Global Education Industry Research Articles

TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE AMERICAS, EUROPE AND ASIA AND PIECING TOGETHER THE KEY SUCCESS FACTORS AND TOXIC BLIND CORNERS

The main thrust of this research was to contribute to theory building in the Theory of Higher Education (PPT) and their applicability in Oman and globally looking at the broader issues of students, academic work, and the place for higher education in society. The research explored gaps in knowledge regarding this theory as a contribution to knowledge, and in this instance, the Oman and global higher education industry was the epicentre of the research and was expected to meet foremost the needs of industry and government as employers of graduated students, then the needs of students and society in knowledge and innovation. This research was conceptual research using literature review only. A barrier is anything that prevents the system from achieving its goal likegetting enough students, doing academic work and finally poor resourcing. The main reasons giving rise to this research were the facts that some colleges and universities in the world faced challenges in assessment, quality, graduate employability and suitability for industry. The main objective of this research was to contribute to theory building in the Theory of Higher Education and identify critical success factors. The secondary objective was employability of graduates as the end product, maximising knowledge creation and innovation. Qualitative research method in the form of conceptual research was used in this research. The main findings were that lack of practicals/diverse teaching methods, lack of compulsory internship, unfair assessment, balancing classes with free time, the need for diversity in terms of faculty, uncommitted students, incompetent faculty, outdated syllabus, students from high schools not being college ready, graduates not matching industry requirements were the main issues.

Serendipity and surprise: A diachronic analysis of <em>International Baccalaureate</em> in the global press 1977-2019

This study examines perceptions of the International Baccalaureate (IB) over five decades to better understand its growing influence on education systems around the world. As part of the global education industry, the IB plays an important role in shaping national public education discourse. Building on previous synchronic analyses that used a corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) approach, the present study conducts a diachronic exploration of the same 28 million word corpus of global press articles to see how perceptions of the IB may have changed over its 55-year history. Trends over time revealed five main shifts in IB discourse: (i) from education to brand; (ii) from concrete curriculum-related lexis to recurring value-laden terms; (iii) from comparison to competition with other national curricula; (iv) from academic qualification to institutional regulation; and (v) from students to IB coordinator. Findings also showed a stable group of collocates that occurred consistently across all time periods, pointing to an “invariant core” (Morley & Partington, 2009) meaning of the IB that provides fresh insight into how the dominant view of the IB as a singular standardized brand may be entrenched and taken for granted.

The Need to Develop Inclusive Education in China: a Literature Review

Purpose: The discourse around inclusive education has garnered significant attention within the global education industry. The educational landscape for children with disabilities has undergone a transformation, transitioning from the practise of segregating them in inclusive education to embracing their inclusion within general education schools and classrooms .By reviewing the development of inclusive education as well as the development of China's education system and inclusive education, this study finds the problems of inclusive education in China and the necessity of developing inclusive education in China. Theoretical framework: Inclusive education is designed in a number of areas such as the improvement of the educational system, educational management, teacher performance, and teacher identity. Therefore, this study will also be related to human capital theory, identity theory, and SLR theory. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research methodology was divided into three stages.The first step was to collect and review existing literature and studies. Secondly. The literature was categorised and reviewed separately. The third step is to analyse and draw conclusions. This stage includes a detailed description of the research questions and the conclusions drawn. Findings: Inclusive education is a global concern, as it is in China. Although China's education system has made significant progress in recent decades, the development of inclusive education remains imperfect, and the Chinese government still needs to formulate policies to promote inclusive education. Research, practical & social implications: This study focuses entirely on analyzing the development of inclusive education in China while filling a gap in the systematic review of inclusive education in China. As China's education system continues to improve, it is crucial to study the development of inclusive education in China. Addressing this issue will help China build a more complete education system. Originality/Value: The results of this study are expected to serve as a reference for Chinese scholars studying inclusive education. In response to the results of this paper, the follow-up effects include further research based on this. In particular, the issue of educational management of inclusive education is also an area where this study may have an impact. This study is also expected to become formalised discussion material for the field of university, and in particular, educational management research.

