Enrollment Growth through Global Collaboration

Last Updated on December 20, 2024 by

The global education landscape is seeing an exciting rise in enrollments, driven by international collaboration. New Zealand’s international education sector has surged with a 26% increase in enrollments this year, surpassing 73,535 students between January and August 2024. Meanwhile, in the United States, the State University of New York reports a 1.9% enrollment boost at community colleges, with Cayuga Community College up by 3.7%. Even CUNY saw a 3% rise, bouncing back from pandemic-era declines. This growth highlights how global partnerships are fueling education expansion and shaping a brighter future for students worldwide.

Introduction

1. The issue of international university collaboration has recently gained prominence and has evolved into a significant and vital university activity. Although it has been a complex process, colleges have been able to include international coordination and interaction as essential aspects of their goals and duties in recent years.
2. This cooperation and collaboration are examples of how people may work together to get the most remarkable results in education, training, and research.
3. Many institutions have recently effectively incorporated university collaboration into their institutional structures. Most universities now have a dedicated department or administration in charge of international university collaboration, with a clear strategy and action plan to carry out various international activities.
4. In recent years, there has been an increase in expectations on the need to embrace new views in international university cooperation. University administrators must overcome budgetary limits and other hurdles to undertake the required measures to improve the inclusion of international collaboration in their institutions.
5. For a long time, international cooperation/collaboration has prioritized education and scientific research. As a result, colleges and research institutes are being urged to foster collaboration to advance knowledge that will benefit all of humanity.
6. Recently, making international partnerships, one of the university’s strategic goals, has opened up new avenues for sharing academic skills, saving time and money, and accomplishing qualitative leaps in system management and development.
7. Global Collaboration or Internalization: Internationalization incorporates intercultural and international perspectives into education and research. According to Technavio, increased internationalization in the education industry is a crucial driver of the growth of the worldwide higher education market.
8. Internationalization has resulted in higher education partnerships, which can involve teaching collaborations.
9. It can also enable degrees to be earned outside of the country and assist students in getting cross-cultural experience to be more equipped for foreign professions. As globalization increases, so will the international education market.

What is the need for global collaboration?

1. Our interconnected world needs unparalleled collaboration. Consensus on a course necessitates a detailed understanding of how one world affects the other and how many distinct worlds affect one another.
2. When collaboration is the key to development, an in-depth grasp of regional and local cultures, viewpoints, and identities and how they respond to each other is required.
3. Higher education institutions engaging in internationalization are becoming more linked and complicated.
4. A decade of university development – the golden period in which most modern college leaders achieved their pinnacle – has ended.
5. According to an EY investigation, more than 800 firms have strategic difficulties due to inadequacies or small size.
6. These issues necessitate a significant shift in institutional strategy toward cooperation and establishing deeper partnerships than higher ed has ever seen.
7. Colleges were revealed to have risen from the past at one of the four crucial spots depicted in the figure below.
8. Even though institutions encounter a variety of financial scenarios, their responses to shifting market trends must not be separate and different from one another.
9. In a few cases, this era offers tremendous opportunities for higher education institutions to collaborate and team up with institutions that may be a good fit for the following years.
10. The new phase of collaboration goes beyond simple partnerships between universities to share back-office operations or cross-list academic subjects, which frequently result in excellent press but do not result in anything more. Collaboration now entails higher education institutions working with each other as one entity to change their future path.
11. The institutions that are most likely to collapse must collaborate out of necessity. Those in positions of power must interact with other institutions and colleges to capitalize on the opportunities they bring.
12. Because the market cannot currently absorb the number of institutions around the globe, it is time for universities to collaborate.
13. Higher education funding is being reduced as expenses grow. The primary issue is that too many colleges are vying for too few pupils.
14. The existing pricing structure for universities and colleges cannot sustain a falling number of students, as most institutions rely on student enrollment for the majority of their income. A slight decrease in enrolment at these universities can significantly influence their financial survival.
15. Tuition-dependent universities must either increase the worth of their students to increase income or lower expenditures to offset this tendency. Collaboration with other institutions might benefit both parties, but it should not be viewed as a way for weaker players to survive.
16. In today’s higher education environment, the size and breadth of an institution are critical to long-term success. However, the institution’s size is not the primary safeguard against the factors pressing on higher education.
17. Even large universities and colleges must collaborate in the new age because the strategies commonly used to boost their sales revenue are not sustainable. They either rely on a continuous student supply (e.g., out-of-state students) or are focused mainly on temporary cost-cutting strategies (e.g., procurement).
18. It is a terrific chance for institutions to establish partnership models and solidify their place as leaders in the new field of education while taking few risks.

Routes to determine the best way to collaborate

img-alt;global-collaboration;Collaboration may take many forms and does not always have to end in a purchase or merger.

