Silvia commented on the dynamic research environment she observed at MUM She saw her teachers constantly involved in projects on sustainability, green tourism, and climate change She met Vietnamese students who received scholarships to study overseas She said everyone she met was ‘motivated to MA and PhD’ She was driven by this positive environment She reported her enjoyment interacting with international visitors on campus She regarded MUM highly for inviting international professors and researchers from Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, and other countries to teach in the Advanced Program She sent me photos taken with some of those visitors She confessed she would never have experienced this ‘intellectually stimulating’ and ‘energetic international educational environment’ had she remained in her hometown in the Philippines Growing passion for giving back and community engagement work Silvia expressed strong determination to give back to the community in Mountain and to her home community in the Philippines Silvia’s passion for sustainability studies grew into DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION 13 her expertise development and knowledge accumulation about poverty reduction, global warming and environment protection through her course and her participation in research projects She ‘enjoyed sharing and spreading knowledge to as many people as possible’ She mentioned she had been inspired by the idea of introducing sustainable tourism to poor communities in her hometown Above all, Silvia was impressed by MUM’s intensive involvement in community-building work and wanted to bring this model back home She said she admired her professors in Mountain for their dedication to rural development and sustainability, and expressed that her country should learn from this vision and dedication Silvia has graduated and is pursuing her bigger dreams Silvia received the Award for Academic Excellence from her University, because of her outstanding academic performance She has graduated with First Class Honors, and has already applied for scholarships to her Master’s in other countries While the international education that Silvia and her classmates experienced may look mediocre, marginal, and commercial and could make them uncompetitive, it could also enable meaningful involving transformations Her words are vivid in my mind: Vietnam and Mountain have transformed me Now I know I can dream and live my dreams Concluding thoughts Much of the existing literature surveyed earlier often blames and projects the West and Western institutions for imposing their ideas on Asia’s IHE and for setting the rule of the internationalization game Such accusations have been expressed so often that they have become normalized However, the case of MUM counters this taken-for-granted discourse MUM has exercised its own will and developed strategies based on its perceptions of the desirability of the idea of ‘the West’, in this case the US, and of the entities that are related to the US, in this case the Philippines MUM has also engaged with its aspirations for IHE that other global south populations share One could see MUM as exploiting such aspirations at the expense of others’ disadvantages (Robertson & Komljenovic, 2016) However, the data show more nuances MUM’s strategies to internationalize via ‘Sunshine University’ and ‘the Philippines’, on the one hand, further consolidate my argument elsewhere that the idea of ‘the West’, whether directly or indirectly relevant and related, is alive and kicking in many Asian institutions’ internationalization agendas (Phan, 2017) Through its recruitment practices, MUM has proactively reinforced shared perceptions of Western education superiority While being strategic, practical, or even ‘genuine’, MUM has given ‘the West’ and/or ‘the US’ a privilege without it asking for What is more, MUM’s partnerships with the Philippines have been driven by shared desires for the idea of ‘the West’ reified in MUM’s link to Sunshine University via the curriculum delivered in Mountain mostly by non-Sunshine University professors The power of the idea of the West continues to be strengthened and kept intact by these very self-generated desires This phenomenon needs more scholarly attention On the other hand, as these desires are expressed and reified, new practices and transformations emerge MUM’s participation in the promotion of Western education 14 L.-H PHAN superiority, hence, needs to be understood in complex terms rather than uniformly from a perspective of blaming and shaming The participants, while employing the idea of the West and of Western superiority to recruit students, have also appeared to be concerned about improving the teaching and learning experiences at Mountain and at MUM via their engagement with the Sunshine curriculum and place-based projects, as evident in the data collected with Silvia She repeatedly reported her participation in and knowledge about projects on sustainability, green tourism, and community building in response to global warming that academics at MUM and guest professors invited to MUM introduced in class and in extra curricular activities One can also see MUM and its multiple identifications with and references to other ASEAN countries, the Philippines in particular, as an example of an emerging global south player (Robertson & Komljenovic, 2016) defining its own rule, cultivating new standards, identifying new practices, and pursuing seemingly sustainable aspirations for IHE MUM has, indeed, reached the taken-for-granted ‘unreachable’ global south populations Paying close attention to the above complex, multidimensional, and interactive processes, I argue, would enable one to better understand how, where and by whom learning takes place, new knowledge gets produced, and unexpected transformations from a marginal space emerge This subtle spot often gets unnoticed and under-acknowledged largely because of overt scholarly enthusiasms to only see HE putting its stakeholders at risk and in precarious situations as it absorbs neocolonial and neoliberal ideals This argument also echoes Clifford and Montgomery’s (2014) emphasis on transformative learning enabled by IHE regardless of problems underlying IHE In actuality, academics and students operating in that risky space like Silvia and her teachers often find ways to leverage their conditions and optimize their seemingly ‘less favorable’ resources and connections Under the overarching English and IHE umbrella, they all have to find their own comparative advantages Pockets of possibilities are somewhat organically born out of such precarious marginality For Silvia, her initial attraction to the Sunshine University connection offered via MUM quickly gave way to her cultivation of an identity unthought-of of before, the identity of an international student whose English was appreciated and considered to be desirable and a model for other students Silvia found herself to be a valuable member in this rural agricultural Mountain, leading to her generation of new desires to give back to her community Her education and experiences at MUM as a starting point for her identity transformations have led to other evolving possibilities and adjusted desires Silvia’s work-in-progress identity formation, indeed, points to varied understandings of desires (Nonaka, in press; Collins et al., 2014; Motha & Lin, 2014) Yet, the link between ‘precarious’ space, desires, and ‘transformative mediocrity’ (Phan, 2017) in IHE is never simplistic It raises questions of ethics and forces all IHE stakeholders to seriously examine their own actions Although growing in number and enjoying certain opportunities brought about by IHE, many new global south actors are also at higher risk of marginalization and selfexploitation At the same time, the multi-layered global south-global south interactions discussed in this article are key to new HE players’ aspirations and emerging importance, however notorious Interpreted as being genuine, practical, strategic, sensible, aware, calculating, self-exploitative, or manipulative in its IHE vision and practices, MUM’s case is more complex than a mere example of a global south entity being submissive to ‘the West’ DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION 15 and/or being defiant to Western imposition Extended conceptualizations of global south (Robertson & Komljenovic, 2016) open up unimaginable space for new forms of engagement with the ideas of the West, global south, and IHE This very space also displays and embeds varying power relations among global south countries and institutions, while also offering ways to work around those power relations A transformative space, nonetheless, does not always mean positive or one-sided, as this article shows It always invites critical examination of ethical questions and considerations Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author References Altbach, P G (2013) The international imperative in higher education Rotterdam: Sense Publisher Baas, M (2014) Victims or profiteers? 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Philippines (and other ASEAN countries) via ? ?the US’ because we are all attracted to this shared idea of US and Western education DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION MU as a