Education as a co-developed commodity in Finland? A rhetorical discourse analysis on business accelerator for EdTech startups

ABSTRACT Education business and the actors involved in it have gained increasing global attention. However, little is known about the commercial actors participating in mainly publicly maintained comprehensive schooling in Finland and how the roles of teachers and schools are seen in this edu-business. In this article, we analyze ‘edu-business acceleration’ by a Finnish company, xEdu, that develops EdTech startups for the global education market. Using rhetorical discourse analysis, this case study identifies and analyzes xEdu’s aims for EdTech business in Finland, focusing particularly on the role assigned to teachers and schools in the business. Through these discourses, xEdu wishes to ‘scale up’ Finnish comprehensive schooling by utilizing both the reputation of Finnish education and the expertise of Finnish teachers. Building on a framework of the global education industry, we discuss the dominant EdTech discourses surrounding Finnish comprehensive schooling and how they are legitimized and promoted by versatile rhetorical means.

When Nordic Education Myths Meet Economic Realities: The “Nordic Model” in Education Export in Finland and Sweden

We analyse policy rhetoric on education export in Finland and Sweden as a lens to explore the multifaceted Nordic model in education. We also examine how the Nordic dimension in education is represented in Finnish and Swedish education exports. Our findings highlight that, while education export approaches differ considerably between the two countries, both contexts provide opportunities for private edu-business actors to thrive, thereby sustaining the global education industry (GEI). Education export is rhetorically positioned in relation to both the national and the Nordic contexts in specific ways, with implications for how Nordic education is framed in the globalised economy.

Innovating Higher Education in India: Addressing Accessibility, Affordability, and Quality through Immersive Technologies

Higher education in India has undergone significant transformation over the past few decades. The country has emerged as a major player in the global education industry, with its universities and institutes attracting students from all over the world. However, the industry is facing several challenges such as accessibility, affordability, and quality. These challenges are primarily due to the country's massive population, socio-economic diversity, and infrastructure limitations. Immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality have the potential to address some of these challenges and revolutionize the way higher education is delivered in India. This white paper examines the current state of higher education in India, the challenges it faces, and the potential of immersive technologies to transform the industry.

Business as the new doxa in education? An analysis of edu-business events in Finland

The trend towards seeing education as a commodity and part of a global industry has transformed the field of education. We argue that these transformations are reducing the autonomy of the field of education as it has incorporated business rhetoric, logic and practice. We examine this through an analysis of discursive formations manifested in two major international edu-business events in Finland – Dare to Learn and XcitED. The performativity existing in these events, combining actions and interactions, objective and subjective elements and materialized and symbolic interests and outcomes, enables convergences between business and education. In Finland, where education is overwhelmingly public, there is a subtle marketization, increasingly integrating business rationales and attitudes in education. We employed event ethnography and discourse analysis to examine points of diffraction between education and business. A transversal movement between the field of education and the field of business is enabled by symbolic power. Dare to Learn and XcitED discursive formations reveal the penetration of business in education, which reframes the field of education and fosters the global education industry in Finland and abroad, challenging notions and practices of democracy and citizenship in education.

Philanthropising Teacher Education? The Emerging Activities of Corporate Philanthropy in Teacher Development

One crucial feature of the Global Education Industry (GEI) is its new mix of players. Within the GEI, corporate philanthropies have emerged as influential actors. They are increasingly involved in teacher education, in particular in the continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers which not only constitutes a new market, but also a policy instrument to disseminate ideas and beliefs. In this context, corporate philanthropies preferably collaborate with the state, for instance by forging public-private partnerships. Drawing on Anheier’s (2018) comparative approach, we explore the activities of Varkey Foundation, a new edu-philanthropy, and Bosch Foundation, a more traditional corporate philanthropy, in teacher CPD. Based on documents, we will apply a comparative perspective to explicate their purposes, approaches and roles, highlighting how both strive for change and, thus, engage in CPD. To conclude, we point out several implications for education policymaking, practice and future research.

