This is the second of two lectures for the University of Bath MA in International Higher Education Management. It covers: 1. The dimensions of the management challenges  Culture  Language  Legislation 2. The limitations of home universities in managing TNE 3. The stakeholders in TNE revisited 4. What do stakeholders want from TNE?  Home university  Joint venture partner  Host government  Students 5. The importance of alignment 6. Case studies of successful and failed TNE partnerships

1. TNE partnerships: the challenges of
managing partnerships across borders
and culture
14:30 – 16:00 UTC
30 November 2021
Professor Nigel Healey
Provost and Deputy President

2. Overview
• TNE partnerships: what forms do they
take?
• The dimensions of the management
challenge
• The limitations of home universities in
managing TNE
• The stakeholders in TNE revisited
• What do stakeholders want from TNE?
• The importance of alignment
• Examples of successful and failed TNE
partnerships

3. TNE partnerships: what forms do they take?
Ownership Wholly owned Minority shareholding
JV partner Foreign university Private company
Legal status International company Legal entity
Eligibility for public funding State subsidies Treated as local university
Staff Seconded from home Locally hired
Students Local International
Quality assurance QAA QAA & local regulator
Curriculum Standardised Localised
Programme accreditation UK Local
Programme 2+2 4+0
Research None Locally funded
16/09/21

4. The dimensions of the management
challenges
Language
• EMI in home
country vs EMI
in host country
Culture
• Religion
• Political and
business culture
• Power-distance
culture
• Pedagogical
traditions
Legislation
• Government
policy towards
higher education
• Regulation of
higher education
• Wider legislative
environment –
tax, HR, etc

5. The limitations of home universities in managing TNE
The core difference?
• For home university: TNE is an add-on
• For an MNC: global operations are core
business
The multinational corporation:
• Operations in multiple countries
• Profit-seeking to serve shareholders
• HR / finance / operations set up to manage
across borders
• Led by career executives with international
experience
The home university:
 Identity based on location
 Public university
 Subsidised by government
 Subject to government direction / control
 Regulated by national authority
 Not for profit (exempt) charities
 Support staff quasi civil servants
 HR / finance / IT systems set up to comply with
national legislation
 Arcane internal governance structures – senate
vs council vs court
 Led by senior academics
 Multiple national stakeholders – staff, students,
alumni, local and national government,
employers, local community, funding agencies,
professional bodies

6. Business Universities @ the speed of light?

7. The stakeholders in TNE revisited
TNE
18/01/21
Home university
Students
Partner organisation
Host
government

8. Healey, N. (2021). Transnational education: the importance
of aligning stakeholders’ motivations with the form of cross-
border educational service delivery. Higher Education
Quarterly, https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12371
• Author Article Share:
• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/DNP
DKW2DJRVGHJGBZSCZ?target=10.1111/hequ.
12371
• The key research questions addressed in this paper
are:
• Who are the main stakeholders in TNE?
• What are their motivations for engaging in TNE?
• How do these motives align with the form of
TNE?

9. Research methodology
Literature review of the academic and ‘grey’ literature
34 semi-structured interviews of 90-120 minutes
• Participants were UK managers of TNE partnerships
• Asked to reflect on their perceptions of stakeholders’ motivations
– indirect approach
• Answers analysed and coded

10. What do the home universities
want from TNE? (1)
• Revenue diversification
and maximisation
• ‘McDonaldization of
higher education’
• But long-term
sustainability requires
quality
• Example: University of
Bolton Ras Al Khaimah

11. What do the home
universities want
from TNE? (2)
• A pipeline of international students
• X+Y model
• Student progression to UK a major motive (HEFCE
2015)
• Variant is K12 + X1 + X2 + Y
• Example: Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
(XJTLU)

12. What do the home universities
want from TNE? (3)
• Internationalisation of the
curriculum
• Structured international mobility
for students from both the home
and host country
• Networks of global micro-
campuses or international study
centres
• Example: University of Kent
(‘UK’s European University’) and
the Brussels School of
International Studies (BSIS)

