Sustainable &
Ethical
International
Partnership in
Higher Education
BELMAS 2013
Dr. Linda Devlin
Dr. Mahmoud Emira
Aim & Research Questions


LFHE funded.
To examine ethical and sustainable international
partnership in higher education.
 How is strategic international partnership perceived in
an English Million + university?
 What are the aims/drivers of international partnership?
 What are the ethical dilemmas that face higher
education institutions in international partnership
activities?
 How could universities sustain international partnership
activities?
Importance of this research
 to
the university and
 the wider academic context (esp. Million
+ universities?)
Methodology





Qualitative case study (Pring, 2000)
Purposive sampling (Mason, 2002):
representatives of members of staff in an
English Million + university.
The participants (n=20) responsible for
international partnership within the institution
and abroad.
Semi-structured interviews (piloted). Ethical
approval and consent forms (Christians, 2000).
Inductive data analysis (Morse, 1998).
Findings Overview

Strategic partnership

Aims/drivers of international partnership

Ethical dilemmas and

Ways for making international partnership
more sustainable.
Definition
Aims/Drivers
Dilemmas
• Beneficial
• Collaborative
• Sustainable
• Ethical
• Multidimensio
nal
• Status
• Globalisatio
n
• Finance
• Moral
• PD/Studentdriven
• Not
benefitting
• Cultural
values
• Practicalities
/Poor quality
• Driven by
politics/Corr
uption
• Funding
Ways for
improvement
-Maintain
quality
-Target market
Communicatio
n/Clear roles &
aims
-Trust/quality
-L-Term
planning/aca
demic
Thank you!
Questions?
L.devlin@wlv.ac.uk
emira@wlv.ac.uk