Example Actions and Activities

Kent Objectives and Outcomes

In order to ensure that the UK’s European University commitment continues to have impact and creditability, the University has committed to delivering a broad range of modules and programmes which have key relevance to European-focused subject areas (UoK, 2019e), both at our UK campuses and at our centres in Europe (UoK, 2019d).

The University has continued to engage proactively with European research (UoK, 2019a), representative organisations – especially with the prospect of Brexit (UUKi 2019b) – and with good practice sharing networks (SGroup 2019) with collaborators from European institutions. The University’s traditions of mobility (within Europe) of staff and students remains strongly supported and its pledge (UoK, 2019b) to support all the University of Kent’s European features involving staffing and students continues to strengthen (UoK, 2019c).

Challenges

Ongoing challenges include how individual institutions and the wider UK sector can continue to maintain diversity on their campuses by attracting European and international students and academics (Yudkevic et al., 2016). Consideration also needs to be given to how this might impact on the realisation of these ambitious aims within the UK’s recently published International Education strategy (gov.uk, 2019), given the potential reputational damage and negative impact on collaborative academic activity which Brexit may lead to (Hubble, 2016).

Considerations from the Transnational Context

In many respects, there are parallels between Kent’s focus on distinctive European education and research features and the approach of transnational Universities. Transnational campuses are often able to distinguish themselves from other local universities in a particular region, through a characteristically international approach, which represents features of the country which they are supported by. Both models seek to make a virtue of approaches to education and collaborative research which are associated with good practice and connections with specific regions in the world. Given the rise in recognition of civic responsibilities within UK institutions (Goddard et al. 2016), those institutions which engage with transnational education also need to continue to consider how this relates to the wider region where their activities are based. As a result, there are vital ways in which UK universities can learn from the activities of transnational institutions, such as WIUT in Uzbekistan, in terms of overseas civic engagement and the benefits and challenges of developing large scale TNE provision.

Alternatively, transnational institutions which seek to use their regional individuality to continue to extend their international student diversity and recruitment practices, can draw on opportunities to inform their marketing and outreach activities from the experiences of UK institutions, where the need for international recruitment initiatives has developed rapidly in recent years (Constantinides & Stagno, 2013).

Example Actions and Activities

University of Kent Objectives and Outcomes

A central dimension of global engagement includes the building of partnerships with international institutions for the benefit of research and transnational education initiatives. With this aim in mind, Kent has developed a specific strategy to enhance institutional academic activity through the signing of collaborative agreements with key partners and regions around the world. Kent is also committed to communicating the University’s internationally-relevant expertise in innovative ways to the institution’s different range of stakeholders. In order to provide easy-to-access tasters of our academic expertise and research-led teaching this has led to the creation of a suite of online videos, called Think Kent which are accessible, free of charge, via YouTube and a dedicated website (UoK, 2019f). The videos, which now have reached a total of 150 episodes, have been viewed more than 400,000 times and have been shortlisted for two awards (BUFVC, 2017 and HEIST, 2016). Also, in order to introduce a broader group of international students to Kent’s educational offer, the University has started to offer a series of MOOCs (UoK, 2019g) which have been engaged with by more than 86,000 students to date. In large institutions, internal engagement activity is also of increasing importance in order to share good practice and maintain strong communications. One vehicle for achieving this is through the Kent Global Newsletter (UoK, 2019i), which shares comprehensive internationalisation stories with staff, on a monthly basis.

As a mechanism to engage with academics, collaborators, alumni and future students around the world the University has created the ‘Think Kent Global Showcase’ which draws together and presents Kent’s regional activities in set regions of the world. This includes reception events, panel discussions, training activities and representative engagement activities, in different locations around the world. Similar recent events have also included the Innovation in Academia awards scheme which has sought to draw attention to overseas academics whose work demonstrates research impact and who are connected to Kent (UoK, 2019j). As noted by UUKi (2019c), participation in multi-stakeholder delegation visits (which may also sometimes include members of regionally co-located organisations or UK representative groups) offers a collaborative approach which brings a greater quantity and quality of opportunities for UK universities to participate in outward-bound development missions.

Challenges

International partnership development is a complex and time-consuming activity, given the need for due diligence and the often bureaucratic, institutional approval processes within two or more institutions. Once a partnership has been approved it is also not a given that intended strategic benefit will be derived, for a range of cross-institutional and inter-personal reasons. As Brandenburg (2016) notes, when comparing forms of human partnership and university collaborations, each type of relationship between humans needs communication, recognition of different degrees of experience, trust and comparability as well as compatibility.

