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National Research University Higher School of Economics Journal of Language & Education Volume 6, Issue 3, 2020
Briede, B. (2020). Successful Global Collaborations in Higher Education Institutions: Review. Journal of Language and Education, 6(3), 189-192. https:// doi.org/10.17323/jle.2020.11363
Successful Global Collaborations in Higher Education
Institutions: Review
Baiba Briede
Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LLU)
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Baiba Briede, Faculty of Engineering, LLU, 5 J.Cakste blvd., Jelgava, Latvia, LV-3001. E-mail: baiba.briede@llu.lv
AI-Youbi, A., Zahed, A., & Tierney, W. (Eds.). (2020). Successful Global Collaborations in Higher Education Institutions. Springer International Publishing.
The role of universities and their co-operation should be in line with the emerging tendencies of the 21st century society given the progress of 4IR and sustainability goals in academic and research work.
The reviewed book entitled "Successful Global Collaborations in Higher Education Institutions" was published in 2020 in the Education Series of Springer International Publishing.
The book provides a panoramic analysis of the themes on global collaboration among universities touching problematic aspects and challenges. The book consists of the introduction, bio-notes on editors and contributors, and nine chapters grouped into three parts.
The introduction by the book editors Abdulrahman AI-Youbi, Adnan H. M. Zahed, William G. Tierney parses the scope of universities' international activities from the 20th century up to now with diverse forms in collaboration especially via Internet.
The first four chapters are included in Part One entitled "Implementation of Global Partnerships". It relates to global university collaborations, a striking feature of the 21st century higher education.
Chapter One by Abdulrahman Al-Youbi and Adnan H. M. Zahedwhich "King Abdulaziz University's Approach to International Collaboration" offers the terms "cooperation", "collaboration" and "partnership", their definitions and scope. The chapter moves on to some practical aspects of collaboration and cooperation in higher education, in general, and by King Abdulaziz University (KAU), in particular. The authors highlight the importance to keep a close link between knowledge/innovations, university, and industry in the contexts of local and global issues, such as climate, energy consumption, social problems, etc. The authors also touch upon institutional and budget aspects as well as the aspect of technical international cooperation explaining its nature, aims, and channels of cooperation. International collaboration in higher education in Saudi Arabia is also outlined in Chapter One. It gives a detailed description how this process is being developed at KAU. The authors explain how international agreements are administered. They show graphically how the International Advisory Board can enhance KAU's academic, scientific and community progress. The importance of the agreements with leading universities participated in international student programs and scientist programs is translated into recruiting of talented international students, strengthening academic excellence, publishing research results in authoritative scientific journals, etc. It is worth mentioning that the KAU idea of research groups (25) and collaboration with industry under the guidance of Research and Consulting Institute (RACI) brings a wide
Successful Global Collaborations in Higher Education Institutions
SpringerOpen
Review
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
spectrum of opportunities in research proposals and services (5,000 researchers, more than 50 central laboratories in various fields and more than 200 expert houses comprising consulting in various sectors of the kingdom). The authors point out that KAU tends to participate in leading international, cultural, scientific, and research collaboration. The authors substantiate the line of development with statistics.
Chapter Two by William G. Tierney entitled "Creating an Organizational Climate for Global Partnerships: Challenges and Opportunities" consists of six sections. The author introduces his readers to globalization in tertiary education. The second section is focused on organizational culture as an important factor in promoting global partnership in higher education. The author advocates a broad concept of organizational culture stressing that it is highly important to understand both a certain organization's culture and the one of whom they will enter into a global partnership. The author also mentions aspects in organizational culture what practitioners have to consider developing the process of global partnership, and he explains the key words of the university organizational culture as mission, socialization, information, strategy, leadership, and environment.
