EAST ASIA RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS NETWORK: NEW FORMS OF INTERNATIONALISATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Research influences and the development of a network Dina Lewis and Catherine Montgomery

BACKGROUND TO DEVELOPMENT OF NETWORK: EMERGENCE OF STRATEGY

• As the result of an unsuccessful visit to China in 2011, the Faculty decided to develop a new strategic approach to internationalisation • Appointed Prof Catherine Montgomery in September 2012 as Associate Dean International Engagement • Next trips to China 2012-13 began to follow a research-led agenda, targeting strategic partners with shared research interests particularly in the field of internationalisation • Established a small number of high quality partnerships

INFLUENCES

• Our research-based approach was influenced by current theory and emerging thinking across the sector • The Bone Report (2008) ‘UK and US institutions will need to broaden their perspective on overseas work. Even if recruitment of students to study in the UK remains an objective, it will increasingly have to take place in a context of bi-lateral and multilateral internationalisation’.

HORIZON SCANNING: WHAT WILL HIGHER EDUCATION LOOK LIKE IN 2020? INTERNATIONAL UNIT, LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION OBSERVATORY ON BORDERLESS EDUCATION (LAWTON ET AL 2013)

This study takes as its base line the 2008 Bone report…There is now an assumption that collaboration of some sort - co-existing with competition - is an inevitable part of internationalisation.

‘Five years on universities and governments everywhere now speak the language of partnerships in higher education. It was reported in May 2013 that the Chinese government was seeking more ties with European institutions (Sharma 2013)…it was said that both sides had moved on from mainly facilitating student exchanges to discussing institutional-level cooperation and

creating joint-research platforms’.

HORIZON SCANNING

• …A spokes person at the European University Association said that ‘It is not just about both sides gaining a few more foreign students. It is…. about creating a global architecture for collaboration’. It was said to be evident that policy-makers and university leaders had moved on from their mindset of seeing China as a source of fee-paying students or as a competitor towards viewing China as a partner in research.

THE RISE AND NEEDS OF THE ASEAN NATIONS: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

‘Research must become increasingly important in Vietnamese universities in the era of globalisation. To be effective, universities must teach their students that knowledge itself is not fixed (in this respect departing from their Confucian tradition) but is always developing and changing in response to new discoveries and emerging needs’. (Tran and Marginson, 2014, p.16)

ALIGNING RESEARCH AND STRATEGIC DIRECTION

• We began a research project that developed alongside the emergence of our internationalisation strategy • We collected data on internationalisation strategies in our strategic partner universities across China, England, Vietnam and Hong Kong • Recorded semi-structured interviews with DVCs, Deans and Heads of international offices in 3 institutions in China, 3 in England, 3 in Vietnam and ongoing work in Hong Kong • The research continued to influence our thinking and informed the development of the Faculty’s internationalisation strategy

CHINESE INSTITUTION1

Deepening cooperation to build world class universities

Dean: ‘Since I think 2010 the call for [internationalisation] as deepening cooperation around universities as their goal now is building a first class university and improving our ability to research……’

CHINESE INSTITUTION 2

•

Comprehensive explicit strategy

Dean: ‘Now internationalisation is so important to any university we are making progress in this internationalisation process. Four aspects are important first the research field, the second is how we organise our faculty members, the third part is our students’ background and the fourth one is academics’exchange and cooperation’.

• • • Faculty members - recruited with overseas experience Recruiting students -from overseas especially Asia - bilingual courses Close collaboration with overseas professors eg internationally acclaimed visiting professors and collaboration with academics in Norway to host an annual research conference.

CHINESE INSTITUTION 3

Changing the way we think

During past 10 years we think international faces doesn’t mean true internationalisation; we should share something international…..what can we share or what can we offer [through] international collaboration….

This is the new international. If people don’t change in mind they just think ‘We are visiting China’ its not called international; you are still UK people, we are still Chinese people. But when you can think the same way with our partners, both ways is called true international. I think so, then we are trying to build up something really international.

ENGLISH INSTITUTION 1

Internationalisation as a lever for change

PVC: It is difficult to get institutions to change getting people to think in a different way is difficult. University of **** was a late starter in terms of the internationalisation game. For many people internationalisation is student-recruitment, many colleagues still think that is what it is…….But I think now there is more join up – there is a sliver thread running between research,

international partnerships, reputation and world rankings.

