THESIS: Trends in Higher Education Systems in International Spheres THESIS Podcast

To start off this season focusing on First Generation or First in Family Students, we sit down today with La'Tonya Rease Miles. LT has focused on the first generation student experience in the United States both as a researcher and as a practitioner, and advises universities around the United States on supporting first generation students. She is currently the Director of University Partnerships at Re-Up Education. In this episode we discuss the definition of "first generation student" and mention a couple other definitions used around the world, and LT highlights the trends in the research and practices around this group of students. 



Empowering First Generation College Students (Facebook Group)

NASPA Center for First-Generation Student Success: Annotated Bibliography

First Gen & Juice (Instagram profile)

Campus Service Workers Supporting First-Generation Students (Book edited by Georgina Guzmán, La’Tonya Rease Miles and Stephanie Youngblood)



How to Get in Contact: 

Twitter: @drltmiles

La’Tonya Rease Miles (Website)

La’Tonya “LT” Rease Miles (LinkedIn profile)

The THESIS team is excited to announce that our next season will premier on June 2nd, 2023, covering the topic of first-generation, or first-in-family, students!
We'll be speaking with researchers and practitioners about the history and context surrounding the first-generation student experience, different definitions used, the support networks of these students, the challenges they face and how they overcome these challenges, as well as the implications of policy focused on first-generation students.
This season is packed with fantastic guests from the USA, Germany, China, Chile, Australia and more. We can't wait to share these conversations with you!

THESIS Interludes are episodes occurring in between seasons where we feature students in the process of developing their research projects in the field of higher education. Guests are asked what the research topic is, why they chose it, which methods they are using, what challenges they have faced, and what they have learned thus far in the process of their projects. 

The podcast team is starting with featuring our very own masters theses. 

Today's episode features Kelly Davis, who is conducting a case study on the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence for Climate and Development (ARUA-CD) to understand its organizational structure and how that structure might support the researchers involved in having impact with their climate and development research. The ARUA-CD is a collaborative effort between institutes at the University of Nairobi, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Ghana.

If you’d like to support our guest today in their research efforts, send us an email stating how you think you can help at thesishigheredpodcast@gmail.com.

Today’s THESIS episode does not take position on the issues discussed on the podcast. Opinions expressed on this episode are solely those of the guests or hosts. If you liked what you listened to today, please follow the podcast and feel free to leave us a rating or a comment.

This podcast is produced and edited by Ekaterina Kurinskaia, Ayla Rubenstein, Tracy Waldman, Kelly Davis, and Maria Angeles Hidalgo. Original music is produced by Petter Strom.

THESIS Interludes are episodes occurring in between seasons where we feature students in the process of developing their research projects in the field of higher education. Guests are asked what the research topic is, why they chose it, which methods they are using, what challenges they have faced, and what they have learned thus far in the process of their projects. 

The podcast team is starting with featuring our very own masters theses. 

This week features Tracy Waldman, who is focusing her thesis on exploring the reasons why international students from outside of the European Union / European Economic Area chose masters programs in Norway during after the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’d like to support our guest today in their research efforts, send us an email stating how you think you can help at thesishigheredpodcast@gmail.com.

Today’s THESIS episode does not take position on the issues discussed on the podcast. Opinions expressed on this episode are solely those of the guests or hosts. If you liked what you listened to today, please follow the podcast and feel free to leave us a rating or a comment.

This podcast is produced and edited by Ekaterina Kurinskaia, Ayla Rubenstein, Tracy Waldman, Kelly Davis, and Maria Angeles Hidalgo. Original music is produced by Petter Strom.

THESIS Interludes are episodes occurring in between seasons where we feature students in the process of developing their research projects in the field of higher education. Guests are asked what the research topic is, why they chose it, which methods they are using, what challenges they have faced, and what they have learned thus far in the process of their projects. 

The podcast team is starting with featuring our very own masters theses. 



This week features Ayla Rubenstein, who will share with us some of the details about her thesis focusing on language policy in Norwegian higher education and how policies requiring international academics to “master” the Norwegian language are put into practice.

If you’d like to support our guest today in their research efforts, send us an email stating how you think you can help at thesishigheredpodcast@gmail.com.

Today’s THESIS episode does not take position on the issues discussed on the podcast. Opinions expressed on this episode are solely those of the guests or hosts. If you liked what you listened to today, please follow the podcast and feel free to leave us a rating or a comment.

This podcast is produced and edited by Ekaterina Kurinskaia, Ayla Rubenstein, Tracy Waldman, Kelly Davis, and Maria Angeles Hidalgo. Original music is produced by Petter Strom.

THESIS Interludes are episodes occurring in between seasons where we feature students in the process of developing their research projects in the field of higher education. Guests are asked what the research topic is, why they chose it, which methods they are using, what challenges they have faced, and what they have learned thus far in the process of their projects. 

The podcast team is starting with featuring our very own masters theses. 

This week features Ekaterina Kurinskaia, who will tell us about her thesis focusing on how Norwegian debate positions higher education institutions and academics when it comes to sanctioning higher education in Russia. 

If you’d like to support our guest today in their research efforts, send us an email stating how you think you can help at thesishigheredpodcast@gmail.com.

Today’s THESIS episode does not take position on the issues discussed on the podcast. Opinions expressed on this episode are solely those of the guests or hosts. If you liked what you listened to today, please follow the podcast and feel free to leave us a rating or a comment.

This podcast is produced and edited by Ekaterina Kurinskaia, Ayla Rubenstein, Tracy Waldman, Kelly Davis, and Maria Angeles Hidalgo. Original music is produced by Petter Strom.