David Pyvis

The Need for Context-Sensitive Measures of Educational Quality in Transnational Higher Education.

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and pursued educational quality in an Australian university programme delivered in partnership with a Chinese university in China. A key finding was that a home programme functioned as the single reference point for quality in the programme delivered in China. Quality in the China programme was sought through the imposition of practices and philosophies associated with the home programme, which required the suppression of local educational traditions. The paper points out that reliance on a home programme as the single measure of quality is encouraged by governing UNESCO/OECD guidelines on quality in cross-border provision.

Dilemmas in the formation of student identity in offshore higher education: a case study in Hong Kong

This paper explores the impact of the internationalization of higher education on the formation of student identity. It does so in the context of increasing developments in offshore education and the rapid emergence of the professional doctorate in Australia and overseas. Drawing on data from a larger qualitative study of student experiences of offshore education, the focus is on professional doctorate candidates located in Hong Kong. Identity is characterized by a series of dilemmas experienced by the students as they seek to become members of the academic community. These dilemmas centre on a range of inter‐related issues, including sense of belonging, educational goals, learning style preferences and relationships with supervisors.

How University-Based Adult Continuing Education Organisations Have Responded to Hong Kong's Changing Educational Needs since the 1997 Transfer of Sovereignty.

Since Hong Kong’s sovereignty reverted to China in 1997, the university Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) sector has faced an array of unprecedented challenges created mainly through government policy initiatives, an associated and rapid increase in the demand for continuing education, and dramatic changes in the nature of that demand. This paper reports the outcomes of a qualitative study that examined how the sector responded to these challenges. It identifies and describes a triangle of inter‐related strategies of response, namely ‘building organisational strength’, ‘programme planning and development’ and ‘quality assurance’.