Dr Welikala joined St. George’s, University of London in December 2017. She draws on many years of experience in teaching and researching in higher education. She has previously worked at the UCL Institute of Education, the University of Nottingham and King’s College London.

She holds a Master’s degree in Education an International Development from the Institute of Education, University of London. She was awarded her PhD by the Institute of Education, University of London.

Dr Welikala’s teaching is informed by post-humanistic and social constructivist views about knowledge-making and the narrative approach to perceiving the world. She has positioned her work to serve as a bridge between inquiry and practice and has developed a background in the area of internationalisation, interculturality in higher education. Anticoloniality, southern theory and radical cosmopolitanism offer insights to her research. Her work has informed strategic directions on internationalisation within institutional and international contexts.

She collaborates with higher education institutions and organizations nationally, internationally and globally, sharing her expertise in the area of international and intercultural higher education. She is currently:

an ordinary member of the executive committee of the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE)

an editorial board member of “Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education”

Dr Welikala’s research interests include internationalisation of higher education teaching- learning; interculturality and higher education, de-Centred knowledge systems and the storied nature of meaning making. She is currently engaged in research focused on coloniality in medicine and healthcare education.

She collaborates with the wider public and has been funded by national and international organisations, universities and networks for consultancy work and research on internationalisation and intercultural aspects of higher education.

Resent international consultancy work and collaborations

2017-2020: External research expert on designing educational development programmes,                            EQUiiP: Educational Quality at Universities for inclusive International Programme,                      Funded by Erasmus+ Project, European Union

2016: Consultant, ‘Global Dialogues’. The British Council, Delhi, India.

2016: Invited visit, Consultation on professional development. Shiv Nagar University, India.

2016: Invited visit, Consultation on professional development. Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

2016: Research proposal reviewer, The Programme Council for Fundamental Scientific Educational Research 

2012: Research collaboration on internationalization with St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India (jointly funded by the Higher Education Academy and the UK Council for International Student Affairs)

She actively involves in current higher education debates through her engagement with the media. She publishes articles on THE- Times Higher Education, The Guardian higher Education and University World News.

 Selected media articles

Karin Båge, Natalie Jellinek, Joanne Pagèze, Jennifer Valcke and Thushari Welikala. An international curriculum fit for Generation Greta. University World News

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2020030909364519

Welikala, T.C. Creating humane graduates for a liveable world. University World News

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190726145738975

 Welikala, T.C. Universities don’t understand how international students learn. The Guardian higher Education.

https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/jul/03/universities-dont-understand-how-international-students-learn

Welikala, T.C. Conflicting Stories. THE- Times Higher Education.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/conflicting-stories/402452.article

Selected publications

Welikala, T. (forthcoming) Beyond Interculturality: Reimagining Cultural Connections in the Contemporary University, London: Springer Nature.

Boehm, C., Adefila, A. and Welikala, T. (2024). From ‘Whiteness’ to the Privilege Continuum: Contemplating EDI, its language and how it supports researcher careers. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, Special Issue: Research Culture,11 (3), 344-362. https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/article/view/1574

Welikala, T. (2023). Confronting Coloniality and Whiteness in Higher Education-From What ‘Is’ to What ‘If’. Editorial Perspective, Coloniality and whiteness in the Academy: Towards Decolonial Futures. Special Issue, Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education, 5 (3). 405-421.

Peter Lang Verlag | PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Welikala, T. and Boehm, C. (2023) (Guest Editors) Coloniality and Whiteness in the Academy: Towards Decolonial Futures, Special Issue in Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education

 Kumar, M. and Welikala T. (2021) (Eds.) Teaching and learning in higher education: the context of Being, Interculturality and New Knowledge Systems. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Kumar, M. and Welikala, T. (2021) Introduction: Unravelling. In M. Kumar and T. Welikala (Eds.), Teaching and learning in higher education: the context of Being, Interculturality and New Knowledge Systems. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Welikala, T. and Barnett, R. (2021) Many cultures or none?  sighting and assessing a post-cultural pedagogical paradigm. In M. Kumar and T. Welikala (Eds.), Teaching and learning in higher education: the context of Being, Interculturality and New Knowledge Systems. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Welikala, T. (2021) Self, other and interculturality: An epistemic shift toward intersensoriality, In M. Kumar and T. Welikala (Eds.), Teaching and learning in higher education: the context of Being, Interculturality and New Knowledge Systems. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Welikala, T. and Kumar, M. (2021) Concluding remarks, In M. Kumar and T. Welikala (Eds.), Teaching and learning in higher education: the context of Being, Interculturality and New Knowledge Systems. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Welikala, T. C. (2019) Engaging diverse learners through technology mediated co-inquiry. In J. Hoffman and P. Blessinger (Eds.), International Perspectives in Higher Education: Strategies for Fostering Inclusive Classrooms, Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, pp.251-64.

