Academic Joint Ventures
Ensuring the Business Aspects are Successful
Co-Authors
Steven D. Berkshire, EdD, MHA Regis University
Peter Bemski, PhD Regis University
14th Annual World Forum
Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education
International Association of Jesuit Business Schools
Business and Education in an Era of Globalization:
The Jesuit Position
July 20-23, 2008
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Academic Joint Ventures – Ensuring the Business
Aspects are Successful
Steven D. Berkshire, EdD, MHA Regis University
Peter Bemski, PhD Regis University
Introduction
As with any business partnership between an U.S. corporation and a Latin American corporation, universities
that partner to offer academic programs must consider the financial and operational aspects of such
partnerships. This paper deals with international partnerships between universities as laboratories for
collaboration between businesses. The elements that make for a successful joint venture go beyond the
academic issues of content and how that content is delivered to students.
This paper deals with the business and inter-university relationships in developing and implementing joint or
collaborative degree programs between universities. It does not deal with traditional exchange programs or dual
degree programs where one of the universities is the dominant institution at which the students actually earn the
degree.; rather the collaboration here deals with the joint development and offering of curriculum by the
institutions as equal partners that leads to the awarding of a joint or collaborative degree.
Regis University, founded in 1877, is one of twenty-eight Jesuit universities in the United States. The university
enrolls more than 16,000 students who study at its Denver, Colorado campus, seven other regional campuses
and online via distance learning. The University has developed relationships with the University of Ulster in
Northern Ireland, the National University of Ireland in Galway, Ireland, and ITESO in Guadalajara, Mexico as
well as other relationships with schools in other parts of the world. This paper concentrates on the relationships
with the Ulster, Galway and ITESO for purposes of the research model.
The University of Ulster is the major university in Northern Ireland and is part of the higher educational system
in the United Kingdom. Ulster is similar to Regis University in that both have multiple campus that serve
diverse populations and both have extensive online educational programs. The National University of Ireland in
Galway is involved in extensive educational partnerships throughout Europe and in Asia as well as providing
extensive continuing education degree programs for working adults within the country. ITESO, located in
Guadalajara, Mexico, is a Jesuit university as is Regis University. ITESO offers a significant number of
academic and continuing professional development programs for working adults and via its distance education
programming. ITESO participates in an extensive network of schools throughout North and Latin America as
well as in Europe and Asia.
Literature
The educational literature has a great deal of research concerning the traditional student exchange programs
between international universities as well as study abroad, and dual degree programs, yet there is little about the
development and operation of jointly developed and operated degree programs. The dual degree programs in the
literature tend to be collaborations where one of the universities offers the degree (typically the U.S. partner)
and the other school provides students. In many cases these dual degree programs allow the students of either
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school to transfer a specific number of courses into the other degree and to take courses at each school. But the
students are usually considered degree seeking at the dominant partner in the relationship.
What needs to be looked at is how we develop and ensure that both the U.S. school and the school in the other
country is a full and equal partner in the collaboration. One such partnership that seems to signal such a change
is the joint partnership between the British Council and the nation of Brazil. In an article describing this
partnership Canto and Hannah (2001) stated that “(e)quality in the provision of funds has a practical and
symbolic significance …, signifying that this is a collaboration that sets out to replace traditional north-south
relationships of donor and recipient with genuine academic partnerships” (p. 27.) What the authors were trying
to say and what seems to be needed in developing such international collaborations is that there is a need for
mutual respect and participation where both organizations bring similar or complementary skills and resources
to the table as opposed to the traditional model which typically has the U.S. or European university providing
the actual educational opportunities at the U.S. school with the majority of the students coming from the other
country.
What their paper attempts to do is examine the relationship between the U.S. school and the Latin American
school in a different light. Canto and Hannah (2001) paraphrased Altbach (1981) in which Altbach commented
on the dilemma third world universities then had in gaining recognition even though academic performance and
research in the third world had improved greatly over the years since World War II. It seems that the perception
was that the institutions in the U.S. and Europe have the monopoly on knowledge and the third world is in need
of that knowledge. Such attitudes continue and have limited cooperation and collaboration. Canto and Hannah
believe that since the late 1970’s schools in the U.S. and Europe have entered into horizontal partnerships that
include three elements: “(a) the existence of previous knowledge of the other partner to establish realistic
expectations” which came from Samoilovich’s work in the 1990’s, “(b) the genuine sharing of each other’s
experiences” which they got from work done by Balan in the 1990’s, and “(c) the application of each other’s
knowledge rather than a one-way transfer” of knowledge from the dominant school, which came from work
done by Bor and Shute in the 1990’s. (2001, p. 32.)
