Decolonising the understanding in an MoU: A study of Kathmandu University's Transnational university partnerships through the lens of the MoU

Policy and literature dictate that relationships between actors of education for development in the global south and north are enacted in ideal and specific ways. This includes, but is not limited to, global and national policy and process development, institutional partnership and capacity development, and research. However the realities are often very different and these ideal engagements are performative at best, as practitioners on both sides of the global divide act and collude to protect and conceal the established and familiar mechanisms of a status quo. These actions are motivated by multiple layers of causal influence, situated in complex cultural, historical and social environments on both sides.
This PhD uses a critical realist lens to explore three cases of experience and assess them against the assertion that the realities of development practice are not sufficiently understood or represented in literature, and the recommendations of research are not properly recognised or enacted in practice.