1. There is no one optimum approach for institutions to collaborate. There are several possibilities accessible; the institution’s choice is determined by where it falls on a preset risk-based scale.
2. The study should categorize universities and colleges depending on their size and risk.
3. Although the many institutions and schools in each area may appear to have distinct student and financial choices, the approach for collaboration within each group should be built on a similar structure.
4. Based on their position, the institutions will take one of two paths, and they will pursue collaboration either for existence or to capitalize on an opportunity.
   • Institutions that have identified efficiency in large-scale operations think of an enhancement, even if it is minor or involves risks; they think of distinguishing, having a unique chance in the current day to enrich their offers by cooperating.
   • For example, the consolidated Keck Science Department is shared by three California colleges: Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps. The department is situated in a cutting-edge structure near the confluence of three schools. It enables students to pick from various academic disciplines taught by top teachers that none of them might provide to their students independently.
   • Collaborations are no longer limited to institutions nearby; technology breakthroughs may bring institutions distanced by thousands or hundreds of kilometers together.
   • Of course, neighboring institutions have long collaborated in non-academic operations such as pooling police forces or purchasing offices. However, there has been virtually little academic collaboration regarding degree programs or the whole department, such as Keck.
   B. Survival:
   • Institutions with a high-risk profile should think strategically and look for partners that can assist them in saving costs.
   • Small institutions that rely significantly on tuition for most of their revenue and huge universities with financial problems.
   • Saving money from low-hanging fruit through standard cost-cutting measures in peripheral budgetary areas is no longer possible for many institutions.
   • Smaller institutions in survival mode cannot recruit more students since they rely on them to earn the required money.
   • In recent years, prominent colleges in survival mode have steadily raised tuition costs above national norms, although they have an economic logic. Now it is time for both institutions to seek allies, as neither can move on alone.
   • In recent years, integrating public and private universities has grown in popularity. Legislators and higher-education authorities, meanwhile, have been staunchly opposed.
   • If an institution wants to stay alive, surprisingly, the major obstacle to collaboration is not the search for a good partner.
   • Before proposing possible partnerships and models, institutes should ensure that their internal priorities are aligned and that all of their constituents (trustees, teaching staff, and former students) are conscious of the need for collaboration.

A three-step process to form a collaboration between universities!

Step 1: Identify the areas that require collaboration

• Collaboration may take many forms and does not always have to end in a purchase or merger.
• Collaboration in administrative and service activities is not unusual.
• Here are a few key things to consider as institutes begin to identify places where collaboration is possible:

1. What type of partnership will be most beneficial to their organization?
2. To what extent is collaboration required to be financially viable? Do they have the opportunity to expand the value of their students or reduce their expenses?
3. Which departments in the service, administrative, and academic sectors benefit the most from collaborative efforts? Furthermore, how far will these relationships extend?

Step 2: Structure potential partnership opportunities

• The institutions should select their partners based on the value of a shared goal more than location.
• When universities collaborate on administrative responsibilities and operations, there are several problems in putting the agreement into action, particularly in resolving control issues.
• Here are some crucial questions to ask while trying to strike a deal with an organization:

1. What criteria should be considered when evaluating a prospective partner’s feasibility and appeal (e.g., geographical location, shared vision)?
2. Which company is the best logistical, financial, and strategic fit for the desired sort of collaboration? What other prospects for partnership do we have with our current partners?
3. How will the collaboration be carried out? In what ways do the two institutions collaborate operationally?

Step 3: Continue to enjoy the advantages of the partnership.

• Forming a collaboration may be straightforward, but preserving the advantages of cooperation over time may be more difficult.
• Students benefit the most from collaborations since they raise the value of education.
• Cost reductions are not frequently recognized as a critical problem for academic collaboration. These collaborations can help institutions “save money” that would otherwise be required to enhance their capacities.
• Here are some crucial issues to consider while looking for measures to ensure a collaboration’s success.

1. What can we do to maximize the benefits of every cost-cutting opportunity discovered in the first two phases? (e.g., integration of systems or property optimization, etc.)
2. How can we use collaboration to maximize student value by expanding educational and service offerings?

Types of International Collaborations

Academic units of institutions can partner on foreign activities, programs, or projects with institutes of higher education or other organizations. Universities should be on the lookout for the following forms of collaboration:

1. Student Exchange: Student exchanges enable students from one university to take classes as non-degree students at the other institution for a limited time (a semester or an academic year). Exchange students pay tuition to their home university and specific fees, accommodation and board, travel expenses, and other incidental and personal expenditures.
2. Faculty Exchange: Faculty exchanges allow teaching and research employees from one university to perform their duties at another under conditions comparable to their home institution. Salary sharing, housing exchanges, travel expenditures, and other stipulations may be included.
3. Joint Research: Joint research can take several forms, including developing and sharing laboratory facilities and other resources and short-term student and staff exchanges across universities.

