Rate My Professor Ben Levy

Ben Levy serves as the Adviser - International Programmes Development - External Engagement in the International Office at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, a role he has held from July 2022 to December 2025. A scholar-practitioner with over 25 years of experience in higher education leadership, research, strategy, policy, and planning across six continents, Levy focuses on indigeneity, Moana Oceania, and decoloniality. Prior to his current position, he was Senior International Officer at Ramapo College's Roukema Center for International Education in Mahwah, United States, from April 2009 to August 2022. He is currently completing his PhD at the University of Waikato's Faculty of Education, with a dissertation on national universities of Moana Oceania, investigating how they balance global agendas with Indigenous priorities. Levy holds a B.S. in Environmental Sciences and an M.A. from SIT Graduate Institute. He also serves as Fellow in Leadership and Research at the University of the South Pacific's Institute of Education.

Levy's academic interests encompass higher education policy, indigeneity, decoloniality, teaching and learning, curriculum development, and educational evaluation. His research promotes culturally grounded, equitable higher education and contributes to regional and global education policy. Key publications include 'Regenerative Internationalization: Designing Learning for a Thriving Future' (chapter, 2026), 'A new definition of internationalization of higher education' (GlobalEd: Trends & Insights, 2023), 'Navigating researcher positionality in comparative and international education research: Perspectives from emerging researchers' (2022), 'EDITORIAL: Tensions between policy and practice: Learning how to "edgewalk"' (2022), 'How do you (demonstrate) care in an institution that does not define “care”?' (Pastoral Care in Education, 2021), 'Indigenous knowledge of agriculture in Guatemala: Loss, resilience and revitalization' (chapter, 2012), and his master's thesis 'The incorporation of Indigenous knowledge within a sustainable development context: Maya-Kacquikel perspectives from Lake Atitlan, Guatemala' (2006). Levy holds editorial roles as Regional Editor for Australia/New Zealand/Oceania at the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education and Section Editor for the International Education Journal. He is Co-Director of the Center for Global Education Policy Studies, and a member of the University of Waikato Academic Board and Postgraduate Research Committee.