Kavita Pandit is a profes-sor of Geography from University of Georgia, Athens, USA. She delivered the convocation lecture at Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Otto/Ijanikin last week on The Internalisation of Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges. In this interview with journalists, she gave suggestions on how governments can encourage their nationals in diaspora to contribute directly or indirectly to the home front among several issues. Excerpts.

By DAYO ADESULU

WHAT should local institutions look out for before partnering with international institutions?
I think for any university in Nigeria wanting to partner institutions abroad, the very first thing is to be clear on the need for such partnership. I think many universities are just deciding that ‘okay let us partner with that university; let us sign an MoU’; but I think that is wrong. You have to begin by having a clear idea of what you want.

A key factor which must be emphasized is equality between the two institutions; the collaboration is not going to work if one is superior to the other. For instance, in the University of Georgia, we teach some African languages. It is in our interest to have specialists in those languages. So what I’m saying generally is that any institution in Africa should look out for what is good for us, and the partnership must not be lopsided.

However, there are rampant cases of Nigerian students being maligned or maltreated either by students of their host institutions or worse still, hostcountries.

I wished in some way it is not only about campuses but the society at large. Around the world, when economic condition declines, then you look for scapegoats. ‘Oh these people are taking away our jobs,’ they are taking away our culture.’ I think this is to some extent a global phenomenon. I also think sometimes the phenomenon comes out of lack of education. It is people who sometimes don’t have that respect. They are scared, they think you are different from them; and then there is an attack.

Lasting solution
Again, internationalisation is to make people behave as if they have a lot in common. Though there is need for government to punish those who perpetrate these crimes; what I think is the lasting solution is for us as educators to push these people to realising that they have a lot in common than their differences.

What has been your experience in terms of your interactions with African students?
Many of my students, when they get admitted into the University of Georgia, although they are very intelligent in terms of scores and exams; but they have not travelled worldwide. Some of them have not even travelled round the United States.

They have seen some movies about India or China and so have a very limited vision of people’s countries. Sometimes I would call it stereotypes. When I came, some of them asked me; ‘Did you grow up with snakes and tigers? And I tell them I grew up in a big metropolitan city. Sometimes I tell them I know more about the worldthan they do.

It shows how limited their knowledge is; and that is the point at which I believe, real learning starts. So it gave me the challenge like, maybe I should go (back to Nigeria) and learn more maybe when next I am talking to an African student, I might ask them different questions.

How would you rate Nigerian scholars overseas?
Nigerian is a great country and one of her major resources is the people. Nigerian students come to the US, say University of Georgia where I teach for example, they are such good materials and you can easily tell the preparations is outstanding. I can say some of our best faculty is Nigerian-born. The reputation is very high.

We have a Nigerian from AOCOED who is now working at the Institute of African Studies at the university. We also have another Nigerian who was formerly a director of African Studies and very committed.

How many years have you been in America?
This is my 25th year in America.

How often does the Indian government relate with their nationals?
Unfortunately, the Indian government has not been very good at that. Most of the connections that happened were by the Diaspora itself. In fact, what is really interesting to see is lots of revolt migration happening; of Indians who have been successful in the west being back in India. It is not because of government programme.

Lots of Indians of my age are returning because their parents are getting older, and want to be with them. Some of the parents say they don’t want their children growing up in a material-seeking environment, but to learn Indian values. Sometimes, government can do things; but sometimes it happens through social norms.

What have you given back to your home country?
After I finished my Master’s degree from Ohio State University, I decided to go back to contribute my own quota to my home country. If you look at my resume, there was a one year I went to India and I was working in a non-profit agency and that was in rural India, in the Northern Mountains. Economic development, people working in UNICEF-funding project and all that, and I said, ‘this is the project I want to do’.

But along the line, something funny happened: I found out that by fate, I was not contributing as much as I ought. I just realised something was not fitting.

So I realised at that time that my contributions may have to be different for my home country than I’d thought it would be as in working in rural India. So I decided that instead of me giving back directly, I would like to give back by educating students about India in the West, by talking about the West and different cultures around the world and by helping them clear these stereotypes.

Western students often have very limited vision or knowledge about foreign countries.  Overall, my own vision is to contribute to my home country and developing countries as a whole through education in the West.

How can national identity be defined through international engagement considering cultural imperialism?
Absolutely!  The generally accepted idea is that when you go abroad, you lose your culture, become westernised and forget your root. I can give you my example and examples of others. It is very true that my English speaking is fluent and I learnt some American accent; but I would say I learnt more about my home country after I went  abroad than I knew when I was growing up.