Thesis (D.P.A.)--The George Washington University, 2006. / Adviser: Michael Harmon. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-156)

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis examines the social mediation of a transnational educational programme, namely the University of London’s International (External) Undergraduate Laws Programme. The thesis explores the lived experiences of a variety of stakeholders – university academics, frontline teaching staff and students - in the context of historical legacy and current development. The University of London’s International (External) programmes is one of the oldest forms of distance education, and the Undergraduate Laws Programme is the second largest subscribed programme and represent the fundamental academic legal education for the legal profession in numerous countries. With the separation of teaching, assessment and award as the distinguishing feature consequential to the origins of the University of London its legacy results in multitude stakeholders with vested interests in each aspect. The thesis seeks to understand the motivations behind and implications resulting from the various stakeholders’ experiences through an analysis of their narratives gleaned from interviews and data recorded from observations. Is there a distinct identity and culture within each group of stakeholders which has developed through the evolution of the programme? Can a pattern or theory of teaching and learning unique to the programme be identified and if so, what kind of impact has that had on legal education? The possibility of identifying existing and/or emerging communities of practice within and across each group of stakeholders is a recurring theme discussed on the basis that the theory of situated learning within a community of practice is a form of active learning; an objective which the University of London has sought to actively achieve since 2005. By building an ethnography of the various stakeholders, the thesis explores a formerly under researched aspect of undergraduate legal education and acts as a prompt for future areas of research in the areas of legal and distance education.

在高等教育全球化背景下，学生国际流动发展日益成熟，大规模的高等教育机构与课程项目的国际流动日益增加。越来越多的学生在本国接受教育而由设在另一国家的教育机构颁发学位，这类高等教育项目、课程和教育服务被称为"跨国高等教育（transnational higher education，THE）"。在中国大陆情境下，主要表现为"中外合作办学（Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools，CFCRS）"。在普通高校与海外留学之外，中外合作办学逐渐成为中国大陆学生的第三种高等教育选择。 / 本研究尝试从社会资本理论视角考察中国大陆学生跨国高等教育选择的影响因素。研究者于2014年10月至11月在三所具有独立法人资格的中外合作办学高校和一所普通公办高校开展问卷调查，共回收有效问卷1349份，包括中外合作办学学生714份，普通公办高校学生635份。研究综合运用了描述性统计、差异性检验、一般线性回归、Logistic 回归方法分析背景变量、社会资本变量对学生选择中外合作办学的影响。主要研究结论如下： / 第一，关于背景因素对选校的影响。相对于居住在"县城或村镇"、居住在"省会城市"和"一般城市"的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。相对于父亲从事"基层职业"，父亲从事"专业技术"、"行政管理"或"个体经商"的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。相对于"5万以下"，家庭年收入"20万以上"的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。相对于家庭财富较少的学生，家庭财富较多的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。尤其是居住在省会城市和父亲从事"个体经商"，对学生选择中外合作办学的影响最大。 / 第二，在控制背景变量后，社会资本对选校的影响。经Logistic 回归分析发现，社会资本对学生选择中外合作办学具有非常大的影响。具体而言，家长对子女海外升学期望越强、家庭择校参与越多，学生选择中外合作办学的概率越大；学生希望去海外升学、去海外或省会城市就业，选择中外合作办学的概率越大；学生对学校国际元素的重视程度越高，选择中外合作办学的概率越大；而学生对中学信息源的重视程度越高，选择中外合作办学的概率越小。其中，学生本身海外升学期望对学生选择中外合作办学影响最大。 / 第三，作为社会资本的重要组成部分，本研究深入探讨了信息来源与信息内涵。关于信息来源，经主成分分析得出三个维度：亲友信息源、中学信息源及网络媒体信息源。经差异检验得出，与普通公办高校学生相比，选择中外合作办学的学生更看重亲友信息源，同时也更多采用亲友信息源和网络媒体信息源，尤其更多采用海外亲友、海外同学与网络社群作为获取信息的渠道。 / 关于信息内涵，经主成分分析得出四个维度：学术资源、国际元素、经济支持及生活环境四个方面的学校特质。从学生对信息内涵的"重视程度"来看，经差异检验得出，选择中外合作办学的学生比普通公办高校学生更为看重学术资源与国际元素。进一步分析中外合作办学学生对20项信息内涵重要性排名发现，"教师的学术专业水平"与"提升自身学术能力"并列第一位，第三位是"有希望报读的专业"，第四位是"大学声誉与学术地位"，这四项均属学术资源维度；第五位是"国际化的教学理念"，属国际元素维度。另一方面，从学生感知的信息内涵"实践程度"来看，在学术资源、国际元素、经济支持与生活环境四个维度上，中外合作办学均高于普通公办高校。但是，中外合作办学本身进行纵向比较发现，学校提供的学术资源实际状况显著低于学生预期，尤其是学术资源方面的"教师的学术专业水平"与学生预期落差最大，这正是中外合作办学需要改进的地方。 / 基于上述发现，本研究在"理论层面"有以下启示：首先，本研究将内聚式与桥梁式社会资本应用到探讨中外合作办学选择，发现家长与学生的期望与家庭择校参与作为内聚式社会资本，均对选择中外合作办学产生积极影响；而择校网络与学生的海外参与作为桥梁社会资本，并未如预期对选择中外合作办学产生直接影响。其次，本研究建构的"信息策略"在考察信息渠道的同时，借助信息内涵探讨学生选校时所关注的学校特质。另外，研究在"政策实践层面"有以下启示：首先，鉴于学生非常重视教师的学术专业水平，中外合作办学机构应努力提升教师队伍专业水平，健全教师聘任、培训及管理制度。其次，鉴于学生对国际元素尤为看重，中外合作办学亦应突出国际化办学特色，明确生源定位。再次，考虑到学生对大学声誉与学术地位的重视以及中学信息源尚未充分发挥宣传作用，中外合作办学亦应加强中外知名大学合作，树立良好办学声誉；同时增加信息宣传渠道，让更多学生、家长、中学教师等群体有机会客观深入了解中外合作办学理念与资源优势，理性做出升学选择。 / In the context of globalization of higher education, the international mobility of students has been fully developed. The international mobility of large-scale higher education programs and institutions is also increasing rapidly. More and more learners are located in a country different from the one where the awarding institution is based. All these types of higher education study programs, or sets of courses of study, or educational services are regarded as transnational higher education (THE). In mainland China, transnational higher education is mainly embodied as Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools (CFCRS), which is an alternative higher education choice for mainland students besides general schools in China and the overseas schools. / This study aims to examine the factors affecting the mainland student choice of Chinese-foreign cooperative universities from the social capital perspective. The study is based on an empirical survey conducted in three cooperative universities and one public university in October and November, 2014. A total of 1349 questionnaires were collected with 714 from Chinese-foreign cooperative universities and 635 from general public university. A variety of statistical analysis methods are applied to address the research questions, including descriptive statistical analysis, T-test, linear regressions, and logistic regressions. The main findings include: / First, compared with the students residing in suburb, the students residing in provincial capital or general city are more inclined to choose Chinese-foreign cooperative universities. Compared with the students whose father works in elementary occupation, the students whose father works as a professional, manager or businessman are more inclined to choose cooperative universities. Compared with the students whose family annual income is less than 50,000 CNY, the students whose family annual income is more than 200,000 CNY is more inclined to choose cooperative universities. Compared with the students with relatively less home possession, the students with more home possession tend to choose cooperative universities. Especially, the residence in provincial capital and father’s occupation as a businessman have significant impact on student choice of cooperative universities. / Second, when background variables have been statistically controlled for, social capital still has significant impact on student choice of Chinese-foreign cooperative universities. Specifically, the higher the parental expectation for children’s overseas study and the more the parental involvement in school choice, the more the students are inclined to choose cooperative universities. Students who expect to study abroad, or expect to work abroad or in provincial capital, are more inclined to choose cooperative universities. The more highly the school characteristic of international element is valued, the more the students are inclined to choose cooperative universities. However, the more highly the information channel of high school is valued, the less the students are inclined to choose cooperative universities. Among these factors, students’ self-expectation for study abroad affects the most. / Third, as an important form of social capital, "information channel" and "information content" are explored further. On one hand, results from principal