Achieving Legitimacy in Cross-Border Higher Education: Institutional Influences on Chinese International Branch Campuses in South East Asia

Abstract

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.

When Developing Countries Meet Transnational Universities: Searching for Complementarity and Dealing With Dual Embeddedness

“…A recent study of Canadian offshore schools in China (Wang, 2017) identifies inconsistencies in policy-making and implementation motivated by the excessive focus of countries on their own interests and values, without paying sufficient attention to the legal, political, and cultural features of the partner country. Indeed, for IBCs to achieve legitimacy, they need to conform to the rules and belief systems in the host countries (He & Wilkins, 2017).…”

Factors Influencing Chinese Students’ Choice of an International Branch Campus: A Case Study

“…As foreign institutions must partner with a local Chinese university based on the requirements of China’s Ministry of Education (MoE, 2003), the IBCs are normally defined as Chinese–foreign cooperative universities in China. Previous studies have examined the IBCs from many perspectives, such as motivations for studying at IBCs (Ahmad & Buchanan, 2017; Wilkins, Balakrishnan, & Huisman, 2012), factors affecting university image formation (Wilkins & Huisman, 2015), assessing quality (Ahmad, 2015; Datta & Vardhan, 2017), academic motilities (Liu & Lin, 2017), achieving legitimacy (He & Wilkins, 2018), and how to manage IBCs (Hill & Thabet, 2018). However, very little is known about the factors influencing students’ choice of an IBC (Ahmad & Buchanan, 2017; Wilkins et al, 2012), and in particular IBCs in China.…”

Long-Term Sustainability in Global Higher Education Partnerships

“…He and Wilkins have suggested that to achieve legitimacy, international branch campuses have been compelled to "follow the local regulations of either the host country government or the quality assurance bodies," creating a situation where "the curriculum of the international branch campus must conform to the local standards" [30]. Thus, any type of global partnership is placed in a bind, whereby different legitimacy building strategies must be strategically considered.…”