Collaborative Transnational Education in China: A Scoping Review of Emerging Research Trajectories (2016–2023)

Abstract

The paper presents a scoping review of research on transnational education in China published from 2016, the last year that a comprehensive literature review on the subject was published in Chinese Education & Society. The authors delimited a corpus of 88 articles focusing on collaborative transnational education in China and published on Scopus-listed international journals. The analysis of this corpus was supplemented by sampling the top cited articles on the same subject published in Chinese language academic journals. The quantitative analysis showed how research production pivoted during the period with an increased focus on teaching and learning and the lived experiences of students, academics and managers, while the same literature was previously dominated by research on wider managerial and institutional matters. A qualitative analysis of the production revealed a number of emerging research trajectories: the experience of academics and managers; the impact on host-country higher education; student motivations; transnational vocational higher education; first year transition; teaching challenges; the lived experiences of the students; Covid impact. Finally, the analysis outlined some trajectories that are only broadly sketched: cultural tensions; students’ employability prospects; comparative studies among Sino-foreign cooperative universities; language and power; identity formation of students and academics. The article concludes with remarks on the value of studying transnational education within the context of China to further understand multicultural phenomena.