Managing Overseas Programme Delivery: The Impact of Pedagogical Diversity

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This workshop will explore the issues associated with delivering degree programs developed in one country, the United Kingdom, and delivered in a range of different cultural milieu. The exploration of this area is of increasing significance as Universities world wide enter into a various relationships with overseas partners. These can include franchise arrangements, validated programs, distance learning and the establishment of a campus. After identifying the range of such arrangements, our initial discussion will focus on three case studies:

1) a campus in Dubai offering several degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level;

2) a franchise arrangement in China for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees where students complete the final year in the UK;

3) a franchise in Hong Kong for the whole undergraduate degree.

We will highlight cross national management of such arrangements and the pedagogic diversity that is revealed: including the debate whether to treat learners as cultural objects (different cultures learn in different ways) or as individuals with a range of learning styles, and secondly whether we are engaged in cultural imperialism.

On the basis of this exploration participants will be invited to share their own experience of similar arrangements in terms of their management and pedagogical diversity, and the issues and solutions which have arisen from their own practice.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

Paper: , , Managing Overseas Programme Delivery

Dr. Heather Clay is Associate Dean for Academic Development at Middlesex University Business School. She is responsible for the development of academic provision within the Business Schooland developing new collabrative links in the UK and overseas. Heather's first degree is an LLB from London University and this was followed by an MA in Higher and Professional Education from the Institute of Education. She subsequently completed a DProf in Higher Education Management which focussed on the globalisation of higher education and off-shore delivery of UK education.

Dr Philip Frame is Director of Work Based Learning Programmes at the Business School. He is both a Middlesex and a National Teaching Fellow. He is a Principal Lecturer in Organisational Development, and is based in the Human Resource Management Department. Philip's first degree in Social Anthropology was followed by eight years with the Race Relations Board. He subsequently obtained an MSc in Organisational Development and a PhD in Management Studies. He is a Fellow of both the R.S.A and the Higher Education Academy, and is co-chair of S.E.D.A.'s publishing committee. He has provided staff development workshops and published on student induction, work based learning, managing diversity and business ethics.