The creation of promotional educationally-focused media which showcase and share a university’s academic expertise either internally or externally can be impactful (Constantinides & Stagno, 2013) but requires time, expertise and resource both for media creation and for identifying appropriate channels that work for sharing and digital promotion. There is also a need to identify meaningful mechanisms to track influence of stakeholder interaction with such media, as direct impact on student or staff recruitment and profile raising is not always easily discernible. Whilst outbound delegation visits have the opportunity to raise institutional esteem and lead to broader institutional impact, organisation of such events is often time-consuming and costly, sometimes also requiring the pooling of resources across departments and units within a University. It is also true that institutional-level internationalisation ambitions do not always align with the individual and diverse priorities of individual departments of the university, so effective action in this area, requires, planning, trust and the availability of supporting resources.

Considerations from the Transnational Context

Whilst it is acknowledged that partnerships with universities and businesses are critical to the success of contemporary international universities and common priority shared by universities in the UK and transnational institutions, collaboratively realised campuses, such as WIUT’s activity in Tashkent and a number of Kent’s European centres, can be seen to represent an excellent example of bilateral engagement between institutions in two nations which have led to very successful and meaningful transnational education ventures. This is arguably an indication that focus and investment can bring dividends and that more partnerships does not necessarily mean more impact.

Again, with reference to Brandenburg (2016):

… if we look at our university partnerships the same way we look at relationships in our private lives, it may be easier to identify what we want and what we need. … degrees of experience, trust, and comparability as well as compatibility … The more stable the partnership is considered to be, the more similar future goals become important.

The promotion of UK Higher Education overseas and the attraction of students and other stakeholders to English language media, promoting the expertise of UK institutions is supported by the power and influence of English as both a global language (Crystal, 2012) and as an academic lingua franca (Jenkins, 2014). These are arguably the same forces which contribute to the ongoing popularity of UK-associated Higher Education and standards. However, it should also be acknowledged that it is accepted that English as a lingua franca in the context of international universities is an operational assumption which has attracted considerable criticism. This is especially the case, given that the pressure on students, whose first language is not English, is often under-estimated, when they are required to conform to inner circle varieties of the language (Bowles & Cogo, 2015).

Transnationally-skilled institutions in Uzbekistan could therefore feasibly continue to extend their student recruitment reach through the use of electronic educationally-focused media. This could offer both learning and promotional opportunity in order to highlight the institution’s high-quality and international approach to education. Ideally, this should be approached in a manner which draws on international expertise and the best resources from both transnational contexts. Whilst an internationalised education may mean the educational lingua franca remains English, activities and their promotion should also emphasise and support the retention of local cultural attributes to reduce any danger of colonisation. Some particularly good practice in this field can be found through the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) (2019) and their ‘Learning on Screen’ activity. Where funding allows, further opportunities could also be sought to promote activity within the institution through academic delegation visits and opportunities for staff interaction in regions of potential strategic benefit. Examples of good practice, many of which were evident from the presentations from participants in central Asia in the WIUT conference (2018), include: joint research projects with overseas universities, innovative joint conferences and transnational staff involvement from university partners in academic development and quality assurance.

Example Actions and Activities

University of Kent Objectives and Outcomes

In order to support the integration of home and international students, the University of Kent operates an initial welcome and induction programme for international students at the start of each academic and has also added University-wide activities (Holmes, 2012) at several other points during the academic year, through the Global Hangout (UoK, 2019k) series of events for both home and international students. These events are co-created with students, along with ventures such as WorldFest (UoK, 2019l), an international student festival and International Experience Week, with a view to mixing the home and international communities so that they may engage within and outside the classroom. The objective of this is for students to be able to emerge from their university life better equipped to interact more effectively, ethically, and comfortably within the vicissitudes of a globalising world (Killick, 2014). This also aligns with the University of Kent’s Intercultural Graduate Attribute, which is a form of overarching learning outcome set out for all students via the study of any degree at the University.

With regard to staff, the International Visiting Academics Network (UoK, 2019o) has been designed in order to support and develop close connections with visiting academics. This event cycle has been created with a view to recognising the impact that international faculty have on the local university, as well as the challenges faced by these internationally mobile academics on arrival in the UK (Yudkevic et al., 2016). Longitudinal staff induction and training for the global classroom, now also includes support for internationalisation of the curriculum, through a dedicated internationalisation module (UoK, 2019p) for new lecturers on Kent’s Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education.

Challenges

Despite well-intentioned and specifically-designed events and activities, challenges persist for the task of encouraging home and international students to engage with activities which promote truly international networking and understanding. This is evidenced by the research of Carroll and Ryan (2005) who noted from interviews with international students that there is a perceived need for opportunities to be created for mixing with ‘home’ students. Evidence of more organic interaction can often be found in extra-curricular sporting activity or in music societies, where an interest in a hobby provides intrinsic motivation and creates an opportunity or environment that transcends intercultural reticence or perceptions of boundaries. This harnessing of extra-curricular experiences arguably aligns more closely to the motivations of home and international students when they seek an international education (Fakunle, 2019).

