University Partnerships for Academic Programs and Professional Development: Volume 7

The chapters in this book focus on how university-school partnerships can be used to foster academic and program development. The introductory chapter is oriented around three key questions: How do we define innovative international university partnerships? Do these innovative international university partnerships really work? What factors contribute to the success of these collaborations? In addressing these questions, this chapter presents a framework that addresses a taxonomy for innovative programs, elements to develop partnerships, ideas for sustaining collaboration, and challenges that might surface during implementation. In this volume a range of perspectives is presented using case studies and empirical research on how university partnerships are being implemented internationally. These findings suggest that university partnerships have great potential to enhance and even transform colleges and universities.

This chapter presents findings from the author’s qualitative descriptive phenomenological dissertation and explores the complex decision-making processes inherent to internationalizing college and university campuses through the framework of bounded rationality. By capturing the essence of how college and university presidents describe their experiences of complex decision-making, a notable finding that emerged from the author’s study suggests that complex decision-making requires strategic decision-making approaches. Applying other decision-making strategies in complex situations empowers the decision-maker to mindfully maneuver through the intricate factors that impact choice and drive action. This chapter explores the complexity of how decisions are formulated from a strategic mindset, presents strategies and best practices, and offers recommendations that can be implemented as higher educational leaders embark on their own internationalization initiatives.

Much of the literature on higher education transnational, international and cross-border partnerships emphasize the partnerships’ strategic importance to the institutions, the administrative complexities of negotiating in a different language or culture or both, and more often than not, financial gains. Other scholars discuss the importance of developing global citizens. Surprisingly, there seems to be a paucity of research on the role of faculty in cross-border and transnational partnerships. This chapter, through description of one transnational program and the literature, offers reflections that contribute to a much-needed research agenda that faculty are the keystone to forming sustainable, profitable, and strategic partnerships.

This chapter traces how non-positional faculty led an inter-institutional STEM initiative. Starting with one faculty member’s seed idea, the chapter traces how that idea grew into a vision and that vision into an agenda and that agenda into a joint, sustainable STEM concentration. The initiative was organized around Bolman and Deal’s (2008) framework for making sense of an institution and for leading organizational change through an awareness of multiple lenses. The faculty member who initiated the vision analyzed the institution and her place in that institution. Building from her strengths, she sought to enhance her intellectual, emotional and communication skills. Understanding organizational complexities, Dr. C became involved across campus to build relationships and trust, which then led to the formation of a committed STEM team. The STEM team set a clear agenda and pursued cross-campus ownership and collaboration, all the while maintaining respect for diverse opinions, political interests and concerns. Challenges, pitfalls and setbacks, though initially painful, confusing, and disheartening, led to reflection, and most often, became opportunities for realignment and clarity. Though non-positional faculty led the effort, it was cross-campus collaboration that made it possible, and the final approval of the administration made it a reality.

This chapter describes the emergence and functioning of an interinstitutional research group. The topic of this research group, which was started by five large universities of applied sciences (UAS) in the western metropolitan area of the Netherlands, is the study success of ethnic minority groups. With only minor funding by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science a dedicated research team, representing each of the UAS involved, set out to address several unresolved research questions and issues. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture did also provided access to an essential national research data which is normally not accessible for individual institutions. Besides working together on study success research, regular consultation started at the corporate/board level and at the strategic level (directors of education policies) on various study success-related topics, such as new legislation and diversity issues. What differentiates this cooperation from other networks is its multilayered structure and the sharing of detailed data about sensitive strategic issues, policymaking and institutional research by competing UAS. This chapter provides insights on effective working methods, dilemmas and first year achievements of this intensive interinstitutional collaboration. The chapter concludes with ten factors for success in the context described.

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate and explore the five year partnership between University College London (UCL) and Nazarbayev University (NU) in Astana, Kazakhstan. Now that the partnership has ended, there are many valuable lessons that have been learned. This chapter will report on interviews with key members of staff from both UCL and NU revealing their reflections about what went well, the most important lessons that have been learned. The goal of the study is to explore the expertise and experiences of those involved in the UCL/NU partnership in order to provide a record and contribute to the scholarly body of work on Higher Education partnerships. Critical case sampling (purposeful sampling) was employed to select staff members from UCL and NU who were involved in key roles in the establishment and running of the foundation program. It was necessary to include only those staff who had both a key role, and were involved throughout the entirety of the project. Subsequently a small sample of four participants representing both UCL and NU were involved in semi structured interviews. In order to ensure confidentiality, the initials of these individuals have been changed. The interviews revealed a series of key recommendations when entering into transnational higher education partnerships. These are the importance of cultural understanding, patience and flexibility.

In 2013–2014 academic year, the authors led a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The goal of the FLC was to increase participants’ knowledge of and experience with SoTL. The facilitators resided and worked in United States; the co-facilitator and the participants worked at Universidad Del Norte in Colombia South America. The facilitators in the United States spoke English; the participants spoke Spanish. While the technology was sometimes problematic, the translation difficult, and the distance inhibiting, overall the learning community was very successful in meeting its goals. We conclude with the lessons learned from this cross-cultural FLC experience.

Transnational arrangements between different types of higher education institutions provide an interesting example of partnership working, being business arrangements with learning as a core organising principle. Successful partnerships both learn and work together and can become mutually transformative, sources of growth for the individuals and institutions involved. Individual projects early in the lifecycle of a partnership can support this development, enabling both organisations to take responsibility for relationship building and the demonstration of trust. This approach has the advantage that it takes the focus away from the home/away dichotomy often apparent in discussions of transnational partnership working and instead attention turns to the development of a new hybrid organisation, a ‘third space’ characterised by reciprocity, commitment, effective communication, competence and trust.

