Could Latin America be next stop for UK transnational education?

While China is the top host country for United Kingdom transnational education (TNE), with around 71,000 students – over 20% of the UK TNE share – geopolitical tensions have ended Britain’s so-called ‘Golden Era’ of diplomatic relations with China. British universities need to take a fresh look at alternative global locations – but they will need to engage in more equitable partnerships to break into Latin America.

That’s one of the key messages from international higher education experts following a new report co-authored by the British Council and Universities UK International (UUKi), titled Managing Risk and Developing Responsible Transnational Education (TNE) Partnerships.

The growth of UK TNE has been spectacular over the last decade, and particularly strong since 2019 to 2020 (up 22%), with the number of students studying for British degrees and other qualifications overseas reaching 558,085 across 230 countries at the last count in 2021 to 2022.

Some experts believe UK TNE numbers could overtake overseas students travelling to Britain for their higher education as the expansion of international students in the UK – which hit nearly 680,000 in 2021 to 2022 – was thrown into reverse from the start of this year. This was after a ban on taught masters students bringing dependants and the mixed messaging from the British government about whether overseas students are welcome in the country.

Blank canvas

While exporting British higher education overseas to in-country branch campuses abroad and TNE partnerships with locally based providers have been a great success in many regions of the world, particularly East Asia, there is something of a blank canvas for UK universities in terms of offering teaching and learning to students in Latin American countries.

Dr Lisdey Espinoza Pedraza, head of the Education and Insight Hub for the Americas at the British Council, told University World News the opportunities are there, but they need government support at both ends to flourish, as had been case with Spanish and Portuguese universities that are increasingly offering joint programmes, research collaborations, and student exchanges with Latin American countries.

The current UK international education strategy listed the five priority countries for British universities to focus on as India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Nigeria in 2021. But it said other important regional markets for the International Education Champion, Sir Steve Smith, to focus on include Brazil and Mexico (as well as Pakistan, Europe, China and Hong Kong).

Pedraza told University World News: “International student mobility from Latin America to the UK has been minimal, accounting for about 1% of mobile students in the UK, with notable peaks driven by government programmes like Brazil’s Science without Borders and Mexico’s CONAHCYT scholarships.

“The UK is a significant research partner for Brazil, Mexico and Peru, facilitated by agreements such as that between UKRI and FAPESP in Brazil.” UKRI is UK Research and Innovation, a government agency, and FAPESP is the public research funder the São Paulo Research Foundation.

TNE lacks government support

“However, transnational education partnerships are limited, primarily involving distance learning and online education, such as University of London International Programmes, and lack government-level support from the UK and from Latin American countries,” said Pedraza. “Stakeholders in these countries prioritise study abroad and student exchange, followed by international research collaboration and partnerships.”

Echoing some of the messages in the new TNE risks report from the British Council and UUKi, Pedraza described the higher education regulatory frameworks in many Latin American countries as challenging for TNE and said UK universities “should establish strong relationships with local educational authorities and policymakers to advocate for supportive regulatory changes”.

She also advised UK universities to make TNE more affordable by offering scholarships, reducing tuition fees, and developing reciprocal agreements that mitigate financial barriers for students and partner institutions.

Teach in Spanish

To overcome the lack of the required level of English to participate fully in UK TNE programmes, especially for less advantaged students, Pedraza urged British universities to follow the example of United States and Canadian universities and offer some academic programmes in Spanish and ensure they are aligned to local market demand.

“UK universities will need to do this to make their programmes more accessible and sustainable,” she said, adding that the University of Liverpool and Laureate International Universities had demonstrated the potential for UK TNE in Latin America.

“The partnership offers dual degree programmes in areas like business and engineering in Mexico and Brazil and this collaboration has been particularly successful due to its strong alignment with local market needs and its focus on quality assurance, resulting in high enrolment and completion rates,” she said.

Focus on equitable partnerships

Sandra Guarín Tarquino, director of international relations at Universidad Antonio Nariño in Colombia and co-founder of the Latin American Initiative for the Internationalization of Higher Education (INILAT), told University World News: “The biggest challenge for British universities in terms of TNE is to find a new way of interacting with potential partners.

