Page 45 - IRC Research Abstracts _ Souvenir_Neat 9 6

TRANSNATIONAL EDUCATION (TNE) MANAGEMENT AND PRACTICES ON
PROVIDER’S ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY

Caroline Fuentebella Mediodía, PhDM
Registrar, Southville International School affiliated with Foreign Universities
Las Pinas, Philippines

ABSTRACT

The trend in Transnational Education (TNE) took off in the 1980s when international education
was provided where students live. It was no longer necessary for international students to go
abroad to complete an international degree. The growth was widespread and increasing annually.
Since TNE has spread globally, there is still no central body for TNE data collection globally and
concrete studies on differences in terms of linguistic, cultural, regulatory, classification, and
methodology (Cernet, 2018). The internationalization of higher education poses challenges and
opportunities for foreign higher education providers as well as higher education institutions for
leading universities in the UK and Australia due to the mitigating circumstances like diminishing
government funding and changes in the immigration laws. This has restricted international
students from entering countries providing high quality education. In response to this changing
external factors, leading universities have taken the economic opportunity of bringing education
to the home country of international students. The creation of the World Trade Organization in
1994 led to the definition of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) that provided
an average for the birth of transnational education. In this respect, there is no one singular
framework of transnational education as this is dependent on the qualification of the higher
education provider’s government regulation. A closer look at the entrants of TNE in the
Philippines started with the offerings in distance education, which was quite restrictive due to the
policies, standards and guidelines of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) that the
CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 6 series of 2003 limited the access of qualified
Philippine HEIs TNE providers (Hill & Chung, 2016). As such, Philippine education system
which is currrently lagging behind compared to other Asian neighbors. With the passing of the
expanded transnational higher education act, this has opened the door for internationalization of
education. This study intends to determine the features of transnational education (TNE)
management and practices on provider’s economic sustainability. Specifically, this study aims to
determine the TNE management in terms of partner profile, quality assurance practice, corporate
and academic governance, student experience and human capital as assessed by the faculty and
students. It determines the economic sustainability of a TNE HEI as assessed by the faculty and
students. It tests the relationship between TNE management and economic sustainability of a
TNE HEI. It ascertain which among the TNE management in terms of partner profile, quality
assurance practice, corporate and academic governance, student experience and human capital
significantly predicts economic sustainability. This study utilized the abductive approach using
sequential explanatory methods wherein quantitative and qualitative methods are employed. The
qualitative data analysis utilized thematic analysis (TA) as it is accessible and flexible method of
systematically identifying, organizing, and offering insight into patterns of meaning (themes)
across a data set (Braun & Clarke, 2012). The participants of the study were the faculty, staff and
students of a private educational institution involved in TNE. Due to the small population of the
institution, the researcher utilizes the stratified proportional sampling but first used Raosoft
calculator with 95% significant level, 5% margin of error and the minimum recommended
sample size of 50% (Raosoft). The study resulted to a 74.63% response rate. The faculty and
staff of the institution agree on partner profile, quality assurance practice, corporate and