The third and fourth chapters give a detailed analysis of globalization, its impact on tertiary education in the context of local and global needs. The author touches upon the peculiarities of global processes in tertiary education. The idea of adaptation to changes and finding ways how to be innovative in global conditions permeate the study. The author concludes that universities have to build an innovative culture to be able to meet all challenges in global partnership. The author's assessment of global partnership points to creativity and innovations as the buzz words in the environment of the university. The last two sections are focused on the means of developing global partnerships among universities creating innovative environments. The changing role of academic staff, the chosen model of internationalization, the role of the ministry and funding are crucial factors on which stable global partnerships depend.
Chapter Three "Global Citizens for the Twenty-First Century: The Role of International Partnerships in University Education" by Feridun Hamdullahpur comprises five sections. The analysis of the nature of international partnerships at universities in the context of education and research as well as work-integrated learning opportunities for the future is conducted throughout the chapter. Three levels of collaboration success are assessed: individual, institutional, and national and global impact. The author recognises that individual impact comes mainly from student exchanges, and thus the students can develop their careers, with companies having an opportunity to attract talented individuals. The author also enumerates barriers the exchange students face. Agreements could become instruments to limit them. As regards the institutional level, the author states that it mainly refers to research including joint research projects, co-authoring of research papers and the sharing of resources through joint research grants and research equipment use, and the examples of implementation of the research activities are mentioned. Further, national and global impact is described. The author states that one of outcomes is changes in the society because it implies creating of intellectual property, impact on regional and global economy by fostering innovations and international cooperation. Statistics on international students outside their home countries and benefits implementing the three levels are substantiated in the study.
The author looks into a range of university partnerships, with several cases from the University of Waterloo, Soochow University and Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Institute of Research and Education on Nanotechnology. The author mentions that the core of partnership is programmes and agreements that blend research, education, and commercialization and, thus, entrepreneurship and creator-friendly IP policy is developed.
The author highlights that the role of the university is crucial in partnership with this global network promoting the UN's 17 Sustainable development Goals, namely the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). The author explains how the University of Waterloo expands its activities with SDSN and what its impact in Canada and the world is. Another example embraces risk management, economic sustainability, and actuarial science development in Indonesia. The overview of the University of Waterloo together with appropriate institutions in Canada shows the partnership links and how they help to increase the number and quality of Indonesian actuarial science graduates, strengthen the linkages among industry, government, and educational institutions. The chapter also makes a contribution on work-integrated learning and experiential education. The author dwells upon the opportunities and benefits students can get by means of the cooperation programmes. The study clearly demonstrates the importance of connections and activities
ANALYZING DIGITAL DIDSCOURSE. NEW INSIGHTS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS. PALGRAVE.
which open opportunities for students, faculty members, scientists, and society in the development of economics and knowledge.
Chapter Four "International Cooperation in East Asian Higher Education" by Gerard A. Postiglione shows why Asia is interested in global cooperation. Eastern Asia's motivation to become one of the centres of international cooperation and regional links is substantially explained against cultural traditions, historical affinities, and developmental experiences. The author also points to the reasons why the process of international cooperation in higher education is not developed enough and, therefore, five trends in the region to gain better outcomes of international cooperation are addressed. The author recognises that the growing population with rapidly expanding elementary and secondary education is the cause of the growing number of students in higher education.
Economic integration, knowledge-based economy, improved communication systems are outlined as instruments to improve international partnership in higher education. The chapter is related to the quality issues in higher education. Secondary school leavers' skills are aligned with the entrance requirements at universities. The problems of access and equity in higher education are outlined.
The second part entitled "International Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer" comprises three chapters on the analysis of collaboration implementation.
Chapter Five "International Collaboration as a Catalyst for Change: The Case of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2003-2017" by Guaning Su lists globalization aspects of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore for the period of 15 years. The chapter outlines modern and further opportunities of NTU involvement in international partnerships' process. and the instruments are autonomous universities and National Research Foundation (NRF) with single programme funding up to 150 m Singapore dollars, and the author emphasizes that it gives a chance to recruit the very best from around the world. The author also highlights the importance of NRF and NTU in the development of internationalization of Singapore's higher education and research including also China programmes.
