Shaheen Motala-Timol

Biography

Dr Shaheen Motala-Timol is a chemistry trained higher education professional and quality assurance practitioner. She earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Mauritius in 2006 and was research active in her field for several years. Her doctoral thesis focused on the synthesis and characterization of novel biodegradable (co)polymers, mainly polylactones, and her postdoctoral work was on the design and synthesis of nano-sized water soluble polypeptides with micellar properties in solution. Her research work has been published in scholarly journals and she was awarded the TWAS Regional Office for Central and South Asia Office Prize in 2011. She also holds an advanced qualification in designing and facilitating e-Learning from the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Development Practices in Public Policy, awarded by TERI University. As a subject specialist in Chemistry, she has worked at the University of Mauritius since 2008 as part-time lecturer, on different Chemistry-based modules.


Shaheen works since 2009 at the Tertiary Education Commission in Mauritius and has expertise in regulatory matters, programmatic accreditation and institutional auditing, policy planning and development in the public and private higher education sector. She is a firm advocate for inclusive and quality higher education for all. She also works as an independent educational consultant for government agencies and serves as an external reviewer for international accreditation agencies, such as Oman Academic Accreditation Authority and the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications.

Shaheen is a 2016-2017 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow under the Fulbright Exchange Activity. She spent a year at the Pennsylvania State University during the academic year 2016-2017, where she explored different aspects of higher education in the US, as well as internationalization and lifelong learning. She was also a visiting scholar at the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College.

Her current research addresses the challenges and opportunities of cross-border higher education, and how these shape education policies in developing countries. Her research interest includes studying the effect of different internationalization policies on student mobility in the African continent.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaheen-motala-timol-73480b11/