The impact of transnational education on multinational universities

TNE has had extensive organisational impact on provider institutions worldwide, across a large range of managerial skill-sets. Examples in universities include paradigm-changing impact on strategic planning, governance and organisational issues, and building new or renovated services in HR, finance, and program administration (Middlehurst & Woodfield 2007; Taylor 2010). Some of this change has occurred alongside onshore recruitment of international students, while some of it is specific to TNE. Some of it has been the result of adept adjustment to change, and some it looks more like the unintended consequences of offshore activity. Either way, much good has resulted. We argue that the specific impact of TNE on universities has been both deep and wide, especially so in the case of branch campuses established offshore. Increasingly, reasons for universities engaging in transnational activity revolve around the challenge to become a multinational organisation, measured in terms of their degree of transnationality (Connelly, Garton & Olsen 2010). These reasons include: - Improving reputation and diversifying revenue streams- Increasing internationalisation of the institution's intellectual capital- Building administrative and managerial capacity and efficiencies’- Improving levels of customer service to students, alumni, partners and stakeholders. A focus for discussion will be what types of transnational engagement bring maximum benefits for both provider institutions and host governments, from collaborative partnerships to offshore campuses. Our argument leads to the conclusion that while universities now have the opportunity to become multinational organisations in a free market in global mass higher education (Wildasky 2010), maximising the benefits of this process will require serious consideration of long term engagement in the form of new branch campuses and large scale strategic alliances offshore.