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EVENT REPORT 2016ICEF hosts its first Higher Education Partnership Forum

Join us next year • Seville, Spain • 12 September 2017

In September 2016, ICEF hosted a unique event for institutional networking: the ICEF Higher Education Partnership Forum (HEPF). The programme combined advanced professional development seminars with the opportunity for one-to-one meetings between institutional delegates. Throughout the event, participants explored a variety of institutional collaborations, including dual degrees and pathway programmes.

In recent years, transnational education (TNE) has come to occupy a more prominent place in the international education strategies of destinations and institutions alike. TNE enrolments for UK providers exceed 300,000 students, and Australian providers count more than 110,000 students in offshore programmes. Even so, a number of major destinations, including the UK, Australia, France, and China have clearly signalled their intention for further significant expansions of their respective TNE portfolios.

The field is extremely fluid with new models emerging all the time. Many TNE ventures, however, revolve around articulation or twinning agreements (often colloquially known as “2+1” or “2+2” programmes), joint or dual degrees, distance learning, or, in the most ambitious cases, branch campus initiatives.

The full spectrum of TNE was in focus at the inaugural ICEF Higher Education Partnership Forum in Liverpool in September 2016. Held immediately after the 2016 ICEF Higher Education Workshop, the HEPF brought together educators from around the world to explore best practices and identify new opportunities for partnerships with foreign institutions.

The ICEF Higher Education Partnership Forum

One-to-one business meeting at the ICEF Higher Education Partnership Forum

For international higher education institutions

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Seminar at the ICEF Higher Education Partnership Forum

“The forum opened my eyes to some new opportunities,” said Donald McAlister, of the Institute of Technology in Carlow, Ireland. “It enabled me to consolidate some existing relationships and also to meet partners from areas I haven’t considered in the past.”

Leading into an afternoon of one-to-one meetings, HEPF delegates first participated in a series of high-level seminars. The Scottish Qualifications Authority’s John McMorris, in cooperation with colleagues from partner-institutions from Sri Lanka and Australia, provided a detailed examination of the SQA’s unique pathway model for diploma-to-degree progression.

Yue Chen, the director of a dual degree programme linking Queen Mary University of London and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, then showcased her programme as a concrete example of a long-running and successful TNE initiative. The discussion that followed was fascinating and very valuable for all participants for its focus on the many practical issues arising from such a collaborative degree programme.

Nathalie Jacoby-Danesh, a senior associate with the law firm Eversheds LLP, provided a thoughtful review of the legal, financial, and academic considerations that make up an effective due diligence framework for international institutional engagements. And Aurélien Krejbich, head of the Centre for Europe at Sciences Po Paris, closed the seminar programme with his institution’s rather striking example of top-tier institutional partnerships for the delivery of international dual degree programmes.

In total, 151 participants from 101 organisations attended the HEPF. This included representatives from 84 accredited higher education institutions in 18 countries. Of those representing institutions, 43% were attending their first-ever ICEF event.

Collaboration between higher education institutions is an important part of internationalisation. Participants held a combined 217 pre-scheduled meetings during which they discussed various types of collaboration, including study abroad, joint degrees, exchange programmes, articulation agreements, dual and double degrees, research collaborations, course-to-course transfers, sequential degrees, and third-party contracts. “We can accomplish two goals in one visit,” added Jinglin Xia of the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics. “We can come to ICEF today and EAIE tomorrow. It saves us a lot of time and money.”

In September 2017, both the ICEF Higher Education Workshop and the ICEF Higher Education Partnership Forum will be held in Seville, Spain, immediately before the 29th Annual EAIE Conference. See http://www.icef.com for details.