Rajika Bhandari

Rajika Bhandari, Ph.D., is an international higher education expert with extensive executive and management experience in research and program evaluation in the nonprofit, private and higher education sectors. For over a decade Dr. Bhandari shaped and guided the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) research, evaluation and thought leadership activities and directed the IIE Center for Academic Mobility Research and Impact, including the flagship Open Doors and Project Atlas projects on global student mobility. Dr. Bhandari also served as a senior spokesperson for IIE on global higher education issues, is a frequent speaker and widely published author, including of six books, and has written for the Guardian, Times Higher Ed, the Huff Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and University World News, with her work covered by NPR, PRI International, the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Quartz, and Time. In addition to her academic and scholarly writing, Dr. Bhandari is a published nonfiction writer whose work focuses on travel writing, memoir and the immigrant experience.

Her other roles include being a Senior Researcher at MPR Associates (now part of RTI International) in Berkeley, California, an Assistant Director for Evaluation at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has served as a Commissioner on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, and currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the IC3 (International Career and College Counseling) Movement. Dr. Bhandari has a background in international development with a focus on gender and education in Asia, and is also an expert on Indo-U.S. educational and people-to-people exchanges. She holds a B.A. (Honors) in Psychology from the University of Delhi, India, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from North Carolina State University in the U.S.