Some issues identified by Canto and Hannah (2001) include:
1. having a clear understanding of each partner’s strengths and weaknesses,
2. having a great deal of trust in each other,
3. low levels of conflict
4. an equal partnership where both partners are respected for what each brings to the relationship,
5. recognizing that language can be a barrier, and
6. having respect for each school’s cultural differences.
Canto and Hannah (2001) also looked at three links that need to be considered. These are linguistics, sociology,
and technology. Each of these needs to be considered when developing a partnership where both schools play
an equal role in developing the academic curriculum and planning the business model for operations. This was
re-enforced by Shaw (2006) who speaks to the importance of understanding political environments in each
country as well as within each institution involved in the partnership. He further commented that the “(s)tability
of a joint venture refers to the longevity of the relationship, and it is dependent, in part, upon the combination
and communication between the…partners” (p. 439.)
Shaw (2006) also identified barriers that must be considered in developing partnerships in the academic arena.
These tend to support what Canto and Hannah (2001) noted in their research. Shaw spoke to financial support,
division of work and control, conflict, cultural differences, and environmental factors (p. 442.)
An interesting fact is that international joint ventures have declined in number over the past decade (Popper,
2002) and while Popper is speaking generally about multinational companies, she notes that much of the decline
is because the partners have different interests. Popper’s comments tend to support the discussion above
concerning issues to be watchful about when developing collaborations between U.S. or European universities
and their counterparts in Latin America.
Chowdhury and Chowdhury (2002) comment that it is important to develop “synergy among the partner firms
(p. 52.) They further speak to the symmetric firms having an incentive for forming the partnership in the need to
increase demand (p. 57.) If this is translated into an educational partnership, then the goal may well be to
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increase demand for higher education in one or both countries – or at least the demand for an education from the
partner schools.
Finally Nadler and Nadler (1990) speak to the need to consider the human resource requirements in joint
ventures. They commented that “the variation in cultural norms from country to country should be recognized
and understood” (p. 71) when considering human resource issues. Each partner may have different skills and
knowledge to lend to the collaboration and this needs to be understood and planned for. Nadler and Nadler
further noted that both partners in a joint venture must understand that each partner may lack some human
resources capacity and that may need to be developed.
Lessons Learned from Regis University and its Partners
Relationship Building
The literature clearly noted that one of the keys to success with international collaborative ventures is the
development of relationships (Canto & Hannah, 2001, Shaw, 2006, Popper, 2002, Chowdhury and Chowdhury,
2002, and Nadler & Nadler, 1990.)
Based on an analysis of the international collaborations between Regis University, Denver, Colorado and the
three international partners introduced earlier, relationship building probably is foremost in those elements that
ensured success and when not fully developed, resulted in failure.
Prior to starting to develop any academic programs with ITESO in Guadalajara and the National University of
Ireland in Galway (NUIG) both schools spent considerable time getting to know each other. In the case of
NUIG the partnership began with senior officials at both schools meeting through a third party and then simply
exploring potential opportunities over a couple of years. The same occurred with ITESO. Representatives of
both schools first met through a conference sponsored by AJCU and AUSCAL in Guadalajara and then about a
year later at an IAJBS educational conference. That led to further contacts and visits. During these meetings and
social contacts, both parties got to know the people and their cultures, and developed a trusting relationship. In
the first case, these contacts led to the formation of a joint Irish Studies program online between NUIG and
Regis University. The program was designed to be small in order to develop a working relationship and has
continued. Later that program led to the development and implementation of an online graduate degree in
software engineering. The relationship at ITESO resulted in implementation of a joint MBA degree where
students from both schools can earn an additional degree from each by taking core courses at the home
institution and then a series of courses at the other. This relationship is now allowing ITESO and Regis
University to look at moving into a jointly offered degree for the rest of Latin America.