Cross-Border Shadow Education: Private Supplementary Tutoring in the Global Education Industry

This paper focuses on the so-called shadow education provision of private supplementary tutoring by companies operating internationally. Some have a history of decades, while others are younger and emerged to take advantage of technological developments. Contributing to analysis of the Global Education Industry, the paper notes variations in the penetration and manifestation across world regions. In so doing, it draws on theories of isomorphism, while noting divergence as well as convergence in institutional models. The analysis includes remarks on regulatory regimes, many of which permit and even facilitate such international companies, but some of which – most obviously in China – restrict their operation. Thus, conceptually the paper analyses patterns with understanding of the forces in operation. Some of these forces are economic (pricing, marketing, etc.), but others are political (shaped particularly by government regulations), and social (shaped by different socio-economic groups within the countries in question).

Toward a knowledge economy: Factors affecting the sustainable consumption behavior in the Chinese online education industry.

Buoyed by recent calls to research and advance the knowledge economy and sustainable development. This study explains how the role of the knowledge economy in influencing the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged with numerous opportunities for the global E-learning or online education industry. And, knowledge sharing behavior has been hugely driven by various sharing platforms concerning a new paradigm for diversifying education and learning. However, our study is to further extend the understanding and examine the related empirically correlations to deepen online education for sustainable development (OESD). Both advancing theoretical underpinnings and enhancing the online education industry are highly integrated and introduced toward a sustainable pathway. This study brings the perspectives from consumer value, social identity social exchange, and value-attitude-behavior to explain sustainable consumption behavior in the Chinese online education industry (SCBOEI). Thus, the relationship among factors in this study is statistically examined and the SCBOEI model as the new theoretical insight is introduced in a way of sustainable consumption behaviors in the Chinese online education industry. Finally, this study addresses managerial implications to practitioners, the government, universities, and markets. Employing a quantitative approach, about 559 valid questionnaire surveys are collected from Chinese higher education institutions. This study includes participants from four controlling variables (age, education level, family income, and gender) and six latent variables. The bootstrapping method was applied to validate mediating factors and their interacting relationships. The finding reveals that a set of classic psychological theories related fits the SCBOEI in higher education from the consumer value, contextual factors, social identity, sustainable consumption attitudes, and consumer engagement to explain SCBOEI. The mediating role of identity, sustainable consumption attitudes, and consumer engagement is highly concerned. The value and contextual factors directly make impact on SCBOEI through identity, sustainable consumption attitudes, and consumer engagement. The study significantly contributes to enriching the theoretical bases for advancing the literature on sustainable consumption behavior and online education. Our research provides managerial insights into government policy about the online education industry and marketers to set more advertisements to wake awareness of SCBOEI. Furthermore, higher education institutions should encourage their employees and students to participate in SCBOEI actively. All the stakeholders are essential to lead the consumer to SCBOEI by shaping their internal psychology while paying more attention to social equality (education, gender), responsible consumption, and decent economic development. Overall, addressing these issues will help to provide scholars with novel theoretical insights and practitioners with managerial advice.

The discursive representation of the International Baccalaureate in the global press: a computer-assisted discourse analysis

ABSTRACT As part of the global education industry, the International Baccalaureate (IB) plays an important role in education systems around the world. Although laudatory descriptions of the IB abound, knowledge about it remains vague and superficial, relying predominantly on information produced by the IB organization or its affiliates. To gain fresh insight into the IB phenomenon, this study combines corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to examine representation of the IB around the world in non-IB generated data. Based on the principle that choice in language is not random, meaning is intimately connected with the way words are used, a 23 million word corpus of global press articles and Sketch Engine, patterns of typicality are analyzed to uncover values associated with the IB that are taken for granted. Findings show hegemonic ways of talking about the IB in highly positive terms tied to corresponding discourses of deficiency surrounding other education systems.

‘How do we marry the two things together?’: a Swedish education company expanding its business to India

ABSTRACT This article focuses on a Swedish school company and its operations in India, examining how setting up and operating schools in another national place forge particular spatial imaginaries. It contributes to literature on the Global Education Industry by focusing on international moves of commercial non-Anglo-Saxon actors. Drawing on interviews and extensive fieldwork in India, we show how the ‘marriage’ between the global (represented by the Swedish company) and local (the ‘Indian’) are manifested in the spatial imaginary of the ‘glocal school’, encompassing hierarchical otherings rooted in discourses of both globalisation and colonialism.