components analysis indicated three dimensions of information channel, namely "relatives and friends", "high school", and "internet and media". Further analysis suggested that compared with public university students, Chinese-foreign cooperative university students valued the channel of relatives and friends more highly, and were more likely to get information from "relatives and friends", and "internet and media", especially from their relatives and friends abroad, peers abroad and cyber networks. / On the other hand, results from principal components analysis also identified four dimensions of information content, namely "academic resources", "international elements", "financial support" and "environment and life experience". Among these four aspects of information content, "academic resources" and "international elements" were much more valued by cooperative university students. Further analysis on the 20 items of information content indicated that for cooperative university students, the top five most important school characteristics were in order, "professional teacher", "academic improvement", "favorite major" and "school reputation and academic status", which were part of "academic resources", and the last was "international education philosophy", which was part of "international elements". Besides, cooperative university students perceived significantly better than general public university students about what the school provided for them on whichever dimension of the information content. Nevertheless, for cooperative university students, "academic resources" was the major aspect on which they perceived significant discrepancy in what they valued and what were provided, especially on the item of "professional teacher". This provides insights for Chinese-foreign cooperative university to improve in the future. / Based on the above results, on the theoretical level, the study first employed the concept of bonding and bridging social capital into the higher education choice. It is found that parent and student expectation and parental involvement in school choice, as bonding social capital, all positively affect the mainland student choice of Chinese-foreign cooperative universities. However, as bridging social capital, neither target school network nor overseas engagement affects the student choice as predicted. Second, the concept of information strategies was constructed to explore the school characteristics. It is composed of information channel (where a student gets the information on school characteristics) and information content (what school characteristics are highly valued when a student make a school choice). On the practical level, the study shows that first, students place importance on professional teachers. Chinese-foreign cooperative universities should enhance teacher professionalism and quality through improving the systems of teacher recruitment, training and management. Second, as the international elements were highly valued by students, cooperative universities should keep their internationalized school characteristics, at the same time clarify their student market positioning. Third, in order to develop the school reputation and academic status, cooperative universities should facilitate the cooperation between domestic and international famous universities. In addition, since high school as information channel has not yet been positively effective, cooperative universities should boost the access to information for students, parents and high school teachers, etc., to better understand their educational philosophy and resource advantages and to make a rational school choice. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 陳麗媛. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-166). / Abstracts also in English. / Chen Liyuan.