What are the benefits of international collaboration among universities?

1. Every university strives to achieve its goal and vision. This pushes them to establish strong links with institutions ahead of the curve in resources that promote student research. The international university collaboration allows domestic and international students to go for various exchange programs as part of their studies. This also allows the student to get fantastic new cultural experiences.
2. Accepting international university partnerships is one of the qualities that attract foreign candidates from all around the world. This is due to the partnership providing them with a more significant opportunity to create the most excellent version of themselves. Students may also establish new acquaintances while participating in a program with a partner university.
3. One of the benefits of partnering connections for students is on-campus faculty lectures on current concerns. Financial assistance is generally supplied to each participating student through seminars and other initiatives with the partnered university.
4. International collaboration allows academics to share ideas and obtain fresh experiences that might help them improve their job. Though embracing different points of view might be difficult, working together can help address such problems. Co-authorship publications by lecturers on the same topic might boost their field’s growth. Partnerships help staff with program creation, recruiting, on-site assistance, and alumni programs.
5. Global collaborations have made significant contributions to academic and scientific development. Much scientific work conducted by foreign institutions has resolved long-term health difficulties, environmental obstacles, and other human life issues. Researchers form teams to study life’s problems and propose answers that have a global impact.
6. University collaborations open up a plethora of options for both students and faculty. They provide research possibilities as well as cultural awareness. Curriculum development and diplomas produced in partnership with partner universities are two benefits of teaching. In addition, universities can provide foreign experiences such as study abroad programs and staff exchanges. We can state that international relationships among colleges are significant without equivocation.

Challenges of global collaboration

1. Risk aversion and its impact on innovation

• Both universities or parties in any worldwide cooperation must consider the influence of the partnership, even if it is informal, on their respective brands.
• Partnerships are typically motivated by the promise that they will enhance each party’s brand worldwide.
• Though this makes sense from a market standpoint, institutions are risk-averse, only cooperating with other institutions they consider to be of similar (or, better still, greater) standing.
• As a result, institutions with less cachet are seldom sought as partners; more often than not, this discourages institutions from finding potentially high-value partners whose work is revolutionary despite their lower known brand.
• Harvard University, for example, receives lots of applications for partnerships, even when those relationships make little sense. Unfortunately, another lesser-known university could be a better match for a potentially unique relationship.
• This tendency also influences higher education’s collective ability to increase opportunity in developing countries. Outside of medicine, for example, there is a paucity of collaboration between elite scientific institutes and developing nations.
• Risk aversion and the need to safeguard (and thereby improve) institutional brands hold down creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in the global partnership area.

2. Lower than expected enrollment and revenue

• Among the numerous partnerships that have begun, the reality of lower-than-expected enrollments and decreases in research expenditure by host governments has pushed some collaborations to the edge of disaster.
• Many once-heralded Middle Eastern collaborations, for example, are on the verge of failure. This is due, in part, to the region’s economy being so unpredictable due to a lack of diversification (in a petrochemical-based economy, the fluctuating price of oil reduces consumer and government expenditure).
• This instability directly influences local students’ willingness to enroll, as government subsidies may be reduced. The reliance on local or regional student enrolment has jeopardized the functioning of numerous US-based schools that have established themselves in the Middle East.
• Only those universities (NYU Abu Dhabi, for example) who have promoted their Middle East campuses as enrollment possibilities for students from all over the world appear to be performing slightly better.
• Enrollment and research support maintenance are not small challenges. Increasing enrollments and research spending is an even more significant problem.

3. Perceived erosion, lack of control over the quality

• When a partnership is formed, the subject of who controls quality is constantly shifting.
• It might be challenging to discern who should create educational requirements for a program, control faculty recruiting and evaluation, and develop the communication and evaluate learning goals for students based on how the partnership is constituted.
• Local accrediting authorities may have different criteria than the other partner is accustomed to. These differences may have nothing to do with academics and everything to do with regional implications and the country’s economic goals—both of which are susceptible to fluctuating political agendas.
• A perceived loss of control defines the difficulties in this situation.

Conclusion

• Collaboration is a way many universities will have to embrace if they want to stay afloat in the new world of higher education.
• On the other hand, partnerships can be a beneficial approach for universities in an area of relative strength.
• Collaboration may provide a much-needed boost to academic and co-curricular activities at weak institutions in some areas. It is feasible to frame the future era of university education as one of collaboration and development rather than decrease by emphasizing collaboration.
• Global collaborations may be exciting new endeavors that result in creative programs and research for both partner universities.
• However, every institution that wishes to collaborate with another worldwide partner should weigh the benefits against a rigorous study and detailed strategy to meet the unavoidable risks.