“In a country like Colombia, the higher education sector is facing a period of transformation in which alliances, cooperation and added value for students and professors are more than ever required, avoiding as much as possible the traditional market logics in which students and their families can get into debt due to limited access to higher education.

“Latin American universities seek win-win relationships and partnerships to expand our capacities and co-construct and develop joint programmes that correspond to our realities and contexts and at accessible costs,” said Guarín Tarquino.

“Perhaps it is the very concept of TNE that requires a revision, since in the midst of a period of transformation, in which some of the higher education institutions may not remain, more equitable partnerships that stimulate the economy of all the countries involved in those alliances are required.

“There is a great opportunity here for British universities, as long as the focus is more on equitable partnerships, circular cooperation and less on access to markets that benefit only one of the countries involved.”

Dr Vicky Lewis, a UK based international higher education strategy consultant, agreed and welcomed the report’s focus on mitigating the risks involved with TNE.

She said: “While the breadth and scale of UK provision is the envy of other education-exporting nations and almost every UK university is now engaged in transnational education, most institutions only have low numbers of TNE students and their portfolio of partnerships has often developed in an organic, reactive way.”

Reframe strategies

Lewis told University World News: “We are entering a new era for TNE and the unmet demand for higher education in many countries presents great opportunities – but the UK must reframe its strategies and evolve its delivery.

“The world has moved on and some previously accepted models of TNE now come across as extractive and transactional. For sustainable growth in all host countries, both established and emerging, we need to engage in collaborative TNE with transformational impact.”

Lewis believes this is where the UK can build on its strong reputation for quality and “establish a reputation for ethical, equitable and innovative TNE”.

She said: “This shouldn’t just be an extension of our domestic delivery, but partnerships that have a positive local impact: from widening access and retaining talent in-country to supporting specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

Dr Vangelis Tsiligkiris, associate professor in international education at Nottingham Trent Business School in the UK and an expert in TNE, told University World News: “Transnational education is usually pursued with a narrow objective, often focusing on the local delivery of a range of academic programmes.

“However, given the changing nature of the global higher education market, where competition for internationally mobile students is increasing, TNE should be seen as a platform for broader global engagement.

“This broader perspective involves leveraging TNE not just for academic delivery but also for fostering international research collaborations, cultural exchanges, and global networking opportunities. By integrating TNE into a broader internationalisation strategy, universities can enhance their global presence, attract diverse talent, and create more impactful and sustainable educational partnerships.”

Six key areas for UK TNE

The joint British Council and UUKi research on managing TNE risks found that partnerships were more likely to thrive where they define their strategic objectives for TNE before looking for a partner and scoping host countries.

The report covers all phases of a TNE partnership – from inception to winding down, teaching out, or termination – and said UK transnational education must be underpinned by an integrated approach to managing risk across six key areas, including:

• financial risk;
• reputational risk;
• academic freedom and freedom of speech;
• security considerations;
• relationship and personnel management; and
• cyber, intellectual property and data management.

Writing in the foreword, Sir Steve Smith stressed the importance of “understanding and communicating with overseas institutions as equal partners in transnational partnerships”.

End of ‘Golden Era’ with China

Commenting specifically on UK TNE in China, Leina Shi, director of education for the British Council in China, told University World News that collaboration between the two countries has always been complex and the drawing to a close of the UK’s so-called ‘Golden Era’ of diplomatic relations with China, from 2014 to 2019, had raised geopolitical tensions and added to existing operating barriers.

“Despite these challenges, UK-China transnational education offers clear benefits – access to high quality students and partner universities, a pipeline for international student recruitment to the UK, with the majority of TNE students continuing with further degrees in the UK, as well as educational and technological innovations and research collaborations,” she said.

Nic Mitchell is a UK-based freelance journalist and PR consultant specialising in European and international higher education. He blogs at www.delacourcommunications.com