Over the past twenty years, high school students in China have been learning the British Columbia (BC) public curriculum in certified private offshore schools with the intention of attending post-secondary institutions abroad. This internationalization and privatization in the Chinese education system began after critical reforms that allowed non-state actors to own and operate schools or programs that offer foreign curricula and credentials. BC offshore schools (BCOS) are one of the foreign curriculum options available to students in China and are comprised of approximately 12,000 students in thirty-seven certified schools. These students then may become international students when they migrate abroad, often to Canada. Within this setting, this case study explores the perspectives and experiences of five female first-year university students who have just recently graduated from three different BC offshore schools. The theoretical framings of sociocultural theory, second language socialization, community of practice, and transnationalism help situate the perspectives of the students in this dynamic educational phenomenon. The primary data sources include semi-structured interviews at the beginning of their first and second semesters at a large BC university and participant responses to journal prompts through the semester, as well as publicly available BC educational documents. This study’s findings indicate that graduates of BCOS were prepared for undergraduate academic courses because of their socialization into foundational research skills, essay writing, lecture listening, and project-based assessments. The similarities between the BC and university curricula have helped these participants transition from high school to university as well as from China to Canada. Each participant revealed different challenges that they faced including systematic grammar knowledge, increased reading requirements, and socializing with Canadian peers. Overall, Chinese BCOS graduates are a dynamic, diverse, and under-researched population. Participants’ socialization into the learning environments in British Columbia offshore schools has helped them prepare and learn skills necessary for favourable experiences in university. / Graduate

The concept of "transnational" education has emerged over the past decade or more as a critical strategy for meeting the growing demand for higher education worldwide. Essentially, transnational higher education allows international providers with outstanding credentials to conduct degree programs at local sites in conjunction with local tertiary institutions. Due to the rapid expansion of transnational programmes and the proliferation of transnational education providers, both governments and parents have, however, raised questions about the quality of education provided through transnational mechanisms. Rapid technological development, coupled with the recent growth of new engineering specialty areas, has led to the development of outcomes-based criteria for engineering education by a range of international engineering professional bodies. The emergence of outcomes-based approaches requires new instruments to measure the success, or otherwise, of engineering programs offered by universities. This study was conducted at a Malaysian private college (pseudonym "Trans College" with the prime purpose of developing an authoritative measurement instrument for evaluating the quality of transnational engineering education. This study generated a theory-based 11-dimension Preliminary Conceptual Framework consisting of four Outcomes dimensions and seven Contributory dimensions for Transnational Engineering Education, and tested the integrity of the theoretical framework through surveys of enrolled students, staff, and representatives of employing agencies. The Preliminary Conceptual Framework was found to have a high degree of conceptual validity, as well as some limitations. The findings of the surveys enabled a Revised Conceptual Framework for Transnational Engineering Education to be developed through reliability test and validated by using confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. The revised framework comprises five Outcomes and eight Contributory dimensions. It has been transposed into a 13-dimension revised survey instrument consisting of 25 Outcomes items clustered into five Outcomes dimensions, and 49 Contributory items clustered into eight Contributory dimensions. The developed survey instrument was then used to study the perceptions of students, staff, and employers regarding the quality of the transnational engineering education. Through performing t-tests, ANOVA, and other statistical analyses, the results of the study indicate that the quality of the transnational engineering education at Trans College was perceived by students, staff, and employers to be generally sound. It was also revealed that the Contributory construct can be adopted for measuring the satisfaction levels of students. Students, staff, and employers were also satisfied for the most part with their respective experiences of the programs in question. The study is believed to have considerable significance. First, it has generated a conceptual framework for measuring the quality of the transnational engineering education. The validated conceptual framework is transposed into a validated instrument that can be adapted for use by a range of other transnational educational providers. Second, it affirms the value of the "transnational" concept while also providing a number of recommendations for the enhancement of such programmes, particularly at Trans College. Third, the conceptual framework for the delivery of successful transnational engineering education derived from this study may help to improve the quality of transnational engineering programmes conducted in Malaysia, and make Malaysia "the centre of educational excellence" in the ASEAN region, with the transnational providers becoming hubs of tertiary education, and their networks spanning the globe.

This study examines the franchising relationships between an institution of higher education in Malaysia (the franchisor) and its overseas/offshore partner institutions (the franchisees) as the latter deliver academic programmes that carry the franchisor's ownership and name. / Thesis (DBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2008.