An example of a program that probably failed because the relationship was not adequately developed before
trying to implement a program was the joint MS degree in International Management between Regis University
and the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Here the decision to move forward was made very quickly by
the top administrators in each school. No time was allowed for the faculty of each university to get to know
each other and work together before planning. This resulted in miscommunications about curriculum, policies,
culture in each country and the schools themselves, as well as other administrative issues. When the numbers of
students did not materialize in the beginning, it was easy to simply terminate the agreement.
Relationship building in any business venture is vital to the success of the venture. In higher education it may be
even more important since the success of the joint venture or collaboration depends on people entirely. The
strength of the Regis-NUIG relationship is a personal one between a couple of individuals at each institution
that has led to other personal relationships between faculty and staff at each school. While there is a common
language, there are still differences in culture and framework. ITESO is a Jesuit university as is Regis
University so there was an existing bond, yet it was the development of the personal relationships between
faculty and staff at both schools that ensured a successful partnership.
Financial Issues
Financial issues can be a deal-breaker if not handled appropriately in any joint venture, but perhaps even more
so when working across international borders. The development of a strong trusting relationship will help both
partners work through conflicts that may arise concerning who contributes what financial and physical
resources and how expenses are accounted for.
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The relationship with ITESO was assisted by a grant from the First Data/Western Union foundation that
provided monies to do some conferences in Mexico for civil sector workers and organizations with ITESO and
others taking a leadership role in Mexico. The grant also provided dollars to start planning a certificate
(diploma) program in the civil sector area and for bringing some faculty from ITESO to Regis during the
summer intensives the University holds each year. From this beginning the business and management faculties
began talking about the joint MBA concept which later developed into the current offering between the two
schools.
There are a number of ways to develop the business plan that can impact the financial resources needed for the
successful implementation of the collaborative effort.
One model is to simply have each school pay for its own costs and then split the revenues generated. This
avoids the problem of determining methods for allocating expenses. Each institution decides what budgetary
expenses should be included in the project. It may also avoid the problem of costs at one location being more or
less than the other. One disadvantage may be that the model relies on each to equitably support the operational
expenses. If the collaboration is online there probably needs to be some formula for the online production and
hosting of the courses. Sharing the revenues also has advantages and disadvantages. It does assume that there is
some equity in the numbers of students recruited by each partner; otherwise, it is possible one school is
contributing more than the other.
A second model is to still have each school budget its own expenses, but have each school keep the revenues it
generates through its own recruiting efforts. This model might include each school compensating the other
when a student takes a course(s) from the other school. Or each school simply keeps the revenue it generates.
The advantage to this model is that it is clear and each school is separately at risk. The disadvantage is that
assuming costs are equal in most cases, one school may generate more revenue than the other one and therefore
the partnership might be uneven.
A third model is to develop a single agreed upon budget and then allocate costs based on what services and
resources are provided by each institution. It follows that revenues would also be allocated on a similar formula.
This model ensures that each school is accountable to the whole since each has a stake in the outcome. Like the
previous model the challenge will be to keep some sort of parity in the relationship.
Costs for such collaborations include: marketing and recruiting expenses, production costs for online
development, faculty and staff costs, collections expenses and other administrative overhead, and start-up
expenses. Depending on the size of the collaboration these can be quite costly to each organization. Each of
these will be dealt with in various sections of the paper to follow.
Another element of finances to think about is the international monetary exchange rate and how that is
calculated. Historically, the exchange has been based on the U.S. dollar, but in the current economic
environment the variation in exchange rates takes on an importance that may not have been there in the past. If
the two schools share revenues, it can be problematic determining at what point the exchange rate is fixed.
Along with the exchange rate is the question of whose currency payments are made in. Each partner may be
charging tuition in its own currency which makes it difficult to determine if the charges to students are
equivalent.
Such negotiations have had significant impacts on the collaborations between Regis University and its partners.