Impact of ICT in Modernizing the Global Education Industry to Yield Better Academic Outreach

The advancements made by information technology have redefined the concept, scope, and significance of communication. The barriers in the communication process have been wiped out by the recent advances in information and communication technology(ICT) backed by high-speed data connectivity. People are free to communicate without bothering about physical borders distancing them from one another. Information and communication technology has diversified its dynamism by creating an e-environment, where people exploit the power of technology and communication to deliver many services. This research used the conceptual framework for ICT-enabled learning management systems and described their dimensions and scope in ICT-enabled education. The ubiquity of ICT has revamped the education industry worldwide by introducing new approaches, tools, and techniques to modernize education. The widespread popularity of ICT has forced educational establishments to endorse this to update the academia to leverage its bounders and enhance productivity to yield productive outcomes at different levels of education. This paper describes different ICT approaches and investigates the importance, influence, and impact of ICT-enabled technologies on various educational practices to achieve productive educational outcomes. This research investigates the role of ICT in teaching and learning at different levels of education, explores various modulates and their influence on the overall development of educational activities, and identifies the research gaps that are bridged to achieve the primary aim of ICT and education. This research extended its ICT projections and scope to overcome the challenges emerging from pandemic circumstances and design and develop an online platform in proper consultation with market demand to make students more job-oriented or skill-oriented. This paper describes different ICT approaches adopted by various educational institutions across the globe to modernize student−teacher interaction. This paper further investigates the influence and impact of ICT-enabled technologies on various educational practices that are prerequisites for achieving productive educational outcomes.

Effect of E-Learning on the Academic Achievement of Students

E-learning has become one of the most debated concepts in today's global education industry. While some speak in favour of e-learning, others criticize e-learning and state that it cannot cultivate better results compared to traditional learning. In today’s COVID situation, e-learning has become necessary for universities around the world, this research has once again focused on this topic to identify whether e-learning can positively influence the performance of students or not. While identifying the same, three factors are selected that are technical competency, e-learning standards, and e-learning infrastructure. After collecting data and information from existing empirical research works, it was found that e-learning can cultivate positive results in terms of student’s performance in different universities and classes. However, it was found that for that positive performance, technical competency must be high and the standard of materials shared through e-learning must be effective enough. In terms of infrastructure, contradictory results are found as one research work stated that it is not vital for improved performance, while the other stated that it is important for better academic performance. Overall, this research identified that e-learning can increase academic performance with the right tools and techniques implemented with it.

COVID-19 AND THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE: A COMPUTER-ASSISTED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF #IBSCANDAL

ABSTRACT Covid-19 has occasioned ongoing shifts in discourse as language changes to reflect and shape new stages of the global pandemic and different voices weigh in on topics, such as infectious diseases and vaccine efficacy. This study looks at an instance of this that relates to the ‘global education industry’, where cancellation of the International Baccalaureate’s May 2020 high stakes examination instigated a wide-ranging discussion about the organisation. This was triggered by the publication of IB results for 174,355 students in 146 countries, many of which showed large discrepancies between predicted and final grades. Using computer-assisted discourse analysis and a corpus of tweets containing the hashtag #ibscandal, patterns of language use are analysed, providing valuable new insights into the impact on students in different national contexts.

EXPLORING WORK PLACEMENT EXPERIENCE: CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, MAURITIUS

The inclusion of job training and learning has recently been acknowledged as not only a key element of organizational initiatives to enhance learners' job readiness, but even as an organizational initiative to establish themselves in the marketable global education industry (Tran & Soejatminah, 2016). University students’ work-readiness continue to be a significant issue, with Mauritian industries lamenting a lack of soft skills and real-life experiences deemed necessary for recruitment. The University of Technology, Mauritius (UTM) has completely adopted the Work Placement principles since 2014 to extend numerous options to its learners to offer relevant work experiences. The present study aims at exploring the role of the Work Placement experience among the students studying at the UTM. A survey was conducted using an online questionnaire among 230 participants to measure soft-skill development. Before and after the internship, descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations, and varying scores were investigated using SPSS. The results reveal that students have a positive attitude toward the acquired skills and abilities through Work Placement. The majority of the students asserted that through their Work Placement experiences, they have acquired important soft skills and have become excellent team players and good communicators

