Working Abroad in Higher Education: If Only I Knew?

Copyright © 2015 by Dr. Michael Clarke.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Glossary

Abstract

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Context of this Study

1.2 The Aims and Expected Contribution of this Study

1.3 Structure of the Research Study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The Changing UK Academic Landscape

2.3 Massification of the UK Higher Education Sector

2.4 Tighter Government Legislation

2.5 Managerialism and Individualism

2.6 Marketisation and the Student as a Customer

2.7 Internationalisation

2.8 Graduate Employability

2.9 Growth of part-time and fixed-term appointments

2.10 New Technology

2.11 Entrepreneurialism

2.12 Part One Summary

2.13 The Growth of Transnational Higher Education

2.14 Transnational Higher Education – Challenges and Issues

2.15 Country, Institutional, Cultural and Market Challenges

2.16 Higher Education as a Global Commodity

2.17 Quality and Perceptual Issues

2.18 Teaching, Research and Administration

2.18.1 Contribution by Geert Hofstede

2.18.1.1 Individualism versus Collectivism

2.18.1.2 Power Distance

2.18.1.3 Uncertainty Avoidance

2.18.1.4 Masculine versus Femininity

2.19 The Framework of Five Essential Elements (2007)

2.19.1 Collegiality

2.19.2 Autonomy and academic freedom

2.19.3 Professional Flexibility

2.19.4 Participation in Governance

2.19.5 Professional Development Opportunities

2.20 Higher Education Sector in the United Arab Emirates

2.21 Main Findings of the QAA (UAE) Transnational Review

2.22 Comparative Summary of the Literature

2.23 Research Gap

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Justification of the study

3.3 Research Questions and the Research Gap

3.4 Epistemological Position

3.5 Proposed Research Design

3.6 Qualitative Approach

3.7 Ambiguities and Limitations of a Qualitative Approach

3.8 Methods

3.9 Study Population – Who to Interview?

3.10 Data Collection

3.11 Data Analysis

3.12 Validity and Reflexivity

3.12.1 Reflexivity as an inter-subjective reflection

3.12.2 Reflexivity as a mutual collaboration

3.12.3 Reflexivity as a social critique

3.12.4 Reflexivity as discourse deconstruction

3.12.5 Reflexivity as an introspective perspective

3.13 Ethical Issues

3.14 Semi-structured Interview Questionnaire

3.14.1 Theme 1 – Motives for working overseas

3.14.2 Theme 2 – Moving abroad and settling in

3.14.3 Theme 3 – Comparing teaching overseas to the UK

3.14.4 Theme 4 – Comparing research overseas to the UK

3.14.5 Theme 5 – Comparing administrative duties to the UK

3.14.6 Theme 6 – Relationships with the home campus

3.14.7 Theme 7 – Comparability of the academic professional role applying the Framework of Essential Elements

3.14.8 Theme 8 – Resourcing and its impact on the role of the expatriate academic

3.14.9 Theme 9 – Career expectations and future plans to move back to the UK or another overseas country

3.14.10 Theme 10 – Greatest challenge affecting expatriate academics

3.15 Concluding Remarks

Chapter 4: THE ACADEMIC ROLE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE – FINDINGS AND RESULTS

4.1 Motives for Working Overseas

4.2 Moving Abroad and Settling In

4.3 Comparing Teaching Experiences

4.4 Research

4.5 Administration

4.6 The Five Essential Elements of Faculty Work

4.6.1 Professional Growth

4.6.2 Collegiality

4.6.3 Academic Freedom and Autonomy

4.6.4 Employment Equity

4.6.5 Comparing Flexibility

4.7 Relationships with the home campus

4.8 Career Expectations and Future Plans

4.9 Key Challenges

4.9.1 UK – Greatest Challenge

4.9.2 Overseas – Greatest Challenge

4.9.3 Greatest Challenge – UAE or UK?

4.10 Conclusion

Chapter 5: DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

5.1 Drawbacks of working abroad

5.2 The need to support newly arriving academics and part-time faculty

5.3 Lessons on building respect

5.4 Increased Workload

5.5 Conclusions

Chapter Six: CONCLUSION - CONCLUDING REMARKS AND PERSONAL INSIGHTS

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Review of Research Questions

6.3 Future Research Studies in other Countries

Appendices

Appendix 1: Person Attributes

Appendix 2: Study Of British Expatriate Academics

Appendix 3: Semi-Structured Interview Questions

Appendix 4: UK Challenge Versus UAE Challenge – Which Is The Greatest Challenge?