The collaboration with NUIG requires each partner to budget its own expenses, however, there is a formula for
items such as marketing expenses and some overhead that vary between countries. In Europe it is common to
not charge students for required texts and to use other sources, while in the U.S. students typically pay for their
own books and more often than not textbooks are required. How do the partners determine an equitable way of
dealing with these differences? Both Regis and NUIG agreed on a formula for splitting the revenues earned
from student tuitions; of course, during the first few years there have always been minor negotiations as to how
that works at the end of the year when the transfer of monies occurs. With the collaboration with ITESO, the
current project has each school responsible for its own expenses including marketing and recruitment. Each
school also charges its own tuition for all courses in the program and then each partner compensates the other
for those courses taken at the partner school by its students. However, ITESO and Regis University came to an
agreement on what the tuition would be for this program. Compensation for students taking courses at the other
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partner is in that school’s currency. For the Ulster venture, the allocation was more complicated and included
negotiating all expenses and costs as well as the tuition rate. Each school shared in the budget based on a
negotiated formula. This proved to be somewhat divisive.
If either institution is entering the agreement with the intention of serving thousands of students and making
significant profits they will likely be disappointed. While learning from one another and entering markets that
might have been out of reach are certainly worthwhile and attainable goals, making more than a modest profit is
not. The financials developed prior to entering the agreement between Regis University and Ulster promised
enormous profit. The failure of this profit to materialize was one more nail in the coffin of that venture.
One lesson learned was that keeping it as simple as possible is in the best interest of both partners. While the
ITESO collaboration only recently the intention has been that this model will result in a better management
process for expenses.
Product Development
Here we speak in terms of curriculum development as well as production of online courses. It is likely that
residents in each country or region of the world will have different needs and desires when it comes to the
curriculum, how that curriculum is offered, and what is expected in the way of work. The faculties at both
schools need to come to agreement on what the curriculum will include in order to best serve diverse student
bodies.
The faculties of ITESO and Regis University spent considerable time working together on identifying the
learning outcomes for a collaborative MBA and what courses might be appropriate and the amount of time it
might take to complete the degrees. In the case of this partnership it was decided that each school would
continue to offer courses that already exist. In addition it was determined that each university’s students needed
to complete the core at the home school and then take five courses from the other school which would
transcripted at both. ITESO teaches its courses in Spanish and Regis teaches its courses in English.
For the NUIG collaboration, each school became responsible for developing half of the curriculum, so
negotiations centered on what type of courses and content ought to be included and which school is responsible
for which courses. This process took considerable time and communications between the faculties at each
school. For most of the courses each school was able to adapt its own course work for the collaboration.
Regis University and the University of Ulster also developed a model where each school developed half of the
curriculum; however, it was decided to start from scratch. The concept included both faculties working together
on the content. This created significant problems in coming to agreement and likely also contributed to the
eventual termination of the agreement.
Production includes determining who and how courses will be written and produced for online presentation. It
is imperative that the courses be offered on one platform so the agreement needs to define which school hosts
the program and how the faculties of the two schools participate with the development team.
Marketing
Determining the target market is a significant aspect of the collaboration. The other question that must be asked
and answered is who is responsible for doing the marketing and recruitment. In the case of the Ulster
collaboration, the negotiated agreement stated that while both schools would do marketing, Regis University
would be responsible for most of the effort. Ulster would host the courses on its WebCT platform. This proved
to be a problem since the Regis marketing team had no experience selling a program in another country and had
to play catch up. With both ITESO and NUIG each school markets to its own market, which seems to be a
better approach. This also means that each school identifies who the target market will be. In the case of the
Ulster collaboration it was Regis University’s role to identify the European market which proved to be much
more difficult than thought.
Consideration must be given to doing marketing studies in the countries to be involved. Such studies need to
include who are the potential students, their companies, whether the companies assist in paying the tuition, and
what the tuition range will be. If the collaboration will include offering the degree program beyond the two
countries, what are the global considerations. Agreement is needed between the partners on what is to be
marketed. Here again cultural differences and regional differences play a part. What may work in the U.S. is not
necessarily what will work in Latin America.
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One question to ask is whether the potential student population is ready and willing to participate in the
program. One assumption is that a combined U.S./Latin American or U.S./European degree is something that
will be sought after if offered. And if so are students willing to do so via the internet.
It appears that allowing each partner to do its own marketing is the best alternative for a number of reasons.
These include knowledge of the local culture and peoples, knowledge of the types of marketing that work best,
and costs included. For example in the North American market doing internet sales may be a better approach
while in Europe direct sales may work better.
Technology
Technology is not just the platform and course management system to be used in offering the collaboration. It
also includes knowing what technology the potential market has access to, the band width in the countries and
sub-regions of countries, costs of access to the internet, and even time zone issues that affect utilization. Latin
America has long used satellite transmission and radio transmission for certificate/diploma programs since these
technologies have been available. Switching to the internet to transmit educational programs is a new way of
doing this, and the potential students need to have access to the technology. And they need to want to do so.
One of the lessons obtained from the Ulster collaboration was that the marketing study showed that students in
northern Europe had ready access to the internet and to the technology to access it. At the same time the further
south in Europe one went the less likely it was that potential students would access the internet either because of
no interest or because there was not ready access. A question for the partnership with ITESO is that once it
expands beyond the regional area served by ITESO, will potential students have the technology and access to
participate. In some cases this may require a commitment from the person’s employer to provide access through
the corporate network.
Legal and Governmental
One often does not think about or consider the legal and governmental issues that can be involved in
international collaborations. This is a significant aspect of business partnerships since international trade is
governed by many rules and regulations. In most academic exchange programs there are few restrictions even
for dual degrees when only one partner actually offers the degree. However, for the types of partnerships
addressed by this paper, there are many considerations.
First are accreditation issues. For Regis University, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North
Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCA) must at least review such collaborations prior to their
implementation. For the partners there may be a need to have the education ministry for the country review the
project and approve it. Such approvals are required if the degrees are to be jointly awarded and the curriculum is
being shared by both schools. Issues include transcripting of credits and the degrees, faculty qualifications,
academic quality and assessment, and many other concerns.
There may be specific governmental restrictions or rules that must be met in each country. These may be
academic components or things like student financing issues, travel restrictions, visa requirements if students
travel between countries, monetary policies, and contract rules and regulations.
An interesting obstacle discovered after the partnership was ready to start in Ireland was the discovery that Irish
Constitution requires any degree offered by NUIG to be solely awarded by the National University of Ireland.
That created problems since NUIG and Regis had planned on awarding a joint degree for the graduate degree in
software engineering. The solution was to have the students decide which country he/she wanted the degree
from after which the student completed the capstone for that university. Besides the degree being awarded from
either NUIG or Regis University, the schools jointly give the students a parchment that describes the joint
venture and that the degree is recorded at each school. The University of Ulster did not have such problems
since it is located in Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom. Ulster was authorized to determine
its own degree awarding rules and so it was ok to award a joint degree. However, Ulster believed there were
other rules that affected how the program could be structured. In both cases outside evaluators needed to be
involved at the end of each year to review student progress and pass on whether the students met academic
standards. This was something new for Regis University. The rigid rules in Northern Ireland probably also
contributed to the conflict that eventually resulted in the program being terminated.
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ITESO must meet the academic rules in effect in Mexico; however, because of ITESO’s status with the
education ministry, it is authorized to develop a collaboration that includes jointly awarding degrees. In addition
the Mexican higher education system operates in a manner more similar to the United States model.
Another regulatory issue involves criteria used by the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools
of Business (AACSB) which often requires that both partners be AACSB accredited. This only affects business
and management programs, but since that is the area where most of these ventures will occur the rule is
significant.
If students must travel to the other location, immigration rules apply. This could be an obstacle for some.
Faculty credentials and qualifications are also something to consider. The accreditation bodies will interested
how each partner evaluates and assesses the credentials of the faculty involved. Regis University and its
partners have chosen to adopt criteria that state that each school accepts the credentialing process of the other
school.
Language
Language is an important factor. Even when the collaboration is between an U.S. school and a European one
(including Ireland and the UK) there are communication problems since dialects may be substantially different
and hard to understand. The issue of language is even more important when the partnership is between an U.S.
university and one in Latin America. One question to answer is whether all or some or none of the faculty need
to be bilingual to participate in the program? This seems to have been resolved with the Regis/ITESO
collaboration. Since the courses taught by ITESO are in Spanish and the ones taught by Regis are taught in
English, it was decided that being bi-lingual is not necessary. It is necessary of the students, however.
Clarity is also something to consider in joint ventures. Given cultural and language differences it is very
important to frequently confirm that all parties are talking about the same things. Even when there is a common
language, such as American English and British or Irish English, false cognates (i.e. disciplinas and Disciplines;
cursos and courses… etc.) further complicate the matter. Frequent rephrasing and review help to overcome
such problems.
