Refugee Education Australia Research Seminar Series

Rethinking care in higher education: The multilingual student experience

Join us to hear from Dr Agi Bodis (Macquarie University, Aus), Apeshka Gandhi (University of Birmingham, UK) and Ji Chen (Brandeis University, US)

What happens when international higher education is built on monolingual norms, but classrooms and student cohorts are far from linguistically homogenous? Is English language proficiency really a neutral term in education or is it entangled with race, belonging and legitimacy?

The presenters share findings from three parallel projects in Australia, the UK and the US based on 445 survey responses and 45 interviews completed by multilingual student research teams. Examining multilingual students’ linguistic experiences, they discuss siloed support structures, racialized experiences and neoliberal marketing strategies contributing to discrimination.

Using institutional care as a lens, the presenters argue for a move away from deficit views of multilingual students towards a co-created dialogic approach to care. One that validates and builds on multilingual identities by recognising language and multilingualism as central to learning, participation and belonging.

You can find the chapter this presentation is based on here:

Bodis, A., Swigart, L., Chen, J., Gandhi, A., Le, N., Vien, V., & McAuliffe, K. (2026). Internationalization without multilingualism: the question of institutional care at Anglophone universities. In L. Veliz, P. Meighan, W. Shah, & X. Gao (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Race and Equity in Applied Linguistics (pp. 72–85). Routledge.

About the researchers

Dr Agnes Bodis, Macquarie University, Australia

Agnes Bodis is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Macquarie University, Sydney. Her research focuses on multilingualism and linguistic inclusivity in internationalized higher education, inclusive curriculum design and plurilingual pedagogical practices. She is a member of the Language on the Moveresearch team and writes blogs and hosts podcasts on these topics.

Ms Apeksha Gandhi, University of Birmingham, UK

Apeksha Gandhi is a Teaching Fellow in Law at Aston University and a PhD student at the University of Birmingham. She is interested in arts-based pedagogy, and her PhD research explores the relationship between colonialism, identity-formation and women's agency.

Ms Ji Chen, Brandeis University, US

Ji Chen is a higher education professional whose work focuses on intercultural competency and student development. As a multilingual student herself, Ji is passionate in advocating for linguistic diversity. She recently received her MA in International Higher Education from Boston College.

Refugee Education Australia Research Seminar: Rethinking care in higher education: The multilingual student experience

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