This chapter provides a case study analysis of a learning and teaching programme which provided the opportunity for a partnership between a London-based university and a private provider in Sri Lanka to have transformational potential. It uses multiple sources of data to identify practical characteristics associated with developing a culture of transformative partnership working which includes the experiences of the ‘boundary spanner’ responsible for its development and leadership.

Emerging economies are becoming less reliant on funding from foreign agencies. One of the consequences of this is the formation of more self-funded international partnerships offering new models of inter-university partnerships. This chapter offers a perspective on such an on-going collaborative international partnership between two institutions of higher education – one in the United States and the other in India. It describes the context in which the partnership was formed, the manner in which it evolved over time as both partners faced barriers, and challenges to the instantiation of the original vision. Sakamoto and Chapman’s (2010) Functional Model for the Analysis of Cross-border Partnerships is used to analyze and organize the key factors that have played roles in the development and success of the partnership. In addition, the chapter focuses on one component of the partnership activities, the short-term professional development visits to the United States for educators from Indian partner institution. Drawing on participants’ experiences from both sides of the partnership, this chapter presents the expectations, challenges, and opportunities this partnership has offered to members of both universities. The chapter ends with recommendations to establish or improve international collaborative university partnerships.

Institutions of higher education are increasingly facing a myriad of challenges emanating from a fast changing higher educational landscape. One strategy colleges and universities adopt as they pursue their missions in a progressively competitive global environment is to form strategic partnerships with other colleges and universities locally and globally. This chapter examines a partnership, anchored in faculty exchange, between an American metropolitan community college, and a public university in the Republic of Kenya, East Africa. The issues discussed include the rationale for the formation of a partnership between a two-year institution and a doctoral-granting institution in spite of their differing missions, the partnership formalization process, types of activities undertaken in each country, program outcomes, and program management and challenges. The chapter concludes with some recommendations that would be useful to anyone considering starting a cross-border faculty exchange program, especially at an institution where infrastructure for internationalization activities is limited.

This chapter provides an example of how a young higher education institution, with only 20 years of existence and around 4,000 students, located in a small town in central Europe, has established and has been maintaining high profile networks and international collaborations with universities and industry. This case focuses on one particular department within the university, the “Institute of International Management,” which has spearheaded this development over the past decade. The initiative originated on the departmental level and subsequently produced spillover effects for the entire university.

Despite budgetary constraints and a locational disadvantage compared to universities in large urban agglomerations of developed countries, a broadly based international mobility alongside intense collaboration in research has been achieved. This has been reached through an integrated strategic approach combining specific teaching activities (study abroad, project classes, joint degrees, quality assurance, massive open online courses, and more), R&D, networks as well as motivated and qualified staff.

This case illustrates how universities from developed countries in Europe, the United States, Australia, parts of Asia, and Latin America, irrespective of size, brand name, location, and financial endowments, are able to internationalize and build sustainable partnerships to the benefit of students, faculty, and a wider group of stakeholders.

In an environment of constrained resources and related quality assurance efforts, a growing number of American institutions are tapping collaborative relationships to develop creative ways to advance institutional outcomes. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education (SEPCHE), a non-profit organization incorporated in 1993, is a collaborative of eight private colleges and universities located in the Greater Philadelphia region. SEPCHE’s institutions are small to mid-sized colleges and universities, and like other institutions of higher education, they are increasingly challenged by several environmental factors including diminished growth in enrollment; reduced family financial capacity; limitations in availability and types of funding; and greater demand for accountability.

This chapter highlights the challenges faced by faculty to ensure that students are learning at the highest levels while balancing teaching, research and institutional responsibilities, and the role that collaborative professional development can play in helping faculty attend to these challenges. Several examples illustrate how faculty-led professional development efforts have expanded professional and research capacity efforts across institutions.

The chapter includes faculty perspectives on what has helped and hindered adoption of these efforts within and across institutions. It assesses institutional conditions and supports for sustained collaborations. These efforts are part of an initiative examining faculty work and student learning in the 21st century funded by the Teagle Foundation.

As industries are increasingly globalized, our students’ future workplaces require facility with cross-cultural collaboration, yet curricula often remain situated within the home culture. This chapter presents a qualitative case study on a collaborative project between students in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore. An overview of the process is given drawing on the experiences of the teachers and students involved, informing a discussion around the issues inherent in the internationalization of the curriculum. Tutors created a shared private Facebook group to connect London College of Fashion students with students at City University Hong Kong and LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore. Students worked on separate but aligned briefs that mirror contemporary working patterns and allowed co-creation of educational experiences beyond the geographic and time constraints of working internationally, specifically addressing issues around global and local communications. The Facebook platform was used separately and collaboratively to support students’ learning and the digitally mediated collaboration allowed for flexibility in when and how education took place, providing a third space for co-creation of learning: a global classroom.

Since its inception at Harvard in 1921, the Doctorate in Education (EdD) has been a degree fraught with confusion as to its purpose and distinction from the PhD. In response to this, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), a collaborative project consisting of 80+ schools of education located in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand were established to undertake a critical examination of the EdD and develop it into the degree of choice for educators who want to generate knowledge and scholarship about practice or related policies and steward the education profession. However, programmatic changes in higher education can bring both benefits and challenges (Levine, 2005). This chapter explains: the origins of the education doctorate; how CPED as a network of partners has changed the EdD; the use of bi-annual Convenings as spaces for this work; CPED’s three phases of membership that have built the network; CPED’s path forward.