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This chapter explores the potential of transnational history for researching global higher education policy. It begins with an overview of transnational history as a perspective, demonstrating how it is, in part, a response to processes of globalization that have also transformed contemporary higher education. Second, it reviews key features of transnational history as a perspective that can enhance global higher education policy research. The third part takes dimensions of contemporary global higher education and discusses how these can be approached through a transnational historical perspective drawing on the features outlined. The chapter concludes by highlighting how a transnational historical approach can enable new insights and research questions as well as some challenges presented by this perspective. The spatial focus of the chapter is predominantly European higher education, though the implications are more general.

The field of higher education is constantly evolving, particularly in the era of globalisation. With the expansion and influence of Western paradigms, the influence of transnational education (TNE) in the developing world has been gaining significant traction and impact. This chapter attempts to formulate conclusions about the key determining factors behind the penetration and entrenchment of primarily the Anglo-Saxon style of University Education. Within that spectrum, the discussion will also cover how this manifests, looking specifically at various models of TNE and collaborative provision, exploring the possible connotations for small businesses. The final section will attempt to crystallise the main findings and propose directions for further research.

This chapter draws on a number of literary sources, both academic and practitioner, to enable reconciling different discipline areas. Empirical studies will also be explored to provide additional substantiation to the theoretical mantle. This chapter forms conclusions on how the various models of TNE have evolved across the world, the impact of this expansion has created for the local population in terms of skills development and accessibility to education, but also in terms of implications for the local economy and small businesses in particular. A novel approach is taken in trying to bring together disparate thematic areas, which although topical have rarely been explored in conjunction. This chapter will be of interest to a wide audience, including academics and researchers but also policy-makers and professionals in the small business field.

Education to an international standard that can provide successful careers has arguably been the main drive of many parents to allocate scarce financial resources to the education of their progenies. Competition for high-calibre degrees has seen an explosion of opportunity in the private education sector. As many Global South countries do not have the equivalent control of standards provided in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Quality Assurance Agency, this can lead to dissatisfaction with the qualifications received in the Global South. This chapter aims to explore the factors influencing participation in higher education in the Global North versus the Global South, particularly where these relate to or vary by locality, and the relative influence these have on the propensity of the learners living in these areas to progress into higher education in local universities. The conceptual framework and methodology provided in this chapter show the differences between transnational education (TNE) as primarily a standalone or independent activity supported by a UK higher education institution (HEI)/provider versus being a collaborative effort between a UK host university and a South/Southeast Asian HEI university partner. The methodology provides a strategy for UK host institutions to best provide carefully aligned independent or collaborative partnerships with the partner country regulatory bodies. The chapter concludes with the author’s personal reflections and recommendations based on decades of collaborative and independent university provision of TNE. These reflections are focused on design-based courses in selected South/Southeast Asian HEI partnerships with the College of Architecture and Design at Birmingham City University.

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant disruptions to academic activities in educational institutions across countries of the world. In the context of transnational higher education (TNHE), the pandemic has led to major shifts in face-to-face teaching and learning, students’ support services and student engagement. While a number of scholarly studies have examined the effect of the pandemic on education provision across different educational levels, not much has been done to address existing gaps in how academic leaders could support the transformation of the TNHE sector to respond to current disruptions. In order to address these gaps, the current study adopts a case study approach to examine the complex and evolving academic leadership roles in TNHE institutions in Ghana with respect to remote teaching and learning and virtual team activities. The current study addresses the following questions: What academic leadership approaches are essential to developing innovative practices in host TNHE in order to meet the learning needs of students during and after the pandemic? How can transformational leadership approaches interface with institutional theory to provide new direction for transforming TNHE during and after the pandemic? How can academic leadership roles support the transformation of TNHE during and after the COVID-19 pandemic? As a major contribution for addressing gaps in academic leadership roles in TNHE environments especially during COVID-19, the current study proposes an eight-component transformation model. The study concludes by arguing that the challenges facing TNHE especially during the current period of disruptions will require a transformative and innovative academic leadership approach that would ensure that education delivery addresses current and future students’ learning needs.

