An International Strategy for Education

Mary Ritter and Ulrike-Hillemann-Delaney

An International Strategy for Education : agenda

•Drivers for internationalisation of education• Direct, education per se• Synergy with other aspects of college strategy

•Models for international education interactions•Guiding principles and key questions•Strategy development

• E.g. the Middle East

•Today is the first stage – for discussion•Next steps, to focus on individual key regions of the world – research, assess, discuss, decide

Internationalisation of education

• 2 main drivers for the internationalisation of Higher Education• Educational rationale per se• Support for other strategic goals of the HEI

(research, finance, reputation)

Education rationale: does our education reflect the global context?

•Global problems need global solutions•Global brain power•Are we educating “global citizens”?

• For the global employment market• To be aware of the challenges facing our global society• To sustain the UK’s competitiveness in the world

•What educational goals might be needed beyond subject-specific knowledge?

• Entrepreneurship (international aspects of)• Knowledge of global economics/international management• Knowledge of world politics and history• Transferable skills, including intercultural skills

Education rationale: How can we achieve this? (1)

•Encourage extra-curricular activities – how can we support this? •Humanities•Student mobility

• One year exchanges • Summer internships• ~46% Imperial’s students are from outside the UK therefore already

‘international’• Our competitors (e.g. USA, Europe) could be our collaborators

» Many/most have a requirement for a semester/year abroad

•Are there new collaborations we should establish to create opportunities for our students?

• Universities and other institutions; Industry• Split and joint PhD programmes• Reciprocal ‘fit’/synergism with other elements of overall College

strategy

Education rationale: How can we achieve this? (2)

•Address global issues within the curriculum? Benefit from the international student population. (Are there existing good examples?)•Implications for teaching staff (teaching programme, their own intercultural skills)•Transferable skills training (‘Roberts’), with intercultural focus

• In collaboration with international partners• IDEA League; 3-day residential summer school for early PhD students.

Based on our RSD workshop. 2007, 2008.• Singapore (NTU, NUS, A*STAR); 2008, 2009 (PMI2 funding)• Hong Kong and Tsinghua, 2009• Imperial-Tsinghua 2009-2010. PMI2 funding. Programme aimed at later

stage PhD students, with career and entrepreneurship focus.• Excellent feedback from both participants and collaborating

universities; dual relevance – education per se and support for PhD collaboration

• PMI2 and Roberts funding. Team of professional staff.• Research lessons learnt integrated into our ‘home’ programme

Synergy with overall College strategy (1)

• Research Collaborations• Closer links through student exchanges on all levels• UG exchanges and Joint Masters Programmes as pool for PhD

students• Split and joint PhDs• Alumni• Benefits both students and College• Brings benefit now and future potential

• Reputation• Addressing global challenges through skills development• Quality of education /graduates (“the global university for science,

engineering, medicine and business”)• Alumni

Synergy with overall College Strategy (2)

Financial Income for the College

On Campus• Competitive pricing of courses• Increase of overseas fee-paying students at PGT level• Diversification of markets on all levels to maintain numbers and

quality• Do we need quotas on some courses?

Transnational Education?• Mentoring• Distance Learning• Overseas Campus

Modes of international interaction

Levels of international engagement

Level 1- an institution-level partnershipLevel 2 – a Faculty-level partnershipLevel 3 – an individual collaboration between academic staff

Levels 1 and 2 are key to international strategy, butLevel 3 is essential for their success

Also, any Level 1 and 2 partnership needs buy-in from our academic staff because the research/teaching will be done by them

International partnerships - what?

Physical presence

•Multi-faculty campus• UG, PGT, PGR, (research); e.g. OGTech; Nottingham Malaysia,

Nottingham China

• UG,PGT, PGR, no research (UNSW-Asia)

• PGT, PGR (MIT in Abu Dhabi/Masdar)

• UG +/- PG (Newcastle Medical School Malaysia)

•Subject-specific campus (e.g. research, clinical, education)• (imperial Abu Dhabi Diabetes Centre; Imperial Qatar Genomics

Centre; UCL School of Energy and Resources, Adelaide)

•Teaching franchise• Home courses taught on overseas campus (Uclan in China)

‘Mentor’; consultant role for setting up new institution• (Imperial-KAUST; Imperial-IIT Delhi)

International partnerships - what?

Virtual presence

•Consortia with collaborative education and/or research programmes

• IDEA League•Bilateral/trilateral research collaboration +/- collaborative PhD programmes e.g.

