‘All the Random Students [like us]’: The Global University and its Others
This study examines the experiences of non‑Western European (NWE) students, from post‑socialist countries, enrolled in the International Studies in Education Programme (ISEP) at the University of Iceland. Drawing on critical internationalisation studies and postcolonial theory, it analyses how global white supremacy, racial triangulation, and neoliberal precarity shape these students’ identities and senses of belonging within an ostensibly egalitarian academic setting. Informed by Edward Said’s Orientalism, Johann Herder’s romantic nationalism, and the notion of Euro‑Orientalism, the
study conceptualises NWE students as ‘exotic insiders’, who must negotiate symbolic whiteness and conditional inclusion. The methodology combines 5.5 hours of semi‑structured interviews (126 transcript pages) with the author’s reflexive narrative. The findings expose a dissonance between Icelandic ideals of multiculturalism and students’ lived realities, revealing the limitations of incremental reform and the need for transformative, decolonial interventions. In doing so, the study advances
critical debates on pedagogy, coloniality, and systemic inequities in Nordic higher education.
study conceptualises NWE students as ‘exotic insiders’, who must negotiate symbolic whiteness and conditional inclusion. The methodology combines 5.5 hours of semi‑structured interviews (126 transcript pages) with the author’s reflexive narrative. The findings expose a dissonance between Icelandic ideals of multiculturalism and students’ lived realities, revealing the limitations of incremental reform and the need for transformative, decolonial interventions. In doing so, the study advances
critical debates on pedagogy, coloniality, and systemic inequities in Nordic higher education.
