According to the BBC website, Surrey is aiming to emulate the University of Nottingham’s internationalisation achievements in China and Malaysia. The Guardian also carries the story.
The University of Surrey wants to offer degrees in which students might move each year between partner universities in three countries. This could include universities in the US, China and elsewhere in Asia. The partnership will create undergraduate and postgraduate courses in management, computing and entrepreneurship – with the aim of allowing Chinese students to study in Guildford and for UK students to spend part of the course at Dongbei. Courses in China will be taught in English and will replicate those taught at the University of Surrey.
It’s a good pitch and well articulated. The fact that others are following suit helps to reinforce the value of what the University of Nottingham is doing.
I wonder who will teach the “Surrey” courses in the USA and China, and what “replicate” means in practice. This approach is a great one on paper (or a brainstorming session), but implementation and genuine quality assurance is a complicated and challenging affair. It will be worth tracking this development over time. Kris