As noted by (Yudkevic, 2016: 2), it is unquestionably the case that international academics are central to the global Higher Education environment in the 21st century. The recruitment of international faculty is undertaken by universities around the world for a broad range of reasons, including the provision of specific expertise in teaching and research and to help foster institutional reforms or innovation. Indeed, in some cases certain countries may have a shortage of academics and there is a need to recruit overseas staff. Given this phenomenon, there is a clear need to provide the right kind of support for international academics, who may have sought to work overseas as a result of a range of push or pull factors.

Considerations from the Transnational Context

In some transnational campuses, a highly diverse international student community may not be as realisable compared to large city campus locations, as the UK or USA, if there is not a tradition within the region or country of attracting large volumes of students from overseas. However, such circumstances can often still lead to creative solutions for internationalisation such as online exchange activity, impact through planned transnational staff exchange and the use of home festivals or regional traditional activities, as mechanisms to bring student communities from the same nation together to celebrate diversity and different approaches to understanding and learning. Universities in the UK which are interested in developing their own civic mission with regard to local and national communities (Goddard, et al. 2016) could learn from such transnational contexts, including those in Uzbekistan.

The active participation of international university staff in the UK in the recent 1 Day Without Us Campaign (2018), further highlights the important role played by international staff in contemporary internationalised University life. This campaign involved trade unions, NGOs, charities, universities and cultural institutions taking part in a day of action in order to highlight the important role played by migrant workers in all sectors. With regard to international academic staff in the transnational context, the important impact and high expectations of international faculty should not be underestimated, given the role such colleagues play in creating both a globally-focused but English-speaking academic environment (Yudkevic, 2016: 2). In addition, there is also potentially a role for national universities and transnational campuses to share good practice with one another so that students and staff can learn from the relative merits of different approaches to education within the same country and to avoid the development of parallel systems. This view is supported by Ubaydullaeva (2019) in the context of Uzbekistan.

Example Actions and Activities

Kent Objectives and Outcomes

Forty per cent of Kent’s academic staff stem from international backgrounds and so this presence necessarily helps promote internationally focused curriculum across its academic community. However, a number of other ventures and mechanisms have been harnessed in recent years in order to support the incorporation of international, and/or global dimensions into the content of the curriculum as well as the learning outcomes, assessment tasks, teaching methods and support services of a program of study (Leask 2009: 209 and 2015). These mechanisms include the requirement of a clause describing aspects of curriculum internationalisation within all new and revised modules (UoK 2019q); support and training for Kent staff (UoKr); focus groups with Kent students; and the curation and promotion of specific internationally-focused learning opportunities in the form of Global Engagement Modules (UoK, 2019t) and Projects (UoK, 2019s). In 2019, the University also launched its first conference on Innovations in Internationalisation at Home (UoK, 2019u).

Challenges

It remains the case, notwithstanding, that University academic staff have competing demands on their limited time and that there are known barriers to curriculum internationalisation which need to be overcome for any comparable initiative to succeed. Bennett, (2008) refers to ‘mindset’, ‘skillset’ and ‘heartset’ to describe the willingness, capacity and commitment of academic staff in intercultural and educational internationalisation contexts. Clifford (2009) identified that some representatives of particular discipline areas are less persuaded of the need to engage in the discourse of curriculum internationalisation. Furthermore, Leask (2015) also refers to institutional blockers in terms of university organisational structures and the level of institutional engagement or support with the process.

Considerations from the Transnational Context

The University of Kent’s curriculum internationalisation activities, described above, represent mechanisms to encourage the infusion of diverse and interculturally-attuned approaches into its education. However, it is evident from the WIUT conference (2018) that institutions that are engaged with curriculum internationalisation can also learn from transnational institutions such as WIUT in Uzbekistan. As an example, the collaboration, between Westminster University in the UK and WIUT in Tashkent, typically results in the provision of what is referred to as a validated UK degree being delivered overseas, in this case in Tashkent. Through this form of collaborative education, the degree is not a franchised replica of a degree in the UK institution, but rather a localised version which has been designed to achieve learning outcomes which are deemed to meet the required outcomes and standards of the validating UK institution. Importantly, this pedagogical approach allows for local contextualisation. Although globalization often promotes homogenization, it should also encourage localized differentiation (Hall et al. 1992). While much can be learned from alternative education systems, HEIs should avoid duplication without appropriate modification. Pyvis (2011) goes as far as to argue, that in transnational education, even the act of using one university’s standards as a benchmark needs to be replaced by collaboratively developed measures of quality that are context-sensitive.

This process and the multi-disciplinary engagement of staff in the UK with staff in Uzbekistan, for the purpose of educational design and validation, involves a large number of individuals in the process of co-creating curriculum to support learning in diverse contexts. It is therefore also to be expected that, in addition to the benefits for educational design and delivery in Uzbekistan, a collaborative process will result in a positive ‘return flow’ effect on the levels of staff engagement and expertise concerned with institutionalised curriculum internationalisation practices, at the UK-based institution.