Third space professionals in International Branch Campuses

Written By Mari Jansen van Rensburg and Tenia Kyriazi

UK Universities, especially as a response to challenges relevant to Brexit, are keen to continue to expand globally and are exploring how to best formulate their approach to Transnational Education (TNE). Most often, they embark on a transnational journey either by setting up International Branch Campuses (IBCs) or by establishing partnerships with foreign education institutions (UK Universities, 2022).[1] To maximize the quality and sustainability of the HEIs’ international offerings, it is important to take into account some crucial considerations, relevant to the development and the enhancement of the role of their professional services.

Quality assurance, for example, is a primary consideration for the operation of overseas campuses, as it is imperative to ensure parity of their academic provision with that of the home campus, in order not only to comply with quality assurance regulations, but also, and most crucially, to guarantee successful global outreach, presence and impact, and to promote the University’s brand and reputation. In this context, home and overseas campuses are working together to monitor the academic content delivered, to determine the admission criteria, to recruit talented and qualified staff (both faculty and professional services), to monitor student achievement, progression, and satisfaction, and to ensure the availability of resources required for the delivery of the academic programmes.

A significant factor that should not be overlooked is the focus on providing a student experience of high quality, both inside and outside the classroom. This is exactly where the role of third space professionals becomes instrumental. As is the case for HEIs based in the UK, third space professionals play a significant role in the enhancement of student experience provided by overseas branch campuses. They are involved in the provision of academic support to students (professional roles in supporting learning), in the enhancement of pedagogic practice of faculty, with a particular focus on championing the UKPSF, in employability initiatives developed to prepare students for and connect them to the job market, as well as in the promotion of EDI, wellbeing and social responsibility in the curriculum and beyond.

To conclude, there is no doubt that third space professionals have a vital role to play in international campuses. As of 20 November 2020, HE institutions in 34 countries had chartered 303 IBCs in 84 host countries (Cross-Border Educational Research Team, 2020)[2]. IBCs offer home universities an on-the-ground presence in foreign markets but require curriculum and quality assurances that meet both the home institution specifications as well as the home and host country’s government policy and licencing requirements. In most cases the operating business model is complex and challenging as IBCs operate without public funding, but partnership models are based on commercial return expectations. The scale of IBCs is also smaller than that of their home institution with more than 50% of IBCs offering five or less academic programmes.  In many instances academic provision are standardised across international campuses but IBCs often lack dedicated resources to deal with cultural distances, societal differences, and the business challenges of working across borders.  This creates a tension between the balance of relying on a home campus to provide professional services and supporting administrative activities and local provision by the IBC. Given resource constraints and considering the size of operations, unanswered questions include:

·         Is the shared service model sufficient to meet the needs of international campuses?

·         Is it time to rethink the boundaries, service solutions and operational practices between home and remote campuses?

We don’t know the answers, but we do know size matters!  It is time to reconstruct the identity and priorities of international campuses and to shift the focus from international recruitment and standardized academic provision to quality and learning experience. It is time for third stream professionals to claim their rightful place in this transition.

Professor Mari Jansen Van Rensburg - Campus Director, Middlesex University Mauritius

Dr Tenia Kyriazi (PFHEA) - Deputy Director Academic Operations, Middlesex University Dubai

[1] Universities UK Insights (2022), The scale of UK transnational education, available at: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/universities-uk-international/insights-and-publications/uuki-insights/scale-uk-transnational-education

[2] Cross-Border Education Research Team (2020, November 20). C-BERT International Campus Listing. [Data originally collected by Kevin Kinser and Jason E. Lane]. Available: http://cbert.org/resources-data/intl-campus/ Albany, NY: Author.

Mari Jansen van Rensburg and Tenia Kyriazi

Prof Mari Jansen van Rensburg is the Campus Director of the Mauritius Campus of Middlesex University. Mari has extensive experience in multi-cultural and multidisciplinary settings with in-depth knowledge of Higher Education in Africa. She has a successful career history at the University of South Africa (UNISA) where she served as a Professor in Strategic Management and held several senior leadership roles and positions. She ended her career at UNISA as the Academic Director of the Graduate School of Business Leadership. Mari’s formal qualifications include a BCom (Hons) Marketing Management and MCom  from the University of Pretoria and a DCom (Business Management) conferred by UNISA. Mari specialises, publishes, and consults in the fields of strategic and relationship marketing as well as change and strategic management. As Campus Director, Mari is responsible for shaping and delivering the strategic plan for the Campus, meeting financial objectives and managing resources and budgets. It is her responsibility to ensure that the branch campus maintains the highest standards in student experience, academic achievement, academic excellence and staff wellbeing.

Dr Tenia Kyriazi is an Associate Professor of Law, Deputy Director Academic Operations and Head of Law and Politics Programmes at Middlesex University, Dubai and a Principal Fellow at the Higher Education Academy, UK. She holds a BA in Law from the University of Athens (Greece), an LLM in International Law and International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK), and a PhD in International Human Rights Law from the University of Athens (Greece).

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