This study identifies the success and failure factors of foreign direct investment in transnational education. With western tertiary education markets becoming more saturated, it becomes essential for higher education institutions (HEI) to pursue new and lucrative opportunities internationally. One approach to internationalisation is the establishment of international branch campuses (IBC). This method provides the highest level of control but incurs the most risk, and failure can result in irrecoverable damage to reputation and substantial loss of resources. A review of the literature shows that numerous facets should be considered when establishing an IBC, but there are limited studies that holistically address what makes them successful or how success can be measured. Three research questions were devised to address the gaps in the extant literature. A three-stage exploratory mixed methodology is implemented consisting of expert surveys, case studies and a quantitative survey. The results show five factors that contribute to the success of an IBC. Additionally, eight classifications of success measures and a framework for establishing an IBC were identified. A key finding is the importance of the HEI factor; the remaining factors should be considered once it has been established that the HEI is able to open and operate an IBC efficiently. Furthermore, this study is one of few that presents a holistic view of how to operate an IBC successfully. The results of this thesis present HEI managers with the key considerations when developing an IBC and academicians with scope to further understand what makes IBCs successful.

This mixed-methods study explores how transnational high school students in the U.S. understand and experience a kind of curriculum called global citizenship education (GCE) and how GCE might influence them to think or act, in conjunction with how the students’ perspectives may differ based on their intersecting identities, particularly the categories of socioeconomic status (SES), race, and gender. Transnational students are defined as young people who maintain substantial connections with multiple nations in the form of affective attachments, physical movements, and flows of ideas. Practically, young people approximately 14-19 years of age, who attend high school in the U.S. and have lived in at least one other country, qualified for this study. In the past two decades, GCE has received increasingly more attention from K-12 schools and education research. While GCE is being promoted as learning that is useful to prepare young people for globalization and our unpredictable future, there is currently a small body of existing literature on how students understand and experience GCE. As such, informed by postcolonial/decolonial theories, as well as a view of curriculum as being dialogic and agentively constructed by students as they learn, I foreground the voices and experiences of youth as they engage with GCE. I began with a qualitative phase, including image-elicitation focus groups, semi-structured individual interviews, and optional final projects, where a visual component served the participatory purpose of encouraging youth to direct the research and to represent their ideas in a form beyond language. Preliminary analysis of the qualitative data informed the construction of a quantitative survey, which received 33 completed responses via Qualtrics. The survey shows that the students more readily take up GCE as skills and (conceptual) understandings rather than as concrete bodies of (factual) knowledge that they have acquired, and that the youth perceive GCE to more powerfully influence them to develop their thinking rather than to change in their actions, particularly in response to social justice issues. This raises questions around how educators should best determine the goals and content of GCE programs and practical constraints around promoting “critical” versus “soft” forms of GCE. Secondly, the qualitative participants each took up GCE differently, suggesting that one key strength of this kind of curriculum can be its broad and inclusive nature, allowing individuals to adopt it in ways that make sense for them. In addition, strong and effective GCE consists of learning that takes into account, or even better, actively leverages students’ existing knowledge and skills, cultural backgrounds, and interests. Thirdly, GCE seems to compete with the demands of assignments, grades, and other credentials students must accumulate to be admitted to college, particularly when such curricula are not integrated into the planned activities of the school day. The students are also quite attached to place, including both in-person learning and face-to-face interactions with friends and family, which is in tension with a deterritorialized framing of GCE with lofty goals for all humanity. One implication is the importance of accounting for the meaning of specific physical places in youths’ lives as we consider the goals and purposes of GCE programs. Finally, qualitative data highlight that the intersecting identities, especially the categories of SES and race, in the context of structural inequalities in U.S. education, really make a difference in how transnational youth take up GCE. The survey adds gender as another layer, showing that girls perceive GCE to include a broader range of topics, that more activities at school contribute to their GCE, and that they are more influenced by GCE to think and act differently. As we tailor GCE to suit students’ backgrounds and attachments to place, identities may be a useful tool to help us think about how structural forces may shape the way students take up GCE and adjust programs accordingly. Of course, we must also remain attentive to the fact that perhaps GCE will always be implicated in structural inequalities, and as such, to continue to resist simply essentializing students based on broad identity categories. In the above ways, this study contributes to further research and theorizing about how GCE can better serve the needs of not only transnational but all youth.