Professor Rafe Hallett and Professor Mark O’Hara reflect on their experience working with colleagues from East Asia, China and the Middle East and North Africa to explore innovative approaches to transnational education.
An international dimension to the university experience can benefit students and staff. This can be achieved through a globalised curriculum, international placements and study abroad opportunities, but also through more formal structures of transnational programme delivery.
Transnational education (TNE) is an alternative approach to providing an international learning experience and is becoming a common feature within the portfolios of many UK higher education institutions (British Council & DAD, 2017), indicating the interest and innovation in this aspect of internationalisation. While these collaborative endeavours can be beneficial to staff, students and the profile of the institution, building successful and effective partnerships in this area is not without its challenges. Transnational education has been defined broadly as ‘education delivered in a country other than the country in which the awarding institution is based’ (UUK, 2020) but models for TNE are increasingly varied, and digital provision means that there are especially interesting overlaps and dependencies between TNE and online and ‘global classroom’ modes of education.
