DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION AND DECOLONISING INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION:INSIGHTS FROM THE 'CULTURES OF DECOLONISATION AT UCL'RESEARCH PROJECT

The focus of development education (DE) has historically been centred on awareness raising about the inequalities inherent in international development cooperation, as well as the development efforts facilitated by third sector actors. One of the key sites for such development cooperation is higher education, where universities engage in teaching and research partnerships. However, such partnerships, particularly between Western universities and those based in the global South are known to bear colonial dimensions as they are often characterised by power imbalances and extractive modes of engagement. The author draws from an internal review project undertaken at University College London (UCL) to underscore the significance of decolonising international partnerships in higher education within the framework of equality and mutuality. The author observes that, while there are many innovations to decolonise teaching and research in universities in the UK, these are mostly the initiative of individual academics, without any structural efforts to embed decolonisation in an institutional ethos. Given the Freirean roots of DE and its affinity to post-coloniality, the author sees a role for the field in drawing attention to the coloniality in academic partnerships in higher education and calling for the legitimation of decolonisation in the policy and practice of the sector.