An International Strategy for Education

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An International Strategy for Education

• Mary Ritter and Ulrike-Hillemann-Delaney

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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

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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)

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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 UKs 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

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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 Imperials 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

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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, ASTAR) 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

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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

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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

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Modes of international interaction
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Levels of international engagement

• Level 1- an institution-level partnership
• Level 2 a Faculty-level partnership
• Level 3 an individual collaboration between
  academic staff
• Levels 1 and 2 are key to international strategy,
  but
• Level 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

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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)

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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 (ASTAR 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

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Guiding principles and key questions

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

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Major guiding principles 1

1. That the proposed activity (education, research,
   innovation) fits with Imperials strategic
   priorities
2. 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?)
3. That there is (matching) capability within
   Imperial (Do we have the people, the skills and
   the resources/infrastructure? Alternatively,
   could we recruit them?
4. 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)

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Major guiding principles 2

1. That the proposed activity is consistent with the
   ethical standards expected of Imperial and a UK
   institution
2. That the proposed activity will be conducted
   according to a legal framework that is consistent
   with that of the UK
3. 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)
4. A formal risk-benefit analysis is needed for any
   major project

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Some further, specific, questions 1

1. The proposed activity What exactly is the nature
   of the proposed activity? (Focused research?
   Focused PGR? Broad, including UG, PG and
   research?).
2. Prioritisation How does this opportunity compare
   with other opportunities?
3. 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?
   
4. Real costs What is the duration of funding? What
   are the real costs of delivery (staff time, other
   opportunities lost)?
5. 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)

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Strategy development and delivery

• Key regions of the world
• Europe
• Middle East
• India
• SE Asia
• China
• North America
• Africa
• South America
• Differ in education, population size, research
  capacity, financial capacity
• Different models of interaction will be suitable
  for different regions of the world

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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

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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)

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The Middle East

• As an example

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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

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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 lt4.5
• 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

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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

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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)

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Possible models for Imperials engagement in the
Middle East, as an example

• Mentor role
• Multi-faculty campus
• Single-faculty campus
• Subject-specific centre
• research/PG education
• application (clinical care, engineering)
• Student exchanges
• UG, PGT, PGR

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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

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

• Multi-faculty
• Unlikely to contribute to Imperials 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 damage
• Single-faculty
• Similar problems as above if UG education
  included in remit
• If restricted to PG, more likely to contribute to
  Imperials core strengths in research, but
  teaching load if PGT
• Difficult to establish sufficiently large
  research body to support high quality PhD training

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

• Reflect and tie into Imperials 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

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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)

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Possible models for Imperials engagement in the
Middle East

• (Mentor role)
• Multi-faculty campus
• Single-faculty campus
• Subject-specific centre
• research/PG education
• application (clinical care, engineering)
• Student exchanges
• UG, PGT, PGR

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International Office
IO staff have responsibility for specific
geographical regions
Marketing and recruitment of international
students
IO Responsibilities
Welcome, induction, enquiries and support
Middle East
N and S America
India
SE Asia
Africa
China Japan
International Collaborative PhDs, Board meetings
Hosting international visits, briefings for
academic staff
Support for international funding initiatives
UKIERI, PMI2
Senior IO staff also have Faculty-facing
responsibilities interaction advice for
individual academics
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International Strategy

• Thank you

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India
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Opportunities in India

• Period of great change - rise to a global power
• Population as large as China by 2020
• Forecast to be worlds 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

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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

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Opportunities in SE Asia

• A very varied region
• Singapore
• 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

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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 worlds 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 11 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 (cant be joint) with Tsinghua
• Discussion planned with Jiaotong

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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