Looking ahead to #TNE2023: Stuart Bannerman, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor International at London South Bank University

Ahead of Transnational Education Conference 2023, what importance does transnational education (TNE) hold for London South Bank University (LSBU), as the conference host venue? Have there been any significant recent developments?

The future of TNE is a hugely important question for LSBU: where will the TNE space sit in this new transformed post-COVID world?

I've never particularly liked the term ‘TNE’, partly because almost no one understands what it means when you say it to them. Essentially, this is about students who are not present in a traditional teaching environment, and that, traditionally, has been overseas. But one thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us is that teaching students in our own traditional environment has now become commonplace – and we're actually doing it an awful lot better now than we might have done a few years ago.

So, the main theme that LSBU has been exploring here has been the theme of ‘convergence’. What difference really is there between a TNE student and a conventional student? We've known for years that there was going to be a major digital transformation. How is that actually having an impact? Digital transformation has been like a tide coming in: larger and larger proportions of courses and student teaching time is actually moving into this space. So, one of the questions that we do need to ask ourselves is actually what is the TNE model going to become in a sense of the pedagogy and its delivery? Will ‘digital’ become the dominant model, or is TNE becoming established as a blended or hybrid space?

Your session looks ahead at the future of transnational education in the face of increasing demand and technological development. Can you give us a sneak preview of some of the main focuses of your session?

So, in terms of demand, I think that's an interesting one. Yes, the demand is there, the demographics are there, there is an increase in population, but we're also seeing a new population participating in education through TNE and online models: the 25 to 40-year-old group. This new group is also interesting. There are lots of glass ceilings out there in terms of employment that continuing education and accessible online qualifications could help to break.

There are other demands coming through as well. One is cost: the cost of teaching, the cost of face-to-face teaching, and the cost of premises. At the same time, we’ve got the growing availability of online tools and the quality of those tools, but, more importantly, the familiarity that the students have with that environment. That is something which is changing quickly.

But at the same time, the students are also becoming more demanding. Once you get used to a better virtual environment, that's what you want to see. Once you've seen a good television show, a good film, you expect the standards to then move towards that, and you are going to be less tolerant of something which doesn't meet those standards. More demanding students, as well as growing demand, I think is something that has to be looked at.

And I think a very tough question for universities is: is this something that individual universities can do for themselves? We're not quite sure how it's going to fall, but I think we're not really looking at TNE anymore, what we're actually looking at is the future delivery and operation of higher education.

Join Stuart and other sector experts on 6 December at LSBU's prestigious 'Hub' building for Transnational Education Conference 2023. Limited tickets remaining - secure your spot below!