Suchergebnisse

peer-reviewed ; Higher education globally faces a serious productivity challenge, with universities tending to pass on higher costs to students and government through higher fees, rather than systematically reengineering the way they educate students to drive efficiency gains. The productivity challenge is particularly acute for the Asia-Pacific, where economic growth and large university-age populations are increasing the demand for higher education. Unless the productivity challenge can be overcome, the region faces a stark choice between raising tertiary participation rates and maintaining academic quality. This paper reviews the phenomenon of transnational education, the educational equivalent of the globalization of business, and asks whether allowing foreign universities to set up local operations provides a way of enhancing the quality and accelerating productivity growth in the domestic higher education systems of host countries in the Asia-Pacific. ; ACCEPTED ; Peer reviewed

peer-reviewed ; This is the pre-print version ; This case study reflects on the lessons learned during a 15-month "insider research" project on the management of international branch campuses. The research project was a qualitative investigation into the "lived experience" of senior managers running international branch campuses of UK universities. The UK universities presently operating international branch campuses are all public universities with a history of being state-funded and politically regulated. The international branch campuses are, in contrast, private for-profit subsidiaries of the UK university, often jointly owned by local partners, which function within an alien cultural, legislative, and political environment-for example, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Malaysia are the most important host countries for branch campuses. While the challenges of managing such campuses are clearly manifold, insider research offers a unique insight into the way these challenges are seen through the eyes of the senior managers involved. This case study explores the strengths and weaknesses of insider research as a qualitative methodology and highlights some of the practical lessons learned during the course of the project. ; SUBMITTED ; Peer reviewed

peer-reviewed ; Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges of managing transnational education (TNE) partnerships from the perspective of the home university managers. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative, "insider researcher" methodology'. It uses a sample set of eight mangers who operate from the home university and 13 "in-country" managers who are seconded to head up the overseas TNE partnerships. The samples are all drawn from UK universities to standardise for other variables (e.g. legislative framework). Findings It finds that the managers based at the home campus report a generally negative attitude, emphasising the riskiness and the lack of scalability, sustainably and profitability, as well as the general resistance to TNE from staff on the home campus. The in-country managers, in contrast, experience the same lack of empathy from their peers at home, but this group tends to more closely associate themselves with their local colleagues and to be drawn into building relationships with local stakeholders. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this research is that it is based on a sample of managers from the same country. Practical implications In practical terms, the findings suggest that universities need to do more to increase awareness and commitment to their TNE partnerships amongst staff at the home campus, while providing better professional development and more frequent rotations for their in-country managers. Originality/value This paper extends the very limited literature on the management of TNE partnerships. ; ACCEPTED ; peer-reviewed

peer-reviewed ; Over the last decade, the growth of the international branch campus (IBC) has been one of the most striking developments in the internationalisation of higher education. There are now over 200 IBCs across the world, mostly in the Middle East and East and South‐east Asia. Despite the growing numbers of IBCs and the considerable financial and reputational risk they pose to their home universities, relatively little is known about the challenges of managing these foreign outposts. This paper reviews the growing, but still fragmented, literature in this increasingly important sector of higher education. It finds that managers of IBCs are faced with a range of challenges, which primarily stem from dealing with key stakeholder groups: students, staff, home and host country quality regulators, the home university and the host government, as well as the IBC's local joint venture partners. It concludes that further work is required to better understand the factors which influence and constrain IBC managers in balancing the competing interests of stakeholders. ; ACCEPTED ; peer-reviewed