ENGLISH INSTITUTION 2

Increasing emphasis on quality

Head of international office: so the first strategic objective is to develop and sustain a number of high quality in-country operations and partnerships to deliver excellent teaching, training, engagement and research….so there is quality operations, the quality and the partnership in the country ..this is obviously internationalisation abroad. Then the second one is promote international collaboration, to ensure that our research remains at the forefront of world development. So with research at the university one of the key factors is ensuring that anything we do aligns with our research capacity and our research objectives.. And the third one is to develop a cohort of high quality partners abroad that share our vision.

ENGLISH INSTITUTION 3

Broader conceptualisations

DVC: ‘My understanding of the concept of internationalisation is much broader than the recruitment of students and the creation of collaborative arrangements…..At the moment at *****it means the recruitment of students to this campus, the enrolment of students at transnational education in foreign parts, it means the facilitation of student mobility in international quarters, a whole range of Erasmus arrangements in Europe, international research and commercial collaboration where we can. So that’s quite a large definition’.

VIETNAMESE INSTITUTION 1

Priorities in Vietnamese HE

DVC: The single most important area for development in this university is ‘cooperation with the foreign universities. We need people from different points of view to look at our procedure in the training student and staff member. We need some people to find out [what] the problems [are]. We need to share some projects and work with others on Education and Science. This is very important for our changing of the country.’

VIETNAMESE INSTITUTION 2

The need for a network

• Head of international office: ‘we think that we can start from [the] very beginning and very basic [with] the collaboration between individuals. And I see that we can start from small things, small projects, and we can spread and expand further more and wider projects. And we can start from very specific issues and questions and then you can expand it into more strategic trends’.

HONG KONG INSTITUTION 1

Need for paradigm shift

Dean: ‘During last 5 years research collaborations have very much been encouraged. For example I was in Beijing last week talking to partners and extending partnerships reaching out in all sorts of ways and my Associate Dean was in Korea building research partnerships’.

‘We used to see ourselves as the nexus between East and West but going forward universities in China no longer go through Hong Kong to relate to the rest of the world and

so we have developed new approaches to

internationalisation’.

THEMES FROM THE RESEARCH: THE NEED FOR MULTILATERAL NETWORKS

• Recruitment led strategies no longer fit for purpose • Growing consensus on need for strategic alliances led by research • Growing consensus that fewer high quality partnerships more productive • New forms of internationalisation are based on broader conceptualisations • Experience of internationalisation changes hearts and minds and can lead to improved quality

THE AIMS OF THIS NETWORK ARE:

• To develop awareness of the way in which the sector is conceptualising internationalisation globally • To challenge the dominant discourses and challenge western hegemonic understandings of international education • Build a platform from which to develop mutually beneficial multilateral research partnerships • To start to harness new forms of internationalisation to support research collaborations

DISCUSSION SESSION

Questions?

Discuss the idea of the network: • How might it benefit your university?

• What are the common research themes which might unite the network?

• How could we make the network sustainable?

SUSTAINING THE NETWORK

• Exploring shared research interests: developing a consensus • Joint application for funds • Establishment of a steering group • Online platform • Calls for research partners for international research collaboration to go out through the network • Joint publication

• • •

REFERENCES

• • • Bone D. (2008) Internationalisation of HE: a ten-year view London: DIUS Grant C. (2013) Losing our chains? contexts and ethics of university internationalisation. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education • Maringe F. and Foskett N. (2010) Globalisation and

internationalization in higher

REFERENCES CONTINUED:

• • • • • • Marginson S. (2014)

A response from Simon Marginson

. Part of ‘Responses to Yang Rui’s “China’s Strategy for Internationalization of Higher Education: An Overview”’. Frontiers of Education in China, 9(2) 163-187 Merrian S. (1988) Case study research in education. London: Jossey-Bass Nolan A. Puten J. (2007) Action research in education: addressing gaps in educational principles and practices. Educational Researcher 36(7) Robson S. (2011) Internationalization: a transformative agenda for higher education? Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice 17(6) 619-630 Shamin F. Qureshi R. (2013) Informed consent in educational research in the and international education 43(4), 464-482 Yang R (2014) China’s strategy for the internationalization of higher education: an overview. Frontiers of Education in China 9(2) 151-162