Welikala, T. C. (2018) Being Women and Being Migrant: Confronting Double Strangeness in UK Higher Education, In Kinchin, I. Rao, N. and Husain, A. (Eds.), Academics’ International Teaching Journeys. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp.61-74.

Welikala, T.C. (2015). Universities don’t understand how international students learn. The Guardian higher Education. 03. 07.2015

Welikala, T. and Atkin, C. (2014) Student co-inquirers: the challenges and benefits of inclusive research, International Journal of Research & Method in Education. 37:4, 390-406.

Holford J. and Welikala, T. C. (2013) Renaissance without enlightenment: New Labour’s ‘Learning Age’ 1997-2010. In E. Saar. (ed.), Building a European lifelong learning society: The enduring role of national characteristics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, pp.140-164.

Welikala, T. C. (2013) A guide to cultural differences in learning in higher education. In C. B. Kandiko and M.Weyers (Eds.), The Global Student Experience: An International and Comparative Analysis, London: Routledge, pp.27-45.

Welikala, T. C. (2013). Student experience in an interconnected and diverse world (SEID). Final report, Connections Pilot Projects on Internationalization, funded jointly by the UK Higher Education Academy and UK Council for International Student Affairs. 

Saso, C. E., Rodríguez, M. A. and Welikala, T. (2012). “La comunicación en la salida del aislamiento rural. El caso de Ariño”, (The technologies of information and communication in the rural isolation output: the case of Ariño). Scripta Nova, revista electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales -Journal of geography and social sciences, XVII, 427 2.

Welikala, T. C. (2012). Multi-perspective pedagogy: Rethinking culture and learning in multicultural higher education in the UK. In J. Lixian and M. Cortazzi (Eds.), Researching cultures of learning: International perspectives on language learning and education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, pp.36-57.

Welikala, T. C. (2011). Internationalization of HE curriculum. Universitas 21:The Leading Global Network of Research Universities for the 21st Century.

Welikala, T. (2011). Living the interfaces: Coming to (un)know in another culture - In S.  Trahar, (Ed.), The doctorate: The international stories of UK experience. Higher education Academy. Escalate Publications. Bristol University: Graduate School of Education.

Holford, J., Welikala, T., Mleczko, A. and Kington, A. (2011) Intersections between education and other areas of social policy: Successful mixed interventions. CREA: Barcelona

Mleczko, A., Kington, A., Holford, J., and Welikala, T. (2011) Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education: Education in European policies and in the development of citizenship. CREA: Barcelona

Welikala, T.C. (2009) Roots and routes in writing Sri Lanka: Resistance and the politics of the ‘displaced’. Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities xxxv (1&2), 163-173.

Welikala, T.C. (2009). Towards global citizens in the IOE: Internationalization of the curriculum. A review of the taught curricula. Institute of Education. University of London

Welikala, T. C. & Watkins, C. (2008). Improving Intercultural Learning Experiences in Higher Education: Responding to Cultural Scripts for Learning. London: UCL Institute of Education Publishers.

 Welikala, T.C. (2008) Disempowering and dislocating: how learners from diverse cultures read the role of English Language in UK higher education. London Review of Education, 6, (2) 159-169.

Dr.Welikala has been invited by national and international organisations to deliver talks on higher education issues. 

Recent invited talks

2022: Defamiliarising the Colonial Imaginaries Embedded in Interculturality: Self-Other Dichotomy and the Buddhist Concept of Non-self, Centre for Global Higher Education, Research partnership of 10 UK and international universities, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

2021: Coloniality and Whiteness in Higher Education, Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society. 

2018: Teaching international students: Challenges and opportunities. United Kingdom national agency for the recognition and comparison of international qualifications and skills (UK NARIC) annual conference, London.           

2017:  Being Women and being Migrant: Confronting Double Strangeness in UK Higher Education. ‘Gendering Academic Mobilities’, International Women’s Day Event. Warwick University, UK.

2016: Teaching and Learning in the International Classroom, Internationalization of Curriculum Conference, Modern Language Centre, King’s College, London.

2016: Teaching and learning in global sites: emerging new opportunities and dilemmas, Global Education Dialogues, British Council, New Delhi: India.

2015: Changing nature of culture within international pedagogies. School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham.

2014: Mediated meaning making: Using technology for inclusive inter-viewing. Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln.