Transnational partnerships in higher education in China: The diversity and complexity of elite strategic alliances

Transnationalpartnershipsbetweenuniversitiescanillustratethechangingpolitical,social,andculturalterrainofglobalhighereducation.Drawingonsecondarydataanalysisofgovernmenteducationalstatistics,universitywebpages,andacomprehensiveliteraturereview,thisarticlefocusesontransnationalpartnershipswithparticularreferencetoChinainorderto illuminatethediversifyingrelationshipsbetweennetworksofglobaluniversities.International partnershipsdevelopinhistorical,geographic,social,andculturalcontextsandtheanalysisofChineseuniversities’partnershipsacrossdifferentsocial,cultural,andgeopoliticalcontextsindicatesthat,evenwithintheelitegroupsofuniversities,transnationalpartnershipsarediverseandcomplex.Thisarticleaimstodemonstratethatthespreadofinternationalizationintheformoftransnationalpartnershipisnotuniformbutisinfluencedbycomplexcontextualfactors,someofwhichareaccentuatinginequalitiesinthesystem.

Transnational higher education in China has also been growing in the last three decades and more than 1000 programmes and institutions have now been approved by the Chinese government (Fang, 2012).TNHE plays out differently in different national contexts, however, and in China the emphasis is on controlled cooperation with joint investment in forms of capitalincludingland,intellectualproperty,brands,andmanagementsystems (Fang,2012).The underlying purpose ofTNHE partnerships often varies internationally, with the motivation of UKTNHEbeingpredominantlyfinancialandthedrivingforceforChinarelatingtoaccessto aninternationalhighereducationathomeforabroaderrangeofthepopulation (Huang,2006;Houet al.,2014).Researchinterestsaroundtheconceptoftransnationalpartnershiparealso beginning to intensify (Oleksiyenko, 2015) and there has been a sharp increase in published workinthisareasince2006 (CaruanaandMontgomery,2015),includinginitiativesaroundEU programmecollaborationandresearchcarriedoutbytheBritishCouncil.Notwithstandingthis increaseinresearch,OleksiyenkoandYang (2015)notethattherehasbeenadearthofresearch on partnerships and their associated policies and challenges, particularly with regard to the emerging global and economic powers of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and SouthAfrica),andChinainparticular.

Global alliances and groups: The elite universities of China and the UK
Partnershipsdevelopingbetweenuniversitiesgloballyarepartofcomplexmultilateralnetworks andalliancesbuiltonhistorical,political,andsocioculturalcontexts(YangandXie,2015).The emergenceof'missiongroups'intheUKisanexampleofwaysinwhichHEinstitutionsinthe BritishHEsystemareestablishing'self-identities'andforminghierarchicalalliancesinassociation with other institutions (Filippakou andTapper, 2015).There are a number of mission groups in the UK including the Million + and the Guild HE, as well as the Russell Group of British HEinstitutions,whichisseenasanelitegroupthatclaimstorepresent24research-intensive institutions who also boast outstanding teaching and learning, and excellence in links with businessandthepublicsector (FilippakouandTapper,2015).DespitemembershipoftheRussell Group being based on prestige, there is also diversity within this group, which has members rangingfromOxfordandCambridgeuniversitiesinEnglandtoCardiffandGlasgowuniversities, twohighlydistinctiveinstitutionsthatarepartoftheWelshandScottishsystemsofHE,which can be differentiated from the English system, not least because of the issue of student fees (FilippakouandTapper,2015).

Diversity of partnership in the elite Chinese universities: Two illustrative cases
ThissectionofthearticleconsiderstwoChineseuniversitiesatcloserrange,focusingoneach individualinstitution'sdistinctiverangeandnatureofpartnershipsandcollaborativelinksasa means of illuminating the diversity and complexity in partnership within the elite institutions ofChina.Eachuniversity'soverallstrategyisinterpretedfromthepartnershipdataandsome possible themes that emerge from the range of partnerships are drawn out.The two cases underlinetheinfluenceofhistorical,geopolitical,andsocioculturalcontextsonthedevelopment of international partnerships. As the data are taken from publicly available documents the universitiesarenotanonymized. Thelimitationsofthedatashouldbenoted,astheseprofilesrely onthewebpagesoftheuniversities,andtheuniversities'descriptionsoftheformalpartnerships, notontheperspectivesofthoseinvolvedinthepartnerships.Theythereforerepresentonlyone viewofthenatureofthecollaborations.

East China Normal University: Bringing the world to Shanghai
East China Normal University (ECNU) is located in Shanghai on the coast of the urbanized wealthyeastofthecountry.ShanghaidevelopedinthelateQingDynasty asoneof China'smajortradingportsandbecameafocalpointofmodernChina.TheBritish,Americans, andFrenchestablishedconcessionsinShanghaiinthelate1840sandthecityhadinternational settlements that were out of Chinese government control (Mitter, 2008).As a result of this history,Shanghaiisamulticulturalcitythathasacolonialatmosphere.ECNUisthetop'normal' (education)universityinChinaandispartofboththe985and211projects.

Concluding remarks
While some characteristics of globalization are promoting common trends across higher educationglobally,italsoappearstobethecasethatlocaldifferentiationinHEiscontinuing (Ng, 2012).Despitebeingdrivenbythemarketandglobalrankings,itappearsthatHEpartnerships are also influenced by a complex combination of geographical and sociocultural contexts. UniversitiessuchasEastChinaNormalandXiamenUniversityareinfluencedbytheirhistory and their communities, building partnerships on traditions that support the development of theircollaborations.Thepictureisthusconflicting;whileChinastillretainsastrong'catch-up' mentality and aims for its elite institutions to partner with dominantWestern peers such as OxfordandYale(YangandXie,2015),localsocialandculturalfactorswillcontinuetohavean impactonthedevelopmentofpartnerships.