13. What do the home
universities want
from TNE? (4)
• Recruiting talent
• Access to most gifted
students and researchers,
plus research funding
• Example: University of
Nottingham Ningbo Campus
(UNNC)

14. What do the home
universities want
from TNE? (5)

15. What do the home universities
want?
• Warning: motives not
mutually exclusive, may
shift over time
Motivation Examples
Revenue diversification,
maximization
University of Bolton
Pipeline of international
students
University of Liverpool
Internationalisation of the
curriculum
University of Kent
Recruiting talent University of Nottingham
Prestige and global
positioning
UCL

16. What do partner
organisations want from
TNE? (1) • Revenue
maximisation
• Private, for-profit
colleges without
degree-awarding
powers
• Malaysia post-1997 –
1+2 move to 3+0
• Example: Brickfield
Asia College

17. Brickfield
Asia
Colleges
partners

18. What do partner organisations
want from TNE? (2)
• Technology transfer
• Learning from a more prestigious home
university and accelerating their organisational
development
• May start as revenue maximisation, but change
as private college matures
• Example: Sunway University in Malaysia

19. What do partner
organisations want from
TNE? (3)
• Access to new
students globally
• TNE partnership
allows partners to
compete for
internationally-mobile
students
• Example: Trium EMBA
– London School of
Economics (LSE),
HEC Paris and NYU
Stern (est. 2001)

20. What do partner
organisations want from
TNE? (4)
• Prestige and global positioning
• Choose TNE partners to raise
global profile and league table
position
• Example: NTU Singapore - NTU
created by the merger of Nanyang
Technological Institute and the
National Institute of Education in
1992; joint PhD programmes with
elite universities, eg, University of
Warwick, Columbia University,
University of British Columbia and
the Indian Institute of Technology,
Bombay

21. What do the partner
organizations want?
Warning: motives not mutually
exclusive, may shift over time
17/09/21
Motivation Examples
Revenue maximization Brickfield Asia College
Technology transfer Sunway University
Access to new
students globally
NYU, LSE, HEC Paris
Prestige, enhanced
reputation by
association, research
partnerships
Nanyang Technological
University

22. What do host governments
want from TNE? (1)
• Demand absorption
• Main drivers of the growth of
international student mobility is
excess demand within fast-
growing developing countries
for university places
• Compounding factors:
• ethnic quotas (Malaysia),
public universities only for
nationals (UAE)
• poor quality of local
institutions (China)
• TNE reduces forex outflow
• Example: Malaysia post 1997,
India 2020

23. What do host
governments
want from
TNE? (2)
• Education hub
• Obverse of demand absorption: use TNE to attract students
from surrounding countries
• May help with immigration of skilled labour
• Examples: Singapore’s Global Schoolhouse, Mauritius -
Middlesex University, Ecole Centrale de Nantes and
Université Paris II Panthéon Assas

24. What do host governments
want from TNE? (3)

25. What do host governments
want from TNE? (4)
• Technology transfer
• Sharing knowledge and a wider
demonstration effect
• Example: China’s primary
motivation for establishing 12 Sino-
foreign cooperative universities
• New British Council project on the
benefits of UK TNE for host HE
sectors

26. What do the host
governments want?
Warning: motives not mutually
exclusive, may shift over time
Motivation Examples
Demand absorption United Arab Emirates,
Malaysia (old), India
Education hub Singapore, Malaysia
(new), Mauritius
Soft power Qatar
Technology transfer China

27. What do students want from
TNE? (1) • An international
educational experience
• Students want an
international educational
experience, but cannot
travel overseas to study
• May be cultural or
religious obstacles to
study abroad
• Educational culture of
local universities could be
antipathetic to academic
enquiry
• Example: Yale-NUS
College liberal arts