Chapter Six by Jozef Ritzen is entitled "Making Ideas Work for Society: University Cooperation in Knowledge Transfer". The chapter dwells upon positive effects of knowledge transfer (KT). It also presents this process in King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The author emphasizes that all oil-rich countries on the Arabian Peninsula strive toward less economic dependency on oil revenues. He recognizes KT as one of the instruments which promotes development of the region. Therefore, the author highlights the importance of innovation and valorization which help to decrease oil dependency. Hewlett-Packard Companies successes are mentioned as bright examples in USA between universities research achievements and business development. The author also highlights KT links between business and universities in Europe. The author explains that KT in the region is focused on research and development investments.
Chapter Seven "Student Exchange: The First Step Toward International Collaboration" by Abdullah Atalar analyses student exchange programs as one of the most effective tools for preparing students to work in global conditions. The essence of undergraduate and graduate student exchange programs is briefly outlined in the context of STEM studies. Then the basic principles of exchange programs are revealed. The readers can also read about the advantages and disadvantages of exchange programs from students' and universities' perspectives. The author highlights that in spite of being out of comfort zone, exchange students are more successful in their studies and on the labour market. The author also presents two successful student exchange programs as EU Erasmus program and AFS-USA Program.
The chapter reveals other forms of international exchange as digital networks with opportunities to make university learning, teaching and collaborations more flexible, using video conferences, Moodle, Skype, Google Docs, and other mentioned tools. Further, the author gives brief information on exchange and dual degree student programmes as well as research workshops.
Part Three entitled "Challenges and Sustainability of Global Partnerships" consists of two chapters and highlights the challenges and ideas of sustainability universities have to meet in global partnership.
Chapter 8 "The Tricky Terrain of Global University Partnerships" by James Soto Antony reveals some aspects of cooperation and collaboration of US higher education institutions inside the country and abroad. It starts with a historical outlook in international relations in higher education starting from colonial times in the seventeenth century. The author presents examples of international partnerships. The examples are illustrated with diverse statistics giving a convincing insight into the development of international partnerships. Types of partnership are explained unambiguously with convincing examples.
The analysis of global partnerships brings out the four main challenges. The author substantiates each challenge with examples showing also the causes of partnership failures. The chapter also entails an explanation of implications and recommendations in the field of global partnerships focusing on forms, cultural differences, funding, importance of brands, and values.
Chapter 9 by Michael Lanfordentitled is headlined "Long-Term Sustainability in Global Higher Education Partnerships". It focuses on the importance of global partnerships showing aspects that can influence their sustainability. The author mentions threats, conditions that can improve the prospects of long-term sustainability.
The chapter covers four threats influencing sustainable development of global partnership. The threats, i.e. divergent motivations and goals, inadequate planning and funding volatility, leadership turnover and instability, and poor staff morale, are analysed in various contexts such as education peculiarities, relations, collaboration, cultures, communication, competitiveness, national interests, etc. The threats are illustrated by examples from higher schools in the context of various countries. The author focuses on improving global partnerships among higher education institutions. Items promoting successive development of partnerships are highlighted in the chapter.
Chapter Nine and the book end with items referring to the problems of legitimacy. The author reveals complexity of legal processes and societal aspects of global partnership.
The book is a contribution to understanding of processes of global partnership. Chapters are equally long and each of them reflects the raised problems deeply enough. The value of the book is indisputable for educators, researchers, PhD students, and all interested in the recent trends in higher education. The chapters step by step unfold the scope of global partnerships in higher education. Various models of international cooperation describe opportunities for universities and show what higher education establishments can learn from experiences in global partnership. The potential target group of the book are academic and administrative staff of universities, researchers, postgraduate and graduate students developing competence in global partnership.