• Imperial-Singapore (A*STAR Research Institutes, NTU)• Imperial, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Hanyang University Korea –

Bioengineering•Student exchange programmes

• Multiple partners (MOU)• Available data and hence analysis on usage not good

A collaborative virtual presence requires capability on the part of overseas partner, as well as Imperial

Guiding principles and key questions

•Guiding principles and key questions•Essential for all potential projects

Major guiding principles 1

a. That the proposed activity (education, research, innovation) fits with Imperial’s strategic priorities

b. That there is an unmet need (Is this a real opportunity to do something that Imperial needs to do and otherwise would not do? Is the activity of real benefit to Imperia?)

c. That there is (matching) capability within Imperial (Do we have the people, the skills and the resources/infrastructure? Alternatively, could we recruit them?

d. That the proposed activity does not pose unreasonable reputational or financial risk (the level of reputational and/or financial risk has been thoroughly assessed and found to be acceptable)

Major guiding principles 2

e. That the proposed activity is consistent with the ethical standards expected of Imperial and a UK institution

f. That the proposed activity will be conducted according to a legal framework that is consistent with that of the UK

g. That the proposed activity does not conflict with existing or potential future partnerships of a similar nature and/or within the same geographical region (e.g. activity is exclusive/non-exclusive; replicative)

h. A formal risk-benefit analysis is needed for any major project

Some further, specific, questions 1

a. The proposed activity: What exactly is the nature of the proposed activity? (Focused research? Focused PGR? Broad, including UG, PG and research?).

b. Prioritisation: How does this opportunity compare with other opportunities?

c. Motivation: Why are we interested in the opportunity? (First class research? First class PGR that fit with research strategy? Money? Essentially, is it for: research, education, innovation, money, competition or collaboration?

d. Real costs: What is the duration of funding? What are the real costs of delivery (staff time, other opportunities lost)?

e. Delivery: What is the likelihood of operational success? Is this an activity to which our staff would wish to devote time? (e.g. focused research versus UG teaching)

Strategy development and delivery

Key regions of the world:EuropeMiddle EastIndiaSE AsiaChinaNorth AmericaAfricaSouth America

•Differ in education, population size, research capacity, financial capacity•Different models of interaction will be suitable for different regions of the world

Next steps – regional strategy: what is our motivation?

•Income generation•Mutually beneficial collaboration •Competitive advantage•An international footprint•A mixture of the above

•Broader UK foreign policy issues

•Caution • If money is the motivation – unlikely to be a ‘pot of gold’/massive

premiums• Most projects require the funding to spent within the donor country• If this is the case, management fees, overheads etc must be

negotiated appropriately

Next steps – regional strategies: research and assessment

•Focus on each geographical region separately•Research into

• political/economic situation• Population size and need• education and research capability• Status of individual universities• Imperial staff linkages (international database)

•Assess most appropriate model(s) for interaction•Assess the best target(s) for interaction

• country/state within the region• City• Universities • Etc

•Work in progress (Middle East, India, SE Asia, China, Europe, N America)

The Middle East

As an example

Opportunities in the Middle East

•Period of great change - many things are possible•Education moved to top of agenda in most countries. In some (e.g. Abu Dhabi, Qatar) governance and education are being radically restructured•Countries have considerable funding at their disposal, therefore potential opportunity for income generation for HEI such as Imperial (but even these countries are suffering an economic downturn)•Projects could provide involvement in building education and research capacity•Collaboration could provide access to new avenues/resource material/facilities for research•Personal approaches made to the Rector by Masdar (Abu Dhabi Science, Technology and Higher Education Foundation) and the equivalent body in Qatar

Risks in the Middle East: education 1

•Education not comparable to UK; poor quality of local student intake

• e.g. GOTech; 4-year BSc; 1-year ‘pre-degree’ course plus an additional 1-year English Language course if IELTS <4.5

•Local social/cultural factors undermine QA • e.g. inability to discipline local nationals; impossible to fail a member of

a leading family; women avoid graduating to avoid forced marriages

•Lack of educationally qualified local students • and the best likely to want to go overseas, to the ‘home’ campus

•Resultant need to recruit students in from other areas (eg SE Asia)• would not sit well with our aim to attract the best to Imperial in London

Risks in the Middle East: education 2

•School grade inflation, to help local students get into overseas campuses

• one college in Dubai awards 80% of students 71% (pass-mark = 70%)

•Cultural differences (e.g. requirement for segregation of the sexes)

•Standing of other universities that we might share a location with

• risk to our brand (e.g. Middlesex University in Dubai Knowledge Village)

•No evidence that any existing satellite campus has come close to the standards of the home campus

Risks in the Middle East: research

•Local research base and infrastructure is currently very small

•Doctoral programmes are having a hard time finding qualified local candidates and/or recruit/retain international doctoral students

•Integrated research and education programmes are rare

•Applied research ventures seem to have better chance of succeeding, especially when tied into a structured programme or driven by a clear commercial imperative (e.g. Imperial Abu Dhabi Diabetes Centre; Imperial-Qatar projects)

