International Branch Campuses Research Articles

International relations the international branch campus model: current debates and prospects for the future

This article examines the controversies surrounding the international branch campus (IBC) model. After outlining the research purpose, theoretical framework, and methodology, the paper tackles the stated myths of IBCs and offers evidence-based facts. Evidence is offered to support a critique of the myths that are interestingly advanced through research. This review establishes that (1) recent IBC developments on the provider side help to mitigate the risk of post-colonialism; (2) IBC continues to experience dramatic growth, albeit in different and increasingly changing formats, motivations, and targets; (3) virtual programs do not necessarily impede the growth of other forms of higher education; and (4) the majority of IBC programs are of acceptable quality due to high levels of regulation and student engagement.

Navigating New Terrain: First-Year Chinese Students’ Transitionary Experiences In a Sino-US Joint Venture University In China

The growth of international higher education, with an increase in inbound students and the creation of foreign university branch campuses, has made quality education available globally. But this also presents challenges for academic adjustment for international students. Although there is a significant amount of literature on the struggles faced by international students studying abroad, there is limited research on the challenges faced by students attending International Branch Campuses (IBCs) within their home countries. This study aims to fill this gap by using a qualitative exploratory approach to understand the specific challenges faced by first-year university students in China at a Sino-US international branch campus. Data was collected through interviews and focus groups with 28 students, five faculty members, and three student support staff. The findings provide valuable insights into the institutional and teaching challenges faced by these students, which are different from those faced by international students studying abroad.

Global American Higher Education: Diversity, Unity, Mutuality

In Short Cross-border American higher education is often conflated with international branch campuses. But there are other institutional forms, such as microcampuses, international joint universities, and independent universities. The different forms developed at different times with different missions and serve different roles. Reflecting on their histories and functions provides an opportunity to appreciate the scope and variety of American higher education abroad. Contemporary relations among higher education institutions are often viewed through a lens of competition. But careful consideration of American institutions abroad demonstrates a history of collaboration. The principle of mutuality provides a framework to help international campuses to operate in ways that oppose colonialism. Stateside educators can be key partners for colleagues overseas. Continued and expanded collaboration will be critical in the years ahead when the geopolitical environment for international education is uncertain at best.

Transnational education, labor market outcomes and graduate employability: a scoping review

PurposeThis scoping review aims to survey literature that covers employability preparation and labor market outcomes for graduates from transnational higher education institutions.Design/methodology/approachThis scoping literature review uses career ecosystems as a theoretical framework and the context-input-process-outcomes model as a conceptual framework.FindingsThis scoping review confirms a limited research base of approximately 50 sources that primarily use qualitative methods and socio-economic theories to center the student voice and focus on international branch campuses in the Middle East and Asia. Notably, there is a lack of focus on staff experiences regarding the process of preparing students for employment. The review also demonstrates the need for more research on career processes and outcomes in transnational higher education.Research limitations/implicationsThis scoping review is relevant to higher education institutions seeking to meet the challenges of preparing graduates for more than one national labor market. It has implications for universities' ability to attract students, develop relevant labor market preparation programming and understand whether the institution is addressing local employment needs. For researchers, it offers insight and impetus into the area of inquiry regarding transnational education, graduate labor market outcomes and employability.Practical implicationsPractical implications are drawn for students, parents, policymakers and transnational and non-transnational higher education institutions, as well as those who are engaged in providing international education and career advice.Social implicationsThis review offers insight into developing labor market-relevant TNE programming, which may be helpful both for host and home country transnational education stakeholders interested in impact.Originality/valueThis is one of the first reviews to systematically address literature about employability preparation and labor market outcomes for graduates from transnational higher education institutions; in using career ecosystems theory, this review offers a bridge between international higher education and career studies.

