This presentation was given to at the Offre d’enseignement supérieur a l’étranger: incitations bénéfices et modelés économiques – analyse et retours d’expérience workshop on transnational education (TNE) organised by France Stratégie. It sets out the traditional business models for TNE, discussing the way that these are blurring and changing over time. It then considers the forces driving the changes in TNE and speculates on a future in which TNE business models will change so significantly that they will no longer be TNE as we currently understand the concept.

1. Transnational education business models:
a UK perspective
Professor Nigel Healey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International)Professor Nigel Healey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International)
Nottingham Trent UniversityNottingham Trent University
31 March 201631 March 2016

2. Overview
• What is TNE?
• How traditional TNE business
models work
• The blurring of traditional TNE
business models
• Understanding how and why
TNE business models are
evolving
• The end of traditional TNE?
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3. What is TNE?
• “All types of higher education study programmes, sets of study
courses, or educational services (including those of distance
education) in which the learners are located in a country different
from the one where the awarding institution is based” (Council of
Europe, 2002)
University
(country A)
Students
(country B)
‘Principle of transnationality’
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4. Traditional TNE business models: how to
provide the qualification to the student
• Deconstructing the
educational ‘service’:
– Curriculum
– Teaching
– Assessment
– Certification
• Key question: how to
deliver each element of the
qualification to a student in
country B from country A?
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5. How the traditional TNE business models work
International
Branch
Campus
Distance
Learning
Franchise Validation
Curriculum X X X ✓
Teaching X ✓ ✓ ✓
Assessment X X ✓ ✓
Certification X X X X
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increasing reputational risk
increasing financial risk

6. TNE business models are becoming
increasingly blurred
6
Virtual learning
environments
Flying faculty Student
mobility

7. 7
Part 1: franchise
Part 2: flying faculty
VLE + summer school

8. 8
Quality DistanceQuality Distance
Learning GhanaLearning Ghana
Distance-learning
Local partner
Flying faculty
Campus study option

9. March 31, 2016 9
University of Southampton
No local partner
2+2 engineering
Flying faculty

10. 10
All local faculty, including provost
Local partner
Degrees identical to London

11. 11
All local staff
Local partner
Overseas campus or
franchise?

12. 12
Overseas campus?
…or private Malaysian
university in which the
University of
Nottingham has a
minority stake?

13. How and why are TNE business models
evolving?
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Stakeholder Possible objectives
Home university
Global profile, revenue, student
recruitment
Home government /
regulator
Soft power, maintain academic
standards
Joint venture partner Profit, sustainability
Host government /
regulator
Absorb demand, build capacity
Students International qualification

14. What to evolve in TNE business models: the
trade-offs
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Global integration Local adaption
Academic Staff Academic culture Cost of provision
Curriculum Global equivalence Local relevance
Research International excellence Local impact

15. An illustrative example: the conflicting
pressures to evolve TNE business models
Stakeholder Academic
Staff
Curriculum Research
Home university
Home government /
regulator
Joint venture
partner
Host government /
regulator
Students
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16. The end of traditional TNE?
• A Sino-foreign joint venture:
– is a for-profit private university
– has a local majority joint venture partner
– employs its own staff
– is regulated by the Chinese Ministry of Education: curriculum,
enrolment quotas, tuition fees
– is authorised to award its own degrees
• At what point does the principle of transnationality no longer
apply?
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17. When is a TNE business model not TNE?
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18. Conclusions
• TNE is a growing phenomenon
• Traditional TNE business models are becoming increasingly
blurred
• Traditional TNE business models are beginning to evolve in
response to pressure from stakeholders
• It is an open question how far TNE business models can
evolve before they become something different
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19. What do these universities have in common?
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University of Peradeniya University of the West Indies
University of Zimbabwe
University of Nottingham

20. For more information:
• E-mail: nigel.healey@ntu.ac.uk
• Website: http://nottinghamtrent.academia.edu/NigelHealey
• Website includes conferences presentations, papers and
resources on transnational education
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