Prevalent notions of 'education cities' and 'education hubs' are vaguely defined, operate at blurry scales and tend to reproduce promotional language. The article contributes to theorising the ...geographies and spaces of globalising higher education by developing the concept of transnational education zones. Through an urban political economy lens, we review the relations between universities and cities, consider universities' role in the political economy and understand universities as transnational urban actors. We exhaustively map the phenomenon of transnational education zones and empirically analyse cases from four cities (Doha, Dubai, Iskandar and Flic en Flac) with respect to their embeddedness in state-led projects for the 'knowledge economy', their vision for transnational subject formation and their character as urban zones of exception. The conclusion develops a research agenda for further critical geographic inquiries into the (re)making of cities through the development of transnational spaces of higher education that explores the relations between globalising higher education and material and discursive transformations at the urban scale.
This paper investigates how the developmental ambitions of governments to attract university offshore campuses to Doha, Dubai and Ras al-Khaimah and these universities’ internationalization ...strategies affect the three cities’ positionalities. It links interdisciplinary literature on globally uneven geographies of higher education to geographical debates on the intermediating role of cities in regional and global economies. The paper conceptualizes the three cities as a triadic ensemble of gateways for transnational higher education (TNE), thereby contributing to further theorization of gateway cities. The paper shows that the three cities fulfil two crucial gateway functions. First, they connect internationalizing universities with particular student segments from their regional hinterlands seeking access to TNE. Second, they thereby amplify and disperse hegemonic regimes of the globalising knowledge-based economy in their regional hinterlands. While all three cities share similar functions and rationales, they also have distinct positionalities rooted in different strategies of the respective governments.
Regional embeddedness plays an important role for universities. We show that for transnational subsidiaries of universities, or offshore campuses, which are necessarily transregionally embedded ...through their relations to their home university campus and its networks, the level of regional embeddedness is also of critical importance. We define four dimensions of regional and transregional embeddedness: partnerships, government funding, faculty and staff, and student recruitment. Based on qualitative interviews conducted before and at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a global survey of offshore campus managers during the pandemic, we show how campuses with strong regional embeddedness seem to have been more resilient in the face of the COVID-19 crisis than those campuses which are less strongly regionally embedded. Nonetheless, regional embeddedness of institutions is no panacea and its risks and trade-offs with transregional embeddedness should be carefully weighed by higher education
Our analysis focuses on evolving global capitalism's production of high-skilled temporary migrant labour through the technology of special economic zones. Drawing on debates in economic geography on ...zones as globalised spaces of production and interdisciplinary scholarship on economic transformation in the Arabian Peninsula, we interrogate a relatively new type of zone that agglomerates foreign higher education institutions: transnational education zones. We conceptualise these zones as a distinct form of exceptional space produced by aspirations for a knowledge-based economy. Transnational education zones provide financial benefits and legal exemptions to state territory for international higher education investors who operate offshore campuses. By conducting a situated empirical analysis of transnational education zones' logics and mechanisms in Dubai and Qatar, we show how these zones function as sites of circulation and containment that allow governments to harness globally circulating people and institutions for building a knowledge-based economy, while aiming to contain their social and political impact locally. While the underlying contradictions of simultaneous circulation and containment of knowledge and knowledge workers are modulated by the exceptional character of the zones, they cannot be fully resolved. In many ways, transnational education zones constitute a continuation of established strategies for economic development by exception that have been pursued by governments in the Gulf, which aim for global connectivity and rely heavily on controlling a temporary and contingent migrant workforce.
This report addresses stakeholders involved in designing and implementing policy frameworks of higher education hub projects that particularly include international branch campuses, as well as ...organisations involved in consulting, advertisement and support of the internationalisation of higher education. It draws on multiple field visits to transnational education hubs, and on 136 interviews with senior higher education managers and transnational education stakeholders in Europe, Asia and the Middle East conducted between 2018 and 2020. Based on this data, we identify key phases and challenges for developing a transnational education hub. From these findings we developed the following suggestions that should be taken into account for designing successful policies. Overall, we argue that policy makers need to find the right balance between, on the one hand, creating an environment in which foreign providers of higher education can invest with relative ease and, on the other hand, setting up mechanisms and regulations that integrate them and ensure their contribution to long-term strategic development.
The report is intended for senior managers and decision-makers of internationalisation strategies at higher education institutions around the world, and organisations that are involved in consulting, ...advertisement and support of the internationalisation of higher education. Based upon 136 qualitative interviews with senior higher-education managers and transnational education stakeholders in Europe, Asia and the Middle East conducted between 2018 and 2020, we develop recommendations for developing strategies and avoiding risks in offshore campus development. The report: (1) Discusses the key challenges for international campus developments. It reveals lessons to be learned from failures. (2) Systematically discusses the six most common risks for offshore campuses; including a lack of institutional strategy, financial and reputational risks as well as risks relating to peripheral locations, risky partnerships, and changing regulations in host environments. (3) Develops risk mitigation strategies on the basis of a ten-question checklist.
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