Multilevel research on factors impacting international branch campuses’ global integration and local responsiveness: an empirical investigation of two Canadian cases

ABSTRACT The considerable institutional distance between home and host countries of most international branch campuses (IBCs) necessitates that they address the managerial challenge of balancing global integration and local responsiveness. Previous studies have investigated IBCs’ strategies for addressing this challenge as well as the macro- or micro-level factors impacting their strategies. This study extends previous research by constructing a multilevel framework for understanding both macro- and micro-level factors and adopting it to guide the empirical investigation of two Canadian cases. The results demonstrate that the two Canadian IBCs have maintained a high level of localisation in staffing but different levels of globalisation in curriculum. Like many other IBCs, these two IBCs, as institutions, are inactive in research, although they do provide occasional support for research activities. Such strategies are increasingly influenced by the institutional forces in their host countries than those in their home country at the macro level. At the micro level, the strategies are primarily impacted by their students’ educational demands. These findings exemplify strategies for other IBCs and for Canadian postsecondary institutions that consider opening overseas campuses.

Transnational Technical Communication: English as a Business Lingua Franca in Engineering Workplaces

Recent scholarship argues for increased attention to students’ linguistic diversity and intercultural communication competence. Our study examined the experiences of 10 working engineers who had graduated from an English-medium international branch campus in the Arabian Gulf. An analysis of their interviews reveals the complex role of English as a business lingua franca (BELF) in workplace communication. Interviewees’ reflections about their university experience indicate that they had not previously understood the full rhetorical and communicative nature of BELF. We provide implications for instructors who wish to provide methods that center intercultural professional communication and decenter English as a standardized, static language.

Critique and change: The “what”, “why”, “how”, and “so what”

Critique and change: The “what”, “why”, “how”, and “so what”

Choice of international branch campus: a case study

International branch campuses (IBCs) are becoming an alternative to domestic higher education institutions. Through interviews with Chinese undergraduates at a British IBC in China, this article examines the choice of a British IBC, using a combined model as the conceptual framework. It finds that the factors both affecting college choice and impacting study abroad influence the choice to study at an IBC, because of the nature of IBCs as foreign presences in the host countries. Academic achievement and supply of resources are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the choice of IBC. Further, students choose IBCs over other universities with similar entry requirements because of their capital and habitus, represented by their socio-economic status. Both students and their parents hope to leverage their accumulated cultural capital to reproduce their cultural capital, or to convert their existing economic capital into cultural capital. Moreover, social capital affects the choice to study at an IBC, and its impacts depend on the volume, strength and quality of the social network. Parents are the most influential persons, impacting the choice of IBC with their capital. Last, institutional characteristics, particularly as a gateway to studying abroad, attract students to study at IBCs.

Push-Pull Factors Influencing Chinese Mainland Students Attending IBCs: A Case Study

This qualitative study, applying in-depth interview and push-pull theory, analyzed the factors influencing Chinese students’ choices to attend international branch campuses (IBCs) in China. The results showed that the pull factors can be found from admission policies, pedagogical characteristics, and postgraduation issues, while the push factors are caused by China’s higher education entrance examination. This study also discussed the reverse-push and reverse-pull factors, finding that the overseas universities tend to have a pull force that attracting Chinese students to leave IBCs, and factors like social recognition and course arrangement may discourage Chinese students to attend IBCs.

Why International Branch Campuses Stutter and Stall and How to Fix Them

Why International Branch Campuses Stutter and Stall and How to Fix Them

THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPUSES’ ROLE IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UAE

Internationalization of higher education includes recruiting international students, collaborating on joint programs, pursuing international accreditation, becoming world-class universities, developing international quality assurance systems, and establishing an educational hub. Foreign campuses are one of the most common models of internationalization. The purpose of this article is to study and evaluate the experience of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in higher education, especially the impact of international branch campuses on the education system in the country. We believe this experience of the UAE’s reforms in the education system deserves attention for universities in Kazakhstan. We explore the reasons for the growth of transnational campuses, as well as their benefits. In particular, the increase in numbers of foreign Alma-maters may enhance the quality of teaching in public universities. Moreover, we found that accreditation is a sort of internationalization model of higher education, which was not given enough attention by scientists. The data for this study were collected from peer-reviewed academic journals, available official records on their websites and official reports. Key words: Internationalization, international branch campuses, universities, UAE.

