All universities must achieve legitimacy, as this is essential to attract students, staff, and resources, including funding. To achieve legitimacy in transnational higher education, universities must conform to the rules and belief systems in the host countries. Adopting a case study approach, this research aims to investigate the different institutional influences on three Chinese international branch campuses (IBCs) that operate in South East Asia. The institutional factors behind the strategies taken in establishing and operating such branch campuses are discussed, as well as the different legitimacy building strategies adopted to counteract the liability of foreignness in the host countries. It was found that legitimacy is established through three modes: legitimacy conformity, selective legitimacy conformity/nonconformity, and legitimacy creation, which are adopted according to the IBC’s dependence on local resources and the strength of the institutional forces in the host country.

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In the past few decades, the rise of China has become the theme of heated debates, the central question of which is whether China will rise peacefully or as a “threat.” Faced with various speculations and predictions about China’s possible future course of action, Chinese political leaders and eminent scholars began engaging in the making and projecting of China’s soft power as well as a series of nation-branding campaigns. In order to study and evaluate the effectiveness of China’s nation-branding campaigns as well as how well the general public receives them, we looked into the perspectives and attitudes of the populace to find out their attitudes toward China’s national image. In this article, we intend to scrutinize the public opinions toward China as reflected by the questions and answers on social media ( quora.com in this case), using content analysis. As the findings show, the ranking of effectiveness of the different aspects of China’s nation branding is as follows: (1) history, (2) place, (3) language, (4) political and economic systems, (5) culture, (6) people, (7) infrastructure, and (8) social institution. Based on the results of the study, a model for evaluating the success or effectiveness of nation-branding campaigns was proposed.

In June 2015, a total of 64 transnational higher education institutions (TEIs) were approved by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to operate in China's higher education sector. The TEIs were established in two batches. The first batch of 24 TEIs resulted from a policy promulgated in 1995, whereas the second batch of 40 TEIs resulted from two regulations enacted in 2003 and 2004. The selection criteria used by the MOE to grant approval for the establishment of TEIs are not openly available. Thus, this study aims to identify the actual changes in policy between 1995 and 2003/2004, by analyzing the characteristics of the TEIs in the two batches. It was found that TEIs were more likely to be approved by the MOE in the second batch if (a) they cooperated with high-ranked European partners, (b) they were affiliated with a Chinese university rather than having legal person status, and (c) they offered programs in IT, science, or engineering.