Ambivalent governance and the changing role of the state: Understanding the rise of international schools in Shanghai through the lens of policy networks

The current literature demonstrates the commercialised orientations of international schools in China and the role of the global education industry and overseas governments. This paper, drawing on narratives of school principals and senior managers who experienced the rise of international schools in Shanghai and working with theoretical tools from policy network studies and policy sociology, demonstrates the powerful and pragmatic role of the state in shaping and shifting the beliefs and traditions of international school practices and policies, and a process of disrupted neoliberalisation. The findings indicate the complexities and ambivalences in such notions as education governance, neoliberalisation, and globalisation, and shed light on the localised modalities and assemblages embedded within specific Chinese education policy contexts.

Games theory and strategic alliances: applications to British Russian partnership

PurposeThis conceptual paper examines the need for viable theoretical models of international learning alliances in the light of cooperative games and complexity in two distinguished educational settings. Game theory is used to demonstrate the need for the top managerial executives to acquire a detailed understanding of decision makers' behaviours and trigger the deployment of complex analytical methods. The paper scrutinizes Russia's pursued aggressive approach using shock therapy, also suggest the critical need to reform policy.Design/methodology/approachCombining the critical analysis of (1) cooperative games and (2) adaptive systems structures, a dependable model is derived, which sets the baseline for determining the role of costs and gains. The analysis is supported using a real-world example of an alliance between British University (the X and Y alliance) and Russian University. It also emphasizes the importance of both internal and external pressure variables closely connected with the cooperative games, adaptive system and shock therapy.FindingsTwo features of alliances have been emphasized. The first is the importance of informal relationships in the evolution of partnerships and of cooperation. This is a well-known factor in the success of any relationship. Especially in international partnerships, empathy at the individual level is perhaps necessary to bypass the influence of historical and cultural differences that are barriers at the macro level, preconditions rather than consequences of successful policies and contractual arrangements at the level of organizations and governments. The second feature is interdependence at the cost–benefit level and in the domain of decisions. The cooperation of both partners is required to realize payoffs.Practical implicationsThe implication of this paper is a guideline for regulators and policymakers designing worldwide alliances in higher education. In addition, this paper covers an interesting domain that could be of interest to organizations involved in forming strategic alliances, developing and re-engineering policies for strategic coalitions and setting future profitable payoff relationships within the contextual limitations of X and Y.Originality/valueThis paper creates new knowledge by concisely examining the meaning of strategic alliances in the context of the global education industry.

Higher education strategy in digital transformation.

Digital transformation in the global higher education industry determines the future roadmap to a sustainable education management strategy. This research paper aims to develop a qualitative model that advocates how digital transformation as a propelling force could be used to build competitive advantages for universities. Building competitive advantage is a relative, evolving, and important concept in strategy formulation. In recent years, specifically in the education industry, the notion of building competitive advantage is challenged by global phenomena such as digital transformation globalization, information exchange, digitization and social media in most of the global industries. These phenomena have collectively made the process of building competitive advantage rapidly changing, short-term and contextual. These findings aid the evolution of strategic management practices in universities by providing empirical insights in determining the impactful changes and their connection to evolutionary learning. It also stresses the importance of using the developed model as a decision support system to generate, regulate and retain student experience and expectations. This research paper provides first-hand insight into the impactful changes affecting universities’ vision and how they can turn these changes to their advantages and set a road map to design-develop models to integrate and regulate these essential changes in their strategies using evolution learning mechanism and digital transformation strategy.

Global Education Industry - Exploring the state of affairs in Austria

Digitization initiatives in the field of education always correspond with developments in the education industry. In recent years, globally networked development dynamics have emerged that are essentially characterized by an education-industrial complex and are also relevant in Austria. While on the one hand the corona-induced developmental boosts of 'digital' education are welcomed, especially in edtech contexts, on the other hand the international discourses on the problematic role of the global education industry can no longer be ignored. This contribution ties in with these discourses and explores the current state of affairs in Austria. The lack of alternatives to an innovation path, which is often suggested by industry, education policy and education technology, is questioned.