Developing International Operations

Developing International Operations

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Introduction

The 21st century has seen an unprecedented demand for and a great diversification in high education, as well as an increased awareness of its vital importance for socio-cultural and economic development. Addressing these challenges and opportunities and sharing a common interest, strategic Sino-UK HE collaboration has been developing over a number of years since 1996; this is an example of the form of collaboration that Eton College can use to make an entry into the China market. According to Li-Hua, (2007, p. 88), the speech on Attracting More International Students on 18 June 1999 delivered by the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair turned a new page that HEIs both in China and UK entered into a new stage in academic collaboration but at the operational level, the negotiation and the implementation and management of collaboration project is never an easy case.

There are uncertainties and ambiguities prevalent in the Chinese business environment that an institution such as Eton College needs to effectively look into and be negotiated by the international investment community. Therefore, by no means all international involvement with China has been successful. Tales of frustrations and disappointments, even for high profile projects, are legion. Evidence shows that many of the difficulties and disappointments are caused as a result of misunderstandings, cultural differences or false assumptions, and as such education expansion calls for the needs of the local community involvement.

Academic collaboration between UK and China British higher education, consisted of 170 institutions and renowned throughout the world for its high quality and for the quality of its graduates, was transformed from elite to a mass system between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. Although some universities date back almost 800 years, the majority of institutions were founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The ex-polytechnics, now known as the “modern universities” have developed a reputation for flexibility and adaptability. Therefore, the contemporary British higher education system balances new and innovative institutions and universities with long traditions of scholarly activity and research and thence the relevance of Eton College to the Chinese education system will be up to date and compatible.

The growth of the higher education sector in China and the number of Chinese students studying in the UK has had a significant effect on the UK HE sector, proving that Eton launch in the Chinese market will not lack students. Eton College needs to understand that High education is a lucrative export industry for the UK, the number of Chinese students studying in the UK has risen from 2,883 in 1997/1998 to 32,000 in 2002/2003 (17 per cent of all international students in the UK), which contributes around £1.14 billion to the UK economy. In the same time, Chinese high education system is rapidly developing and reforming, which focuses on improving basic education and creating world-class universities.

Systematic approach to tacit knowledge transfer

Eton College being in a high technological environment should be in a better place to identify that there is an expectation that technological partnership andknowledge transfer would enable the partners to take advantage of thecomplementarities of each other’s knowledge and expertise to achieve benefits andraise their competitiveness in the global market. Societal culture is important inaffecting the efficacy of technology transfer (Koizumi, 1982, p. 193) as knowledge is utilised andtransferred through intensive and extensive interaction between group members.As an entry strategy, Eton College can choose a co-ordination approach achieved through mutual adaptation among members with commonknowledge and shared implicit coding schemes accumulated through groupinteractions and knowledge is generated and stored almost organically in teamrelationships and the mode of co-ordination is human-network based (Lam, 1997, p. 11).

When knowledge is tacit, its transfer is more difficulty to achieve and monitor; transfer of tacit knowledge involves intimate human interaction between thetransferor and the transferee. Knowledge transfer itself has a number of components, of which it is argued thatexplicit knowledge and tacit knowledge transfer are the most significant and there are anumber of mechanisms already in place for explicit knowledge transfer that Eton college needs to incorporate, tacitknowledge transfer is considerably more haphazard and it is in this area thatknowledge transfer can falter and technology transfer can be impeded. In themeantime, it is known that knowledge, in particular, tacit knowledge that are the keys often todeliver and create the sustainable competitive advantage because it is this part thatcompetitors have difficulties in replicating

Perspectives of international collaboration

Presidents from both China and West believe that internationalisation is a high priorityfor the overwhelming majority of higher education institutions in all parts of the world proving a favourable place for Eton College and universities that are facing both challenges and opportunities and will be benefited inthe process of international academic collaboration. However, the aims and objectivesof universities between China and the West in terms international collaboration differin that to some extends, the primary strategy of undertaking collaboration projects inWest universities aims to attract and recruit students while the Chinese universitiesaim in bringing international dimensions and the academic enhancement andincreasing international competitiveness. In the meantime, Chinese universities wish toobtain knowledge transfer through international collaboration projects

Though high education fromdeveloped and developing countries may differ in some issues, however, there iscongruence in viewing the two trends. The first trend is that high educationinstitutions are becoming more and more internationalised. To put it differently, it is agrowing imperative to integrate an international/intercultural dimension into teaching,research and students services in order to enhance academic excellence and therelevance of contribution to society. To some extent, high education institutions in thedeveloping countries are more concerned with this international dimension. The secondtrend, more concerned with the high education institutions in the developed countries,is the growth of market driven activities, fuelled by increased demand of higheducation worldwide, including declining public funding in many national contexts,the diversification of high education providers, and the new method of delivery

