Vikas John

Vikas’s primary area of work is Higher Education administration. He is involved with the day-to-day processes of the Research Programme at IIHS as well as contributing to designing and achieving the strategic goals of the Programme. He has a background in Communication Studies, both in terms of educational credentials and work experience in the field. His interest lies in the area of educational studies, particularly the experiences of techno scientific knowledge systems as it intersects with the socio-cultural construction of identity. He is interested in research management, research communication, and the social and philosophical foundations of education. Vikas has assisted in several small and large-scale research projects. He was involved with the Ford Foundation funded International Comparative Higher Educational Finance and Accessibility Project, and the Women and Higher Education in Asia project; both housed at the University at Buffalo.

Prior to this, he has worked in the field of communication in various capacities. He gained substantial experience in designing and executing effective messaging across different channels. In addition, his Masters thesis at the Rochester Institute of Technology examined the effectiveness of websites in health communication. Vikas also has a knowledge base in Development Communication, which he specialised in at the University of Hyderabad. There his final project was a documentary film on housing and land tenure rights among the urban poor called ‘Kya aap ghar thodne aayen hain?’ (Have you come to break our homes?) (2001).

Vikas has presented on the issues of educational mobility and the construction of identity at the post graduate level in engineering education at the annual and regional conferences of the Comparative and International Educational Society; and the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association. He has also been a member of the American Educational Research Association and was on the student editorial committee for the section on Social and Institutional Analysis of the American Educational Research Journal.