Transnational education discussions at APAIE 2024 conference in Australia
As a growing element of international education, transnational education (TNE) creates a number of recognition challenges for many countries, and so UK ENIC takes a strong interest in TNE delivery.
Fabrizio Trifiro, Head of Stakeholder Engagement and International Quality Reviews at Ecctis, the Employee-Owned Trust company which operates UK ENIC on behalf of the UK Government, has attended a number of TNE-focused events in recent weeks which may be of interest to our members. Some are featured in this newsletter.
The Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE) conference was held in Perth, Australia, in early March.
Fabrizio Trifiro facilitated and presented at a session entitled ‘Internationally Local: Ensuring quality transnational education for a strong student experience’, which looked at how to support the growth of quality TNE.
'This is an exciting time for TNE, and it was really interesting to hear perspectives from fellow panellists Chris Bandy (Acumen), Guy Perring (i-graduate) and Hayley Shields (Edified) about the great work they do,’ said Fabrizio Trifiro. Areas of discussion included:
- how the TNE student experience compares to the home campus student experience
- how to differentiate and enhance the experience of TNE students taking full account of the local context of delivery
- the importance of having a good grasp of local regulatory and policy environments to run sustainable TNE, and
- the value of considering exit strategies from the start, with the interests of students at the forefront.
‘I look forward to continuing to engage with those involved in TNE from across the globe, to help create a cross-border TNE community of practice, benchmarking institutional practice around key areas of TNE activity,’ added Fabrizio.
‘These include governance arrangements, comparability of academic standards, enabling learning environments, responsiveness to local contexts of delivery, and managing student expectations.
‘At the conference, I also met with our counterpart agency in Australia, the National Information Centre at the Australian Government Department of Education, to discuss common challenges in TNE, including online learning, and possible areas of co-operation.’
APAIE aims to advance education through enabling greater cooperation between institutions; to enrich and support international programs, activities and exchanges; and to promote the value of international education within the Asia-Pacific region. APAIE aims to connect Asia-Pacific higher education organisations with the rest of the world, and devotes itself to the principles of mutual respect, diversity and collective progress.
The 2025 APAIE conference is due to be held in Delhi, India.