China’s academic, social cultural and financial adjustments

China remains the leading sending country for international students and in 2008; over 380,000 mainland Chinese students were studying abroad for degrees at overseas universities (Institute of International Education, 2009, pp. 3). It is predicted that the number of Mainland Chinese students overseas will increase to 645,000 by 2028 (Maslen, 2007, pp. 2). In addition to these major host countries, Hong Kong has become increasingly popular among Mainland Chinese students in the past decade and based on the official figures released by the Hong Kong Government, approximately 8,400 non-localstudents enrolled in public-funded universities in Hong Kong in the 2008-2009 academic year; over 90% of these non-local students were from Mainland China and a few were from other countries (University Grants Committee, 2010, pp. 4).

Like many other countries, higher education institutions in Hong Kong have been stepping up efforts in recruiting international students since 2000 (Cheung, Yuen, & Yuen, 2008, p. 312); in 2002, the Hong Kong Government published a report on Hong Kong higher education in which it proposed that Hong Kong possessed the capacity to export higher education services and become an education hub in the region. Again, in 2007, the Hong Kong Government released its Action Agenda on China’s 11th Five-Year Plan and the Development of Hong Kong, recommending the exploration of ways to attract more non-local students to study in Hong Kong and to develop Hong Kong into a regional education hub (The Hong Kong Government, 2007, pp. 2). This proves that there is potential of students in the Chinese mainland for a college such as Eton to have its operations running.

According to Cheung, (2013, p. 230), there is no doubt that the number of non-local students in Hong Kong will continue to rise in the years to come, though Hong Kong is seeking more international students from countries other than China to diversify the student population in the tertiary sector, Mainland China will still be the largest contributing country in Hong Kong higher education in the foreseeable future. International students face more challenges than theirlocal counterparts due to language and cultural difference as well as the need to adapt to a new environment (Hechanova-Alampay, Beehr, Christiansen, & Van Horn, 2002, p. 462; Perdersen, 1975, p. 57). Although Hong Kong and China bear great similarities in terms of culture and language, there are still a great deal of differences between these two places, which could cause substantial adjustment for Mainland Chinese students during their “sojourner” stay in Hong Kong (Tsang, 2001, p. 350).

Previous studies indicate that there are four major adjustments common to international students, Mainland Chinese in particular, when studying overseas, they are language, academic, social and cultural, and financial adjustments (Church, 1982, p. 570; Perkins, 1977, p. 388; Ye, 1992, p. 112).Like language adjustment, academic adjustment of international students when studying abroad is also well documented in the recent literature. Academic adjustment is mainly due to two key factors: language proficiency and different teaching and learning styles as previous research indicates that many Asian students experienced difficulties in oral presentation, class participation, and class discussions due to limited language proficiency and features of unfamiliar instructional styles. There is the culture educational integration and change that makes many have a hard time adjusting themto a more interactive classroom, in which group discussions and oral presentation were common, when studying overseas (Kennedy, 2002, p. 438).

Conclusion

The issue of the effective delivery of the appropriate education internationally to students has become an important source of income for many organisations where some organisations may have seen this area as a “soft” market. However, the market is becoming more volatile and organisations need to seriously examine the effectiveness of the services they provide if they wish to maintain or expand their activity in this area. Hence the possibility of Eton College expansion is more favourable due to the existing market that is yet to be proliferated by other college institutions. The collaboration of the UK and the Chinese government will play a major role in the development of the college as well as the ties in political stability.

The selection and development of staff to teach on these programmes is also likely to be important. While not all needs of international students can easily or realistically be met, some can be met fairly easily, if only the will is there. Attention to these issues may enable providers to develop their expertise and reputation. Effective marketing involves looking after existing customers rather than neglecting them. The effort and investment needed to address the needs of international students is not so much something that organisations should try and do but something that they cannot afford not to do.

On the other hand, the process of adjustment for international students could be stressful and could lead to depression and academic failure as in fact, in the past ten years, nine Mainland Chinese students have committed suicide during their study in Hong Kong due to academic and social challenges. Unlike local students in Hong Kong, these Mainland Chinese students do not have the support from families and friends and often experience more stress and hence a break-through in China market is not as favourable as the targeting of UK foreign students for expansion.

According to Jiang, B., Frazier, V.G., &Heiser, D. (2007, p. 669), the trajectory of growth indicates continued expansion in the near term as the topical coverage has also expanded from the initial focus on strategy and policy issues to include significant coverage of quality, technology, and logistics management topics. In addition, the depth and nature of the topics has matured from a base of descriptive articles to include a growing emphasis on novel applications of POM techniques and new frameworks, interestingly, the percentage of applied research has remained relatively constant over the timeframe examined proving more research success than a college.

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Universityof Nebraska, Lincoln, NE