In this blog, Simon Guy (Pro-Vice Chancellor Global at Lancaster University and Chair of UUKi’s TNE Network) explores the multi-faceted challenge of creating a purposeful, viable and enduring transnational education (TNE) in a rapidly changing world, using the weather as a metaphor. Ahead of the UUKi TNE conference, he argues we need to stop individually chasing the good weather and instead focus on collectively making TNE climate resilient.
A weather report in TNE
A couple of years ago I was invited by Navitas to deliver a keynote talk at their annual conference on the opportunities and challenges presented by TNE. Rather than lean into the myriad data sets and sector reports that have been proliferating in recent years, I chose to offer a metaphorical journey through the unpredictable ‘weather’ of TNE as I have experienced it, drawing on my Pro-Vice Chancellor Global role at Lancaster University, establishing and developing five international partner campuses.
I likened the lifecycle of TNE projects to shifting climates that can range from sunshine to storms, and from glacial temperatures to sudden heatwaves. I suggested that TNE is a journey of shifting conditions, requiring a range of aptitudes including flexibility, drive, determination, diplomacy, and vitally, enduring optimism. The barometer for TNE is in constant flux and remains as unpredictable as the British weather. You can view my presentation here.
Chasing the weather
While we prepare to gather for the UUKi TNE conference, I was struck again by the weather metaphor as we continue to navigate a bewildering set of headwinds and climatic conditions. International borders stretch and clench, regulatory frameworks shift to enable or constrict (sometimes simultaneously), analysis suggests markets are expanding, but prove stubborn in practice, projects gain endorsement overseas then meet resistance on our home campuses, and so on.
And yet the appetite for pursuing TNE has never been greater and more eagerly pursued. We are all pioneers now and however much due diligence and market research we undertake, everyone must be prepared for the changeable weather we will inevitably face as we set off on our TNE journeys, wherever in the world we seek to travel. We may hope for favourable conditions, stable geopolitics, growing markets and sustainable revenue growth, but the only confident prediction we can make is that the barometer will keep changing, sending the pressure in all directions and creating all kinds of adverse (and occasionally pleasant) weather through the life course of our TNE projects. Like the British weather, TNE is hard to predict and will defy your expectations.
Making the weather
So, as we gather to debate the relative merits of different models of TNE and to share our collective experiences of success, failure and everything in between, we should keep asking how we build in resilience to uncertainty, rather than seek to design it out. We should be exploring the multiple forms of value TNE can provide both to our host countries and communities, and equally to our home campuses and the regions we serve.
As a new LinkedIn friend, R Karthik, put it to me so aptly in response to my original Navitas weather report: ‘The strongest international partnerships won’t be those that chase the weather – they’ll be those that remain valuable in every season.’
At this year’s UUKi TNE Conference, let’s collectively commit to stop simply chasing the good weather and instead sign up to collaboratively ‘make the weather’ in order to create TNE that is socially purposeful (in-country and at home), financially viable (for all partners), and sustainable (both environmentally and in terms of its long-term durability).