Appendix 5: Summary of Issues and Challenges for academics working in transnational higher education

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

I am greatly indebted to all those expatriate academics that participated in this research study. Dr. Robin Shields, Dr. Helen Verhoeven and Dr. Esinath Ndiweni provided valuable insights and contributions throughout this research study. I wish to thank you all for your time and support. Sharon Ang greatly assisted me in putting this book together – thank you for your persistence and eye for detail.

This book is dedicated to the Clarke family – my mum and dad, brothers and sister, sisters-in-law, cousins and my son.

Glossary

Abstract

Rapid expansion of the transnational higher education market has occurred over the past two decades (Altbach and Knight, 2007). Consequently, this expansion has led to an increased mobility of academics, but few research studies have investigated their experiences (Knight, 2011, 2013). Knight (2013) argued that more research is required in order to understand the challenges, complexities and environment which are faced by overseas academics. This research study investigated the professional role of fourteen British expatriate academics who are currently working at three British branch campuses operating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Currently, the UAE hosts the largest percentage of the world’s International Branch Campuses.

The key findings of this study highlight that there are significant challenges in the nature of the academic role in the core areas of teaching, research and administration. The findings of this research also suggest that the academic role in a transnational higher education environment is more challenging than their previous UK experiences given the type of students that they teach and the University environmental setting.

This study has gone one step further based on the current literature in prioritising challenges that have the greatest impact on academics working overseas. It was found that expatriate academics are faced with considerable challenges in settling into their overseas position, as there is often little or no support, provided for induction or mentoring systems in place. Another key finding of this research is that overseas academics perceive that it would be very difficult to return to the UK Higher Education sector. Several recommendations have been put forward to address the aforementioned challenges.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Context of this Study

Over the past two decades, educational researchers have observed the rapid expansion of transnational higher education activity (Altbach 2002; Chapman and Pyvis 2006; Altbach and Knight 2007; Naidoo 2009). The increase and growth of transnational higher education has led to an increased international mobility of academics (Altbach 2002). Robson (2001) and Knight (2011) have observed that there have been few research studies undertaken on the experiences of academics that work and live abroad. They suggest that extensive research work is required in order to understand these challenges and the overseas environment which are faced by academics. Richardson and McKenna (2002) provide some useful evidence indicating that there were difficulties experienced in their study of thirty British expatriate academics that were working in Turkey, Singapore, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. The authors cite, the expatriate can be seen as an explorer in that taking an overseas position presented an opportunity both to explore another culture and to undertake this exploration in an independent way through living and learning a new culture. (p.7). Although this may not be the major focus of Richardson and McKenna (2002) study, but they stated challenges of settling-in, difficulties faced in applying teaching pedagogy and cultural adjustment in moving to a new country. Chapman and Austin (2002) have argued for greater attention and resource to be provided for expatriate academics working overseas on their recruitment, training and support.

For many overseas academics, teaching multi-cultural students, dealing with poor English language skills and working with a standardised curriculum (i.e. same materials and assessments) appear to be stumbling blocks and present challenges in the classroom setting (Bodycott and Walker, 2000). Bodycott and Walker (2000) conducted their study in Hong Kong based on their own teaching observations. They argue that expatriate academics are ill-prepared to teach in overseas branch campuses as so often academics are unaware of pedagogical strategies to cope with students who have never learnt critical thinking in their previous schooling system. Very limited research is conducted in overseas branch campuses. Richardson and Zikic (2007) suggest that the main reason for this is that academics have been encumbered with high teaching loads, which prevents them from pursuing research. Fielden and Gillard (2011) conducted research at nine overseas branch campuses on staffing strategies and suggested that the main purpose of the private sector university was mainly focused on teaching. Research was very limited throughout the overseas campuses visited.

The next section will discuss the aims and expected contributions that this study aims to make in the area of the academic role in an overseas setting.

1.2 The Aims and Expected Contribution of this Study

Several researchers identified that there were limited studies on the premise of ‘players’ involved working at overseas branch campuses (Robson 2001; Knight 2011). The aim of this study is to examine the professional role of British expatriate academics working at UAE branch campuses. Therefore, the primary research question for this study is:

How do the overseas conditions and environment affect the professional role of the British expatriate academic?