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.

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.

This chapter proposes selected cultural values and worldviews of cosmopolitan individual cultural identity as an ideal and model for international and transnational higher education, in teaching and learning, benefitting individuals and institutions. As a “metacultural position” and interactive engagement with the “Other,” cosmopolitan teaching and learning could impact national and global higher education. Such reflection of timeless educational values and ideals could benefit the development higher education systems in our ever more globalizing world.

Conceptually, cosmopolitan identity is defined via a complex literature matrix of key issues and concerns of world citizenship, substantiated and enriched by considerable critical thinking. Empirically, an investigation of highly multilingual students for revelations of their global identity strengthens and furthers this framework. Overall, interdisciplinary insights from literary, social, media and gender studies complement contributions to higher education's universality and values, so as to suit individual, institutional, and international needs.

Cosmopolitan features and values could harmonize global knowledge systems yet without cultural hegemonies, by building cross-cultural standards via best identity notions and practices. Recognizing equally valuable cultural contributions would also improve institutions' diversity, equity, and inclusion, raising educational quality, motivations, and expectations. Cosmopolitan identity could thus educationally enrich and institutionally empower for global complexity and uncertainty.

Educational stakeholders could shape institutions for cosmopolitan cultural values and increased diversity, with transnational norms and practices grounded in local realities, such as improved linguistic competences, or increased cultural understanding and engagement. Individual internationalization could therefore develop parallel to cultural and educational worldviews, expandable and improvable on an open-ended scale.

The relationship between soft power and international education is not a new phenomenon. Students have studied abroad since the origin of the modern university in the Middle Ages and have been influenced by what they learned and experienced. Faculty members and researchers have also crossed borders for millennia, and knowledge has always been international in scope. Indeed, medieval universities were international institutions, bringing together students and faculty from many European countries and operating in a single language, Latin (Haskins, 2002). Through its strong emphasis on theology and canon law, the medieval university served as a bastion of power for the Catholic Church. The Jesuit mission of spreading the faith through education was an important aspect of the church's soft power. Historically, the Jesuits recognized education as a powerful force and established schools and universities around the world to spread knowledge and Roman Catholicism (O’Malley, Bailey, Harris, & Kennedy, 1999). Missionaries from various other Christian denominations were also actively involved in higher education overseas (Ashby, 1966; Lutz, 1971).

Despite the multitude of regional-based collaborations in higher education, regionalism theories have received relatively little attention in the literature on higher education. In view of this gap, this chapter seeks to make a case for the study of regionalism and explores how this field could enrich higher education research. This chapter discusses the context of the rise of the regional landscape vis-à-vis the acceleration of globalisation and internationalisation of higher education. It further probes into theoretical and empirical insights, elucidating in particular core regionalism concepts, theories and approaches within the more recent ‘turns’ in regionalism. Empirical cases from regions across the world are presented to help expound on the conceptual points raised.

This chapter relates to identifying the experience, skills and competencies of those responsible for operationalizing and developing transnational education (TNE) partnerships. Despite the growth of TNE internationally, little detailed attention has been paid to these individuals, often called academic liaison (or link) tutors. They are good examples of “boundary spanners” (Williams, 2013, p. 17) or “third space professionals” (Whitchurch, 2008, p. 378). Using concepts associated with “distributed leadership” (Gronn, 2002, p. 423) to explain leadership in collaborative provision as distributed practice, the research represented in the chapter made use of activity theory (Engeström, 1987) to identify the range of contextual factors that an academic liaison tutor needs to take into account in developing a TNE partnership. Findings indicate that an academic liaison tutor needs experience of working in complex environments, in-depth understanding of organizational procedures, the ability to manage power differentials, sophisticated communication and interpersonal skills, the ability to create and lead a cultural context for learning and development, change management and the ability to resolve difficulties. These factors provide the foundation for suggestions for staff recruitment, development and training.