The number of globally mobile students has nearly doubled over the past ten years, from 2.1 million students in 2001 to 4.1 million students in 2011. According to Open Doors 2012: Report on International Educational Exchange, the U.S. hosted 764,795 international students in 2011/12, an increase of 3.7 percent from the previous year. International students in the U.S. now make up 19 percent of the world's globally mobile students, and as university campus enrollments grow, so does the proportion of students enrolling in them from abroad. The number of U.S. students studying abroad reached 273,996 in 2010/11, an increase of 1.3 percent over the prior year and an increase of 78 percent over the past ten years.
When colleges and universities set up outposts such as international branch campuses (IBCs) in foreign countries, the literature suggests that the success of that outpost can be tied to its ability to build its own legitimacy. This article investigates the process of legitimacy building by IBCs through identifying who IBCs view as their salient stakeholders and analyzing how IBCs legitimize their international presence to those stakeholders in the home country, host country, regional and global environments. Data are drawn from 45 branch campus mission statements collected from university websites. Findings indicate that IBCs embrace a global identity to legitimize themselves to both home country and host country stakeholders. Orientation to the IBC’s home country is utilized to signify quality and indicate the brand of education offered in the host country, whereas orientation to the host country is framed as furthering host country development. The findings suggest that there may be a lack of deep integration of the internationalization experience into IBC curricula and the home campus’s organizational learning. Furthermore, some IBCs have not prioritized local development needs in the host country.
"This policy paper addresses the question of how well quality assurance systems support the quality of international branch campuses (IBCs) in the United Arab Emirates. There are different systems of quality assurance for IBCs in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Ras Al Khaimah, and a federal system of accreditation that is unevenly utilized across the emirates. Furthermore, the UAE’s 38 IBCs hail from 13 countries, each with its own procedures for regulating branch campus quality1. This complexity results in a segmented quality assurance environment with different quality assurance models applied to the UAE’s branch campuses.
This qualitative study is based on interviews with 47 IBC stakeholders conducted in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Ras Al Khaimah from January to April 2012. The paper begins with an overview of the dimensions of quality in higher education and a description of how the UAE’s current quality assurance systems approach quality assurance. The paper then presents the study’s findings on stakeholders’ perceptions of IBC quality assurance in the UAE. Finally, recommendations aimed at improving the alignment between quality assurance and stakeholders’ expectations for IBC quality are presented."
"This policy paper describes the role of UAE universities in local networks to support research and innovation. UAE leaders have recently stated intentions to develop a knowledge economy (Emirates Competitiveness Council, 2011). With higher education widely recognized as a key driver in innovation economies (Aubert & Reiffers, 2003; Etzkowitz & Dzisah, 2008), the UAE’s universities have a central role to play in sustaining active networks among universities, industry, and government. Such networks support innovation by promoting the flow of information and ideas across institutional boundaries (Etzkowitz & Dzisah, 2008).
This qualitative study, based on interviews with 62 higher education stakeholders in the UAE, finds possible advantages to developing networks across institutions and sectors, as well as a number of barriers to their development. The policy paper first provides an overview of the role that universities play in innovation networks, followed by a presentation of the study’s findings regarding stakeholders’ perceptions of the value of local networks and the barriers faced in developing them. Lastly, policy recommendations are presented to address the challenges faced by universities in building networks among and between universities, industry, and government."
12Number 85: Spring 2016 the synergies among them-i.e., when our policies are mutually supportive and reinforcing. This is not necessarily an easy task-it requires broad awareness of policies in place, and dialogue at the national policymaking and institutional levels. As we note at the end of the ACE-CIHE report, "ensuring that higher education around the world benefits from the best of what comprehensive, sustained, values-driven internationalization has to offer will take a great deal of creativity, substantial resources, and sheer hard work."
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