The contribution of this study deems significance to several stakeholders. Firstly, it will be of interest for those British academics that are exploring the opportunity to work overseas in transnational higher education. Is it attractive to British academics to work abroad? British expatriate academics are investigated in terms of their decision on moving to work overseas, about their experiences in their role and how it compares to working previously in the UK Higher Education (HE, hereafter) sector. Other questions addressed in this study concerns how their role overseas affects their career aspirations and insights into how the overseas branches operate can be useful to access the working conditions that expatriate academics work in. Secondly, such research is useful for senior managers of overseas branch campuses to assess the implications and recommendations that are gathered from research outcomes of the study. Thirdly, senior managers based at home campuses can understand and appreciate the conditions that academics operate in and can influence necessary decisions to ensure that the British branch campuses are improved to enhance the overall student learning experience. The next section outlines the structure of the study.

1.3 Structure of the Research Study

Chapter Two constitutes the literature review, which is split into three major parts. Firstly, Part One of the Chapter begins with a discussion on the changing UK academic landscape and how neoliberal forces have shaped the nature of the UK HE sector and have impacted on the professional role of the academic. It is important to discuss the UK HE sector as several themes in this fieldwork asked respondents on how their experiences of working overseas compare to their experiences of working previously in the UK HE sector. Several areas within Part One are relevant to transnational higher education particularly the sections on ICT, internationalisation, graduate employability, marketisation and regulation as they negatively affect the curriculum.

The second part of Chapter Two explains the growth of transnational higher education due to factors such as globalisation, IT infrastructure and the need for Western universities to seek out new income streams due to government funding cuts. I further delve deeper into identifying challenges faced by overseas academics based on the research studies and literature available on International Higher Education. These are categorised into four broad areas: (a) country, institutional, cultural and market challenges (b) Higher Education as a global commodity (c) quality and perceptual issues and (d) challenges in teaching, research and administration.

In Part Three of Chapter Two, I present a useful framework (Framework of Five Essential Elements, Gappa et al 2007) alongside a study by Chapman et al (2014), which was recently conducted in UAE public and semi-public universities. The study by Chapman et al (2014) applied the same Framework of Five Essential Elements (Gappa et al. 2007) as in my study. The recent QAA UAE Overseas Transnational Review of Higher Education (2014) is examined alongside country specific discussion of the UAE Higher Education system. A summary is provided, of literature comparison of the UK and overseas academic roles in terms of teaching, research and administrative as it is particularly relevant to this research study. The final section in this Chapter identifies the research gap.

Chapter Three discusses the research design for this study that was undertaken in the UAE and how it was chosen and conducted. The researcher provides justification of employed methods and the interpretative stance taken using qualitative data. The researcher has conducted fourteen in-depth semi-structured interviews at three British Universities which have overseas campuses based in the UAE. The criterion for selection was that the expatriate academics must have held previous teaching experience in UK higher education. The three British Universities have been unidentified and given a pseudonym. This was also applied to the fourteen respondents who were interviewed in this study. Interview transcripts were transcribed totalling 77,000 words based upon 632 minutes of recorded interview time and imported into NVivo for coding and analysis.

In Chapter Four, the study presents findings and results of the fieldwork data alongside the themes set out in Chapter Three. The study provides discussion and several recommendations based on the result findings produced in Chapter Five.

In the Conclusion (Chapter Six), the research draws together the outcomes in the context of the original research questions. This study provides knowledge contribution that has been made to the literature and new insights into this field of work in transnational higher education. Finally, the research presents possible further studies that will contribute to advance the understanding and knowledge of working in transnational higher education.

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

In the first part of this Chapter, the literature explores the changes that have occurred in the UK higher education sector over the past several decades and examines how they have affected the academic profession. The literature highlights how this relates to the context of transnational higher education particularly in relation to the delivery of a standardised curriculum. I begin section 2.2 by explaining the changing UK academic landscape, which has become heavily influenced by the UK government. Section 2.2 examines the massification of the UK higher education sector, which has significantly increased the participation rates of young people securing their first degree. One of the major impacts on the academic professional role is teaching larger class sizes and their subsequent effects on teaching pedagogy, teaching to a greater diversity of students and pressures of increased workload.

Increased government accountability and scrutiny is discussed in section 2.3. Two government bodies have particularly impacted the academic community. The Quality Assurance Agency was set up to improve academic standards. This section discusses how this Agency has increased administration duties undertaken by academics and subsequently has led to reducing the autonomy once held by the academic community. The Research Assessment Exercise has also had a major impact on controlling the type of research expected of the academe. Research output has now become the normal route in the UK for academic promotion. Section 2.4 explores how power has shifted from the academe to senior administrators. It will also examine the impact of new human resource practices, which has led to individual scrutiny of the academic profession. Section 2.5 reflects upon the growing importance of the student as a consumer and how it affects academics under a new complaint system and increased external monitoring. The growth of international students taking up admissions in the UK is examined in section 2.6. It discusses new challenges that academics face in