Resisting neocolonial harm and localising global standards at international branch campuses: a comparative study of two Canadian cases

ABSTRACT Since the beginning of the 21st century, international branch campuses have experienced significant growth worldwide, and most of them are established in the Global South by the Global North, reproducing Western hegemony through education. In this context, we conducted a comparative study to analyse the convergence and divergence of the neocolonial practices at Shanghai Vancouver Film School and Algonquin College-Kuwait, two international branch campuses established by Canadian post-secondary institutions. The results demonstrate the two Canadian international branch campuses modernise and internationalise the post-secondary education system in their importing countries by resisting neocolonial harm and localising global standards. When mimicking their home institutions’ curriculum, they both exercise agency, albeit to different degrees, by resisting Western liberal ideologies and teaching contents irrelevant to the local context, attempting to create a third space for students to engage with multiple perspectives and knowledge systems.

The inversion of majority/minority at the de/reterritorialised urban higher education enclave: Xiamen University Malaysia

This article examines the inversion of majority/minority at Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM), the offshore campus of a mainland Chinese public university and the catalyst development of a satellite township in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia. Using the framing of the de/reterritorialised urban higher education enclave, it examines how, within the campus gates, the interests, needs and priorities of the ‘migrant majority’ (mainland Chinese users) take precedence over other user groups that have, in turn, become the ‘minorities’. Given the Malaysian state’s longstanding defensive stance towards ‘Chinese’ education, the existence of XMUM is unprecedented. This article shows how this de/reterritorialised international branch campus has been made possible by the broader Sino-Malaysian geopolitical and urban capitalist relations. The inversion of majority/minority on campus challenges and complicates Malaysia’s state-sanctioned multi-ethnic co-existence, which prioritises the Muslim Malay majority over other groups. Nevertheless, students’ views complicate the neat categorisations of majority/minority and inclusion/exclusion. Such perspectives highlight the need to examine the de/reterritorialised branch campus as a space in-the-making.

Higher education regionalism in the former Soviet Union: a qualitative exploration of Russian university branch campuses

ABSTRACT Drawing on higher education regionalism, this paper explores international branch campus (IBC) initiatives undertaken by one of the largest Russian IBC-exporting institutions, the Lomonosov Moscow State University (LMSU). To date, very little is known about higher education (HE) export-import between the post-Soviet countries. This qualitative inquiry critically examines the Soviet legacy of LMSU IBCs to understand their origins, purposes, and utility as a form of HE export. This paper sheds light on (1) the similarities and differences between six LMSU IBCs and (2) discourses used to rationalise the establishment of LMSU branch campuses. The findings from this paper suggest that LMSU IBCs are established (a) to promote the Russian HE model, (b) to strengthen political and cultural ties with neighbouring countries, and (c) to bolster LMSU’s image and brand appeal in the region.

Whiteness as world-class education?: Internationalization as depicted by Western international branch campuses in China.

A case study is used to understand how Western international branch campuses (IBCs) in China represent themselves through web-based branding materials. Drawing on colonial discourse analysis and the theoretical framework of Whiteness as futurity, this study examined the case of Wenzhou-Kean University, a Sino-US cooperative institution to understand how Western IBCs in China interpret and promote internationalization in higher education. By examining how Whiteness through the discourse of world-class education has been mobilized and reproduced, this study argued that the operation of IBCs perpetuated Western supremacy in the global higher education landscape at the expense of local people and knowledges.

