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Although there is increasing insight in student engagement (SE) in higher education, there is limited insight in how students experience SE in a transnational setting. The purpose of this paper is to explore SE perceptions and transnational experiences. A model, derived from the literature, representing four student identities (consumer, partner, co-creator and citizen) guides the empirical analysis.

Using a phenomenological approach, 18 in-depth interviews were carried out with students (business and management) enroled in transnational education initiatives of three Scottish universities in India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Students primarily identify the partner and consumer model. Significant levels of apathy were found, not only at the level of the students, but also the staff and the university.

Although the study was based on a relatively small sample, it does highlight the impact of the context (external commitments part-time students, “fly in” staff from home campus) on levels of SE.

Stressing again that the study was explorative, the key practical message is that ultimately meaningful dialogue on SE between all stakeholders – inside and outside – needs to take place to forestall a vicious circle of apathy that would be detrimental for quality (assurance).

This is one of the first papers on SE in a transnational context and offers a solid point of departure for follow-up research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify those factors that key actors in university governance hold as to be important in realizing strategic change within their institutions.

Key decision-makers in 26 European universities were surveyed on their views on which factors bring about strategic change. The results were interpreted using a theoretical framework emphasizing organizational archetypes and their development.

The findings indicated that strategic changes in universities were perceived as highly dependent on leadership, decision-making procedures, communication and evaluation. However, some differences between the universities in the sample can be identified, supporting indicating the relevance of using organizational archetypes as an analytical tools for observing change within the higher education sector.

The study links organizational level developments on strategic management to macro-level change within the European higher education landscape, and provides new insights intoon the debate on convergence and differentiation in organizational fields.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of human resources (HR) in organisational change at higher education institutions (HEIs) and the perceptions of those within the organisation towards the HR department and their capability in leading a change initiative.

The objectives were achieved through a case study in which an HR department at a British university was undergoing a cultural change initiative, implemented by the HR department. Primary research was collected by analysing documents underlying the change project. Also 12 semi‐structured interviews of 30‐40 minutes were carried out; interviewees were chosen based on the need to have a cross‐section including members of the change team and the pilot departments.

The HR departments at HEI may be faced with difficulties when attempting to implement change due to the relatively “new” nature of the function, meaning that they must first justify their position, worth and capability before attempting to gain the buy‐in of academic departments to implement a culture change in their departments.

More research could be carried out into a cross‐section of British universities with HR‐led change initiatives to broaden the data collection. Limitations in this research include the relatively small number of interviewees. A greater cross‐section of interviewees would have been beneficial.

The originality of this paper is in the relatively un‐discussed nature of the role of the HR department in change initiatives at HEI and how this could be improved, therefore this could be beneficial for HR departments in this sector.

The research aims to assess the achievements and challenges of international branch campuses (IBCs) to date and to consider how IBC development may progress in the future.

The article presents a review of the scholarly and grey literatures on IBCs. The commentary and discussion is structured around the objectives, perspectives and experiences of three key stakeholder groups, namely the institutions that own IBCs, students and host countries.

Some IBCs have failed to achieve their student recruitment and financial targets, while others have been successful, often expanding and moving into new, larger, purpose-built campuses. In the last few years, several countries have announced their intention to become a transnational education hub, or at least to allow the establishment of IBCs. It may be reasonable to assume that when there is demand for a product, supply will eventually follow. IBCs will survive and prosper as long as they provide benefits to each of their main stakeholder groups (i.e. students, institutions and governments), and as long as the local demand for higher education places exceeds the total supply.

The article provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of IBC developments and research during the period 2000–2020. The findings and conclusions will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners.

In this paper, a real option model is developed to examine the critical factors affecting the decision to lease agricultural land to a company installing a PV power plant. Subsidies introduced by governments for the production of renewable energies have increased the investments in this sector. Since ground-based solar cells need land for energy production, then potential trade-off with agriculture in terms of land exists. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper uses the real option approach in order to take into account for uncertainty and irreversibility of the farmer's decision.

By applying the model to the province of Bologna (Italy), the paper illustrates the possible land-use change scenarios in this area. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of PV energy production as a source of income for farmers and its implications from a social perspective.

The research is applied to the province of Bologna (Italy) where investments in ground-based solar cells are becoming quite common. The originality lies in the fact of considering the investment as irreversible, since it is a 20-year commitment from the farmers. The paper also takes into account the uncertainty in agricultural commodities' prices.