While the influence of Laurence Veysey’s 1965 classic The Emergence of the American University on this book is unmistakable, its precise origins lie in my experience as an administrator and lecturer at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS), where I lived and worked from 2010–2014. As Director of Communications, I was responsible for framing the young institution to external audiences. Different audiences required slightly different points of emphasis. Yet there seemed to be one thing everyone wanted to know: “are you a real American university?” That question presupposed the existence of fake American universities. Indeed, AUIS was born in an era when fabricating American universities had become a global trend. Suppliers too often fell short of the mark of educational quality the label was meant to signal. Far from flattery, imitation had come to indicate the sincerest form of forgery. These interrogators, then, were right to ask about our authenticity. But nothing vexed me more. Of course, we were a real American university, I would tell them. But the wider circumstances of unrestrained diffusion of the model had presented the university with a serious legitimacy problem. AUIS was neither chartered nor accredited in the United States. Instead, I stressed alternative indicators of American bona fides: English as the medium of instruction, liberal arts curriculum, and American faculty. I also pointed to student-centered teaching methods, continuous assessment, a not-for-profit financial model, and citizen board of trustees. By and large, these features were convincing. But how did I know to highlight them? Institutional characteristics that I held up as distinctively American came to me seemingly by osmosis. How could I—a provincial twenty-something whose only experience with American education outside the United States was with my present employer—make credible claims about the nature of an American university abroad? In a way, this book is my attempt to answer that question.
Preface
In: The Emergence of the American University Abroad
Author:
Kyle A. Long
Kyle A. Long
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