Global integration barriers at international branch campuses: the IBC Othering Loop

PurposeThe quality and market viability of international branch campuses (IBCs) depend upon their integration with university headquarters. Recent trends toward localizing branch-campus hiring have raised questions about the extent to which non-parent-campus lecturers will support global integration pursuits. This paper aims to examine IBC lecturers’ orientations towards global integration, exploring how they identify themselves and their campuses as part of their wider universities.Design/methodology/approachEmploying constructivist grounded theory methodology, 37 lecturers and leaders at four Australian branch campuses in Southeast Asia were interviewed, engaging them in semi-structured discussions of their identities and experiences. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using NVivo in an iterative process of theory development.FindingsBranch-campus lecturers interviewed generally construct their individual and campus identities as separate from their wider universities. Barriers to branch campuses’ global integration include low organizational identification of lecturers, challenges in their relationships with headquarters colleagues and perceptions of cross-campus disparities in resources and students. Branch campuses’ organizationally separate identities are enacted in practice, fueling a self-reinforcing “Othering Loop” that could undermine these campuses’ quality and viability.Originality/valueThis research is the first emic exploration of locally-hired branch-campus lecturers’ views toward global integration. These findings provide an important corrective to the existing literature on this topic, challenging assumptions that localizing branch-campus hiring is the primary risk to integration. Multiple points of potential managerial intervention were identified, highlighting opportunities for university leaders to address contextual barriers and improve international branch campuses’ global integration while continuing current trends toward localized hiring.

Mobile educational space and imaginative travellers in-situ: A case study of a UK international branch campus in China

ABSTRACT This paper problematizes the neglect of spatiality and materiality of international branch campuses in extant studies and challenges the predominant representation of transnational education students merely in terms of their corporeal immobility. Based on a case study of a UK international branch campus in China, this paper incorporates interview narratives and ethnographic observations to reveal the students’ experiences and imaginations, and to delineate the unique texture of the spatiality of the campus. In examining the dynamic interrelations between imagination, materiality, and (im)mobility in transnational educational spaces, this paper highlights the students’ imaginative process, in which spatial imagination and imaginative space (re)produce each other and are complicated by the various sources of power at play. The international branch campus thus functions as an infrastructure of im/mobilities, which is both locally embedded and transnationally connected; it enables students’ imaginative mobilities, transforming them into ‘imaginative travellers’ who have never physically been abroad but whose being and belonging are constantly negotiated by their everyday experiences in a mobile educational space.

Identity development in institutional change of international branch campuses in Malaysia: an empirical study

ABSTRACT While existing research has explored the development of international branch campuses (IBCs) in Malaysia from several dimensions, the discussion on the IBCs’ identity development within the dynamics of higher education internationalisation can benefit from further elucidation. Applying the framework of institutional change, this research inquired how Malaysian IBCs proceeded with identity development in their institutional change and fit into the internationalisation agenda as a new set of players. Semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation were used to collect data, along with relevant documents used subsidiarily in the study. The results showed that the IBCs experienced various identity development processes in their institutional changes, showing a stable growth and enrichment of international, regional, and local elements. The identity development within IBCs’ institutional change sheds light on the development of higher education internationalisation.

The common factors underlying successful international branch campuses: towards a conceptual decision-making framework

ABSTRACT The last 25 years have witnessed the emergence of the International Branch Campus (IBC) as a means of providing Transnational Higher Education (TNE). The growth in the number of IBCs has not been without examples of failure and in some cases controversy, necessitating informed decision-making on the part of university leaders contemplating such a venture. Based on a systematic review of literature concerning the motivations for establishing IBCs; the drivers of sustainability and longevity; and case studies of successful and unsuccessful ventures by UK universities, this paper identifies key characteristics of successful IBCs. It proposes a framework – combining strategic, leadership, academic, financial and operational factors – for use by decision-makers in determining whether to establish and how to manage an IBC.

Cross-Border Higher Education: The Expansion of International Branch Campuses

The international expansion of higher education has intensified in recent decades with a rapidly growing number of international branch campuses appearing on the scene. This study investigates the economic, cultural and institutional, and educational determinants of transnational higher education on both the extensive margin (number of international branch campuses), and the intensive margin (the total number of educational programmes offered). Using the gravity equation, we applied fixed-effect empirical methods to a panel dataset that combined and extended the raw data from campuses and master’s programmes in 33 source countries and 76 host countries in the period from 1948 to 2016. Estimates reveal that although cultural, economic and institutional ties foster cross-border educational relationships, their effect differs significantly from one margin to another. The study highlights the relevance of globalisation, research activities, and aggregate demand in international higher education.