As Canto and Hannah (2001) noted, language can be an obstacle and must be considered. Language also
impacts how each partner approaches marketing.
Leadership Issues
Effective leadership is a must in any collaboration. The senior leadership/management at both partners must be
actively supportive of the venture. This includes a commitment for both administrative and financial support as
well as providing ample resources for faculty. Without such commitment it will be much more difficult to
implement and maintain the collaboration. However, such commitment can also be a negative if each partner
does not involve the middle management leaders and faculty early on. One example of where leadership ended
up being a major problem was the collaboration between Regis University and the University of Ulster. The
agreement to go forward was made by the Vice Chancellor of Ulster and the request to participate came from
him without much work done to develop the relationship with the Faculty of Business and Management at
Ulster. There was resistance to this new venture, especially since the faculty believed they were already
successful and were not sure they wanted to do this project. Both schools also appointed faculty leads who did
not communicate well with each other which all too often met conflict and disagreements.
On the other hand, the senior leadership at both ITESO and NUIG were supportive from the beginning, but they
knew that it was important to build the relationship first. In both cases the presidents or other senior leaders
encouraged collaboration and allowed for the relationship to develop. Faculty were also empowered. This
reduced the likelihood there would be resistance and conflict.
Any time there are changes in leadership and/or structural changes to an institution it may make it more difficult
for a fledgling agreement to move forward. Any relationship such as those described in this paper is bound to
initially be dependent in part on the personal relationships established between the representatives of the
institutions rather than between the institutions themselves. Only with time will be relationships become
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institutional rather than personal and even then it is incumbent on both institutions to proactively work to ensure
the ongoing vitality of the relationship.
Leader support is vital to such endeavors since resources need to be committed and there is a likely need to
expend fund long before any program is actually launched.
Academic Outcomes
Obviously academic quality is central to any collaboration. Students in such ventures want to be assured that the
degree will be respected and will open doors. One reason students will want to matriculate in such joint
collaborations is to get a position in an international organization, whether that is in computer science or
business. This takes ongoing and continuous work and collaboration between the faculties, assessment of
learning outcomes, and ensuring quality experiences for students. Part of this includes working with the partner.
For example, in the collaboration with NUIG, both schools committed to using the outside reviewer model to
annually evaluate and assess student accomplishments.
Training and continuing education for faculty is vital in such partnerships. Faculty from different countries must
work collaboratively. To do this these must be commitment to academic quality as well as quality and readily
available student service and advising.
Final Notes
There are excellent reasons to look at forming international collaborations to offer joint degree programs. Such
collaboration ensures international bridges between countries and cultures. In a changing world environment it
may be even more important that students and faculty, especially at the graduate level, experience international
cultures and education.
Much of what must be practiced externally in order to make such collaborations work is no unlike that which
should be in place internally. Transparency, respect for one another, fiscal responsibility, realistic expectations,
quality control and a shared desire to serve students and learn from one another certainly will make such
collaborations more likely to succeed. It is also important to recognize that they may not all succeed and that
learning from those that don’t is only more likely to make subsequent efforts, with the same or different
partners, more rewarding.
Jesuit education efforts have reached out to the world since shortly after Ignatius of Loyola brought together his
small band of companions. Ignatian humanism and spirituality tell us that it is important to start with a person’s
experiences and then to build on them, to bring understanding among all peoples. International collaborations to
offer joint degree programs bring these Jesuit values together across borders and across oceans.
References
Canto, I & Hannah, J (2001) A partnership of equals? Academic collaboration between the United Kingdom
and Brazil. Journal of Studies in International Education. 5. pp 26-41.
Chowdhury, I.R. & Chowdhury, P.R. (2002) International joint ventures: A welfare analysis. Policy Reform
5(1) pp. 51-60.
Nadler, L. & Nadler, Z. (June 1990) International joint ventures and HRD. Training & Development Journal.
pp. 71-76.
Popper, M. (May 20, 2002) Flying solo overseas. Business Week 3783 p. 28
Shaw, S. (Summer 2006.) Launching international collaboration for international research. Sign Language
Studies, 6(4) pp. 438-453.
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