Your place or mine: transnational education and the locus of control

In transnational education the place – in both an organisational and a geographic sense – in which educational decisions are made impacts on the academics involved and on student learning. The subject of this paper is learning and accreditation that takes place outside a home university through offshore branch campuses. A case study of two Australian Universities with offshore campuses in Sarawak, Malaysia was undertaken. Policies and procedures were reviewed and an empirical study of the experiences of academics involved was conducted. The study focused on who makes decisions about curriculum content, learning and teaching activities, design and provision of educational resources, and the assessment of student work. Consequences of the organisational relationships for academics involved and for student learning are examined in this paper. On the basis of the study a high degree of local control is recommended, at least for units of study that have operated transnationally several times

Marketing campaign for attracting US American travelers to Finland

The purpose of this Bachelor’s thesis was to analyze the desirability of Finland as a destination for US American tourists. Another purpose was to research whether development of the market was required to promote the country as a tourist destination amongst this population. Data were gathered from various sources and the conclusions drawn from the findings have been used as a basis for a proposed marketing campaign. Whilst the findings suggest that Finland is a relatively popular tourist destination for US Americans, the number of US Americans travelling to the country is considerably smaller than the number of travelers entering the country from other regions. Furthermore, there was also an apparent lack of knowledge about what Finland can offer to tourists. This indicates that further development of the market is required and could be beneficial to the tourist industry. Also a deeper insight to the US legislation would be necessary

Interpreting Transnational Education Standards: The Locus of Control

Under ‘National Protocols’ established for higher education Australian universities are required to meet a consistent set of standards “regardless of whether its higher education students are located in Australia or offshore.” (MCEETYA, 2007, p.2). In this context we report in this paper approaches to curriculum and assessment decision-making encountered in an investigation of transnational education and internationalisation. The investigation is a component of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project ‘Learning without borders: Linking development of transnational leadership roles to international and cross-cultural teaching excellence’; a project conducted by Curtin University and Swinburne University of Technology in Australia and in Sarawak. Meeting the same criteria specified in the National Protocols onshore and offshore can be and is addressed in different ways, even within the same higher education institution. In this paper we distinguish four approaches to curriculum decision-making designed to ensure the same standards are met. These may be styled: (a) home campus curriculum control, (b) limited branch campus learning, teaching and assessment contextualisation, (c) substantial branch campus learning, teaching and assessment contribution constrained by a requirement to attain the same learning outcomes, and (d) branch campus curriculum design. The locus of control varies between these approaches with implications for both the student experience and the professional experience and responsibilities of staff