Page 97 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience
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Presently, Malaysia hosts twelve international branch campuses, of which five are campuses of institutions in the UK, three are campuses of Australian institutions, and the others are campuses of institutions in China, France, Ireland, and Singapore. The UK and Australia were selected for this study due to these nations’ high levels of TNE activity: the UK alone has 36 IBCs in 18 countries (Garrett et al., 2017). Malaysia’s historical ties to the UK has resulted in compatibility between the two education systems, allowing UK universities to offer almost identical programs without making major adaptations to the local context.
Australian universities currently operate twenty IBCs in ten countries, and the nation is widely considered an early pioneer in IBC development, accounting for much of the growth in the 20th century (Garrett et al., 2017). Of the 120,000 students worldwide enrolled in Australian TNE programs in 2019, nearly 20,000 (17%) were enrolled in programs offered in Malaysia (Australian Department of Education, Skills, and Employment, 2019). The geographic proximity and longstanding TNE links to Southeast Asia have attracted some Australian universities to open IBCs in Malaysia.
theoretiCAl foundAtionS
This study is informed by Astin’s Theory of Student Involvement (1999), which postulates that students are at the center of their learning experience. For development and growth to occur, students must face challenges in their student life while having access to university and social support. SI theory views the role of the campus as providing students with the opportunity to encounter and engage with new ideas, people, and routines, proposing that each campus should be tailored to the needs of the students enrolled (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). This recognizes the importance of understanding the unique academic experience at international branch campuses and examining how it is being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Global Integration–Local Responsiveness (I-R) framework analyses the tension between integration and differentiation in multinational subsidiaries (Prahalad & Doz, 1987). Global integration refers to “the
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Effects of COVID-19 on IBCs
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