By Cheryl Yu
Following the recent attention of TNE of UK HEs in emerging markets, such as India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Europe, and some Northern African countries, it all seems to be promising and positive news for universities in the UK. Many are actively exploring the potential while focusing on direct international student recruitment activities. Equally the hosting countries and partner institutions believe in the value of working with UK universities, but what exactly are the values? Would that be degree awarding power, extra qualification, or a more integrated true collaboration to exchange ideas and knowledge between the two partners?
Looking at the ‘outcomes’ of a TNE project can be typically categorised as double, dual, joint, or single degrees. But I find the nature of the degree certification of a TNE project does not represent the nature of genuine collaboration, to remove borders and the hierarchy of knowledge exchange and sharing, and to centre the core of higher education on the students learning experience.
There are multiple levels and nuances of a TNE project. This blog places a focus on the differentiated procedures and requirements between franchise and validation models of TNE projects, which could shed some light on the value of either model.
Fundamentally, no matter whether it is a franchise or validation, it needs to comply with the same quality assurance procedures and requirements. But does this justify equal quality?
Let’s come to the more straightforward model of validation. In simple terms. It means that a British university approves what a hosting institution is currently running or intends to run, sometimes with certain adjustments to the entry requirement, curriculum, resources or staffing requirement; and recognises it as equivalent to the degree offered by the UK university, subsequently awarding the UK degree, through single, joint, dual, or double degrees models. The UK university is not required to share or provide its existing curriculum or teaching methods, nor does it need to contribute to the actual teaching and learning in the host countries. It is a common practice that a UK university can validate courses that it does not run itself in the UK. It is simple and straightforward for both parties with limited investments and negotiation.
However, not all hosting educational governing bodies accept validation, they only approve franchises or a hybrid of franchise and validation (joint education) model. This could entail additional investment from the UK universities and reasonable or major adjustment to the educational provision at the hosting universities. This could mean sharing the curriculum or jointly developing a new curriculum, contributing to the actual teaching and learning, investing in learning resources (physical or online resources, VLE &LMS), assessments, staff development and so on. For instance, a UK university cannot franchise a degree course in Singapore if the UK university is not running the course itself already in the UK. To work in mainland China and often HK, a UK university needs to commit to a minimum of 1/3 of the joint projects, from curriculum development, to teaching and learning in the country, and to educational investment. The actual teaching delivery of the UK universities on TNE could represent an extra investment but it offers a more authentic collaborative learning experience for the students on TNE, as well as training the local staff in the internationalisation journey of hosting universities. Overall, students speak of a better learning experience when UK universities are heavily involved in the actual teaching delivery, through flying faculty or international staff based/seconded in the country. This requires more time and effort in identifying a suitable and matching partner with an aligned vision and mission. At the same time, the actual running of these types of programme also requires a constant and more nuanced cross-cultural communication and partnership management. But it forges a more authentic collaboration.
Based on a recent research project that I carried out with colleagues, we found that one of the critical driving forces of international students aspiring for a UK qualification is because of its teaching pedagogy derived from the global prestige of the UK institutions.
We could argue that most collaborative models are primarily dictated by the relevant governing bodies, but the hosting institutions can also have their own voice and decision in shaping the nature of a partnership.
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