28. What do students
want from TNE? (2)

29. What do students
want from TNE? (3)
• Affordable education
• Desire to gain an
internationally recognised
qualification affordably
• avoid the travel and living
costs of studying overseas
• tuition fees lower at the
TNE partner
• Example: First City University
College (formerly known as
KBU International College),
Malaysia
• Warning: do not charge the
same fees as at home
university. Examples: UNSW
Singapore, George Mason
Ras Al-Khaimah

30. UNSW pulls out of Singapore

31. What do students want
from TNE? (4)
• Flexible education
• Domestic HE system designed
for full-time school leavers
• TNE may be blended or part-
time
• Example: PSB Academy,
Singapore

32. What do
the
students
want?
Motivation Examples
International education Yale-NUS College
Recognized international
qualification
IIT, Sri Lanka
Affordable education private college in
Malaysia
Flexible education PSB Academy

33. The importance of alignment
• As the home university, we need to be clear about:
• Our own motivation for engaging in TNE
• The form of TNE partnership that will achieve the desired
objective
• The motivation of the partner organization
• The alignment of the form of TNE partnership with the motives of
the host government
• The demand for this form of TNE from students

34. An example of an successful
aligned TNE partnership
Requirement ABC University in China Dots connected?
Our own motivation for engaging in
TNE
Prestige, global positioning
Access to talent, research funding
The form of TNE partnership that will
achieve the desired objective
International branch campus Yes
The motivation of the partner
organization
Development of world class
university in China
Yes
The alignment of the form of TNE
partnership with the motives of the
host government
Technology transfer, demonstration
effect
Yes
The demand for this form of TNE
from students
Strong demand for international
education experience in China
Yes

35. An example of an unsuccessful unaligned TNE
partnership
Requirement XYZ University in Malaysia Dots connected?
Our own motivation for engaging in
TNE
Internationalization and revenue
diversification
The form of TNE partnership that will
achieve the desired objective
Franchise No
The motivation of the partner
organization
Commercial, revenue maximization Yes
The alignment of the form of TNE
partnership with the motives of the
host government
Domestic capacity building, high
quality education
No
The demand for this form of TNE
from students
Demand highly price sensitive Yes

36. Example: alignment at the University of Limerick
Requirement UL in RST Dots connected?
Our own motivation for engaging in TNE Internationalization, pathway for
international students, research
partnerships
The form of TNE partnership that will
achieve the desired objective
Double masters degrees in areas of
mutual research strength
Yes
The motivation of the partner
organization
Enhanced reputation by association,
research partnerships
Yes
The alignment of the form of TNE
partnership with the motives of the host
government
Domestic capacity building Yes
The demand for this form of TNE from
students
Strong demand for double masters
degrees
Yes

37. Conclusions
• TNE can build global prestige, provide
pathways for international students,
support internationalization, foster
research partnerships
• Many forms of TNE, which are
constantly evolving and blurring
• Need to choose form that maximizes
alignment of the motives of all
stakeholders
• Remember stakeholder motivations
change over time
• TNE is not a quick fix, many TNE
ventures fail

38. A student’s guide to the landscape of international
higher education (1)
• The key governmental bodies:
• British Council https://www.britishcouncil.org
• NUFFIC https://www.epnuffic.nl/en/#
• Campus France http://www.campusfrance.org/en
• DAAD https://www.daad.de/en/
• IDP https://www.idp.com/unitedkingdom/ukhome

39. A student’s guide to the landscape of international
higher education (2)
• The key international associations and conferences:
• EAIE: European Association for International Education
• ACA: Academic Cooperation Association
• NAFSA: North-American Association for Foreign Study Advisors
• APAIE: Asia-Pacific Association for International Education
• QS: Higher Education Summits
• AIEC: Australian International Education Conference
• IIE: Institute of International Education

40. A student’s guide to the landscape of international
higher education (3)
• Key resources for research:
• OECD: Education at a Glance
• UNESCO: Institute for Statistics
• British Council
• HESA: Higher Education Statistics Agency (UK)
• IIE: Institute of International Education (US)
• OBHE: Observatory on Borderless Higher Education
• C-BERT: Cross-Border Education Research Team