Local Privileges, Global Competitions: Class and International Higher Education in India

Abstract

This dissertation examines how class and caste privilege in India are transformed into globally valued educational advantage in pathways to selective universities in the Global North. Drawing on interviews with 21 independent admissions consultants and 15 class privileged Indian youth, as well as marketing materials from 18 consultancies, the study follows the international higher education pipeline from commercial brokerage to student practice. The first paper shows how “premium” consultants in India construct themselves as elite yet ethical international educational intermediaries, using moral discourses to legitimate exclusionary services and define which cross-border student mobilities are recognized as worthy. The second paper theorizes consultants as shadow educators and migration infrastructures, showing how consultants’ work of identifying, optimizing, and showcasing class “fit” both reflects and actively constructs stratified opportunity structures in international higher education. The third paper turns to students, conceptualizing a leadership habitus through which class and caste privileged Indian youth learn to demonstrate initiative, impact, and social problem-solving—often in less advantaged communities—in ways that align with holistic admissions criteria at selective US colleges. Together, these papers reveal how commercial practices, moral narratives, and embodied dispositions convert locally rooted privileges into internationally recognized forms of educational distinction, reproducing inequality across national and global scales.