Paper long abstract:

Most international universities in Central Asia have minimum entrance requirements to master before students are allowed into specialized degree courses, programs and classes. The entrance standards are set by international partners, and frequently require fluency in either English or another global language. In addition, more elite international universities require may a "foundation" course which allegedly increases capacity of local students to master "critical thinking;" how to make informed study choices; and how to navigate within a foreign credit hour system. Andrey Khojeev and Alan DeYoung studied how a gateway curricular foundations course - (I-Citizen) - is being used at the first non-Russian international branch campus in Uzbekistan where English is the medium of instruction: Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). They detail how a Western global and international citizenship education course I-Citizen - is infused into the degree programs of WIUT and is rhetorically reflected in the universities' other formal and informal curricula. Their paper also attempts to evaluate if and how teachers use the module, and perceptions of the relevance of the module for later degree studies: How does I-Citizen achieve or fall short of university claims related to its utility in the university learning process?. Their research is based partly upon surveys and interviews of students and teachers; and explores how the concept itself was instituted and has evolved over the past twenty years at WIUT. They specifically investigate how students and teachers do or do not understand if and how the knowledge, skills and values espoused in the I-Citizen program module enable them to perform better as students and job seekers upon graduation. The implications of this possible internationalized learning within the more than 20 IBCs in Uzbekistan, may be broader and deeper than what was originally foreseen.