08 November 2021 
Julia Ascott, Employment Taxes Specialist
Blended learning and the future of Transnational Education (TNE) were the focus of the UUKi 2021 conference held on 3/4 November. Read BUFDG’s summary of the conference below.
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One of the most important factors for the TNE model is a more significant push towards online or blended learning without necessarily removing physical campuses, but perhaps using them more strategically. UK universities looking to branch out internationally should be thinking about global classrooms alongside in-country campuses/branches with an emphasis on local staffing, reduction of flying faculty and improved sustainability.
There was significant encouragement for ‘partnering’ with India, Nigeria, UAE, Indonesia and Vietnam. UK universities with campuses in Malaysia, spoke of attracting new students using input from existing students, leading to increased digital learning, improved IT infrastructure and state of the art technology (including virtual reality labs), alongside more bitesize learning opportunities so that students could learn at their own pace.
In China, whilst there are many existing TNEs, the political landscape is shifting as China focuses on franchising to deliver in-country learning to keep students in China. In addition, China is looking to branch out with their own education providers globally and will become a major competitor to the US, UK and Australia within Asia.
The push towards digital learning may fool you into thinking campuses will become obsolete; not so. Physical branch campuses will endure and remains the most popular method of higher education learning. Given the changing landscape in those countries where student demand is higher than current availability, universities must reach out to local governments to understand what they want and need from a HE partner.
Given the complexities involved in partnering overseas, the UK University Overseas Campus Network has been created to help UK universities with existing and future overseas campuses.