Possible models for Imperial’s engagement in the Middle East, as an example

1. Mentor role2. Multi-faculty campus3. Single-faculty campus4. Subject-specific centre

• research/PG education• application (clinical care, engineering)

5. Student exchanges• UG, PGT, PGR

Possible models: mentor role (1)

•Clear benefits must be identified, e.g. finance, future research collaboration, PGR students; otherwise altruistic

•Boundary between mentoring and education delivery can be blurred; latter could impose heavy teaching load for Imperial staff

•Quality assurance difficult

•Managerial distraction

•Brand, reputation

Possible models: Multi-faculty campus (2); Single-faculty campus (3)

Multi-faculty:•Unlikely to contribute to Imperial’s core strengths in research•Managerial distraction•Heavy teaching load•Does not fit Imperial culture (staff will not want to go out to teach)•Quality assurance very difficult•Divergent evolution leading to reputational problems; brand damageSingle-faculty:•Similar problems as above if UG education included in remit•If restricted to PG, more likely to contribute to Imperial’s core strengths in research, but teaching load if PGT•Difficult to establish sufficiently large research body to support high quality PhD training

Possible models: subject-specific centre(s) (4)

•Reflect and tie into Imperial’s research•Opportunities in Engineering and Healthcare areas•Some model projects already

•Helps to develop a ‘brand’

•Associated educational activities would be linked to research focus

Middle east: current projects

Abu Dhabi:• Diabetes Centre• Masdar Research Network

•Qatar• CO2-carbonates (Shell, Qatar Petrolium, QF)

• Under discussion:»BioBank»Genomics Centre of Excellence»Robotics

•Saudi Arabia• KAUST (Chemical Engineering and Materials)

Possible models for Imperial’s engagement in the Middle East

1. (Mentor role)2. Multi-faculty campus3. Single-faculty campus4. Subject-specific centre

• research/PG education• application (clinical care, engineering)

5. Student exchanges• UG, PGT, PGR

International Office

Hosting international visits, briefings for academic staff

International Collaborative PhDs, Board meetings

Marketing and recruitment of international students

Immigration and visas

Welcome, induction, enquiries and support

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Senior IO staff also have Faculty-facing responsibilities; interaction & advice for individual academics

IO staff have responsibility for specific geographical regions

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Support for international funding initiatives: UKIERI, PMI2

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International Strategy

Thank you

India

Opportunities in India

•Period of great change - rise to a global power• Population as large as China by 2020• Forecast to be world’s 3rd largest economy by 2050

•Education moved to top of agenda• Young and growing population• Desperate need for graduates and researchers; doctors• Ambitious expansion of HE provision (new IITs, IISERs and universities)

•Projects could provide involvement in building education and research capacity•Collaboration could provide access to new avenues/resource material/facilities for research•Already has a small number of world class HE institutions•Good cultural interface, language•Indian UK diaspora

Risks of engagement in India

•Stiff competition with other universities (e.g. both Oxford and Cambridge) – delay is a risk•Shortage of Indian academics may put pressure on time/workload commitment of Imperial academics•Gap between quality of IITs and most universities•Much will depend upon private finance (e.g. ~65% of medical care is private sector)

•Benefit will be in research and education rather than in direct financial gain

Opportunities in SE Asia

A very varied regionSingapore•Education and research ‘hub’•Biopolis, Fusionopolis, NUS, NTU•Many close links with Imperial e.g.

• Collaborative PhD (and masters) programmes

•Substantial investment in research and education (China will soon catch up)•Recruiting staff worldwide

•UNSW experience with a teaching campus•Good experience with/benefit from research training/PhD programme

Opportunities in China

•Period of great change - rise to a global power• Large population (~1,322,000,000) but

» 1 child family, social problems, ageing population » India may catch up by 2020

• Currently world’s 3rd largest economy•Education high on agenda

• Already has several world class HE institutions• Scholarship programme• Many students may stay in China to study in the future

•Imperial has many 1:1 interactions but no major College-level projects.•MOUs signed in April 2007 with Shanghai Jiaotong and Tsinghua universities; discussions with Chinese Academy of Sciences

• PMI2 transferable skills project with Tsinghua• Collaborative PhD (can’t be joint) with Tsinghua• Discussion planned with Jiaotong

International Affairs

•Pro Rector (International Affairs) – Mary Ritter•International Relations Advisor – John Wood•Head of International Strategy and Partnerships

• Ulrike Hillemann-Delaney

•Head of International Student Support• Sharon Bolton

•Head of International Student Recruitment and Marketing• previously Ulrike Hillemann-Delaney; tba

•Staff also have Faculty-facing and geographical responsibilities