Cross-Border Education - Moving Beyond National Borders

Education Without Borders

Cross-border education occurs when "providers, programs, course materials, teachers or students move beyond national borders." The literature examining cross-border education generally adopts the perspective that globalization is fostering a trend towards internationalization of education with large well-established institutions competitively positioned in global markets. From this perspective, institutions of higher learning have become organizations providing an educational service for profit in an increasingly globalized environment. A particular difficulty faced by institutions, however, is the substantial variation among international students in the factors that contribute to satisfaction with education. Research evidence indicates that cultural norms and values influence the perception of factors relevant to satisfaction with higher education. As a result, institutions that host a large number of international students from many different nations can have difficulty developing standardized programs and methods to improve satisfaction.

Cross-border education is fundamentally a market-driven activity intended to meet the perceived learning and educational needs of international students who are willing to pay international prices. Competition to attract students in the global education market has created pressures on institutions and academic systems to develop programs suitable for international students. While the specific motivation for developing cross-border education programs varies among institutions, the purpose for the program is generally based on commercial considerations. International programs can expand the number of students at the institution and can improve competitive positioning by offering students a broader curriculum. Research conducted by Marginson, however, determined that cross-border education can be considered a positioned product. With this type of product, the buyer examines the benefits of purchase in terms of the value it will provide for social status or financial opportunities. As a result, the prestige and reputation of the graduates of the institution are the most significant factors for establishing the competitive position of the institution and the value of its services in the cross-border educational market.

The types of cross-border programs offered by institutions also vary and depend on the strategy adopted by the institution to attract international students. Some strategies include operating a branch campus in an international location, forming a joint venture or collaborative arrangement with an institution in another nation. According to Arambewela and Hall:

"Setting up offshore campuses by foreign institutions through branch campuses, subsidiaries or partnership arrangements, providing courses and qualifications to local students has contributed to the expansion of the international higher education."

In this model, the host nation functions as the importer of educational services while the nation where the institution is located is the exporter of educational services. Institutions can also attract international students by enhancing the curriculum with material aimed at the needs of the students. The curriculum enhancement can include employing professors from the students' home country to create a more familiar academic environment or establishing support programs for students from specific nations. Institutions with a strong international reputation such as major research universities attempt to recruit international students for residential studies at the main campus of the university, which is presented as necessary to take full advantage of the facilities and faculty of the university.

Distance education is a significant factor in cross-border education, and occurs when the buyers of the educational product remain in their home nation but are electronically connected to an institution in a foreign nation. The distance education approach to cross-border education provides an economic benefit for both the institution and the student because the cost of educational service delivery is far below the cost of traditional residential programs that require students to travel to a host country to receive the educational services. Roach and LeMasters conducted an investigation of the level of satisfaction among international students pursuing a Master's degree in education administration and leadership with distance education through an American university. The university had a residential program for the same degree, and had recently implemented a program that fully relied on distance education to attract a larger number of international students. The findings of the research determined that the students were satisfied with the academic aspect of instruction when instructors were responsive to requests and needs of the students. The expectations of students taking online courses are based only on assumptions about the learning experience and do not include expectations about the facilities or social environment of the institution offering the degree. As a result, students tend to assess satisfaction with online learning primarily in terms of relevance of course material, instructor support, and outcomes relevant to career or knowledge goals.

The general pattern of cross-border education involves institutions from industrialized nations providing educational serves to students from developing nations. This pattern is attributable to the belief that institutions of higher education in industrialized nations are better quality than similar institutions in developing nations. Investigations of the pattern of internationalization among institutions, however, suggest that not all industrialized nations have the same competitive advantages. The institutions of higher education in the United States attract the largest percentage of international students from developing nations, followed by the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. A common factor among these nations is the English language. Students from non-English speaking nations obtain education from English-speaking institutions to enhance their practical knowledge of the language and to improve their prospects for employment after graduation. According to Marginson, "global competition in degree programs is an export import market in positional goods, characterized by uni-directional student flows and asymmetrical cultural transformations." The cultural transformation takes place because the student must adapt to the educational paradigms and perspectives of the institution providing the educational services.

Marginson determined that the reputation of the institution is more important to international students than the quality of the teaching or the education they receive. Because space in the large research universities in the industrialized nations remains limited, many international students attend second and third tier universities. The students remain focused on the status and economic gains from graduating from a university in an industrialized nation regardless of the institution's reputational position. In contrast, Arambewela and Hall noted that the choice of a study destination among international students in residential study programs is a two-stage process with multiple factors affecting the decision in each stage. The student initially selects a country based on factors such as knowledge of the language, cost, lifestyle, and visa and immigration barriers. The student makes assumptions based on available information concerning their ability to function in a nation's educational and social environment. The second stage involves the selection of an institution in the country. The student bases the decision on the type of program offered at the institution, the reputation, and assumptions about the teaching method. The conflicting research findings suggest that multiple factors influence the decision of international students to select a particular institution for cross-border education.

Despite the assumptions of international students that institutions in industrialized nations offer higher quality education when compared to their home nation, actual quality is an issue in cross-border education. There are inherent difficulties with establishing educational programs and standards suitable for international students. At the current time, there are insufficient guidelines and quality assurance approaches to fully protect international students from fraudulent practices in cross-border education, although the reputation of the institution is an indicator of integrity. As a result, the reputation of the institution in the international educational community is a critical element for assessing quality among international students that do not have a substantial among of knowledge about the institution prior to enrollment.

Pereda, Airey, and Bennett determined both professional and personal goals motivate students to seek education in foreign countries. The lack of available education programs in the students' home nation to support career goals are a significant factor for obtaining foreign education. As with domestic students, the expectation of the international student is that the degree will result in professional advancement or increased employment opportunities. Another motivating factor is the desire to obtain cross-cultural educational experience, which is a personal goal. The international education increases personal skills in language and understanding of another culture. Regardless of the specific motivations for international students to obtain an education in foreign institutions, they begin the educational program with expectations about the nature of the experience. The satisfaction of the students with the educational program depends on whether the experience is reasonably close to the expectations formed at the time the student selects an institution.

Factors Influencing Satisfaction among International Students

International students represent a segment of the university student body with needs and perceptions that can differ significantly from domestic students. Because of cultural differences as well as difficulties with adjustment to foreign educational institutions, the gap between expectations and the educational experience of international students can be substantial, leading to lower satisfaction with an educational program. At the same time, the ability of the institution to accommodate the needs of international students may depend on available resources and the number of foreign students in a program. The research suggests that considerable variability exists among institutions in their approach to international students, which results in different levels of satisfaction with the educational experience.

A case study of cross-border education involving Finnish institutions providing educational services to Russians prepared by Alaoutinen and Voracek determined that cultural differences have a significant effect on the learning process and outcomes. Some of the cultural differences involved fundamental attitudes towards education including perspectives of academic honesty, communication skills, learning habits, and capability to work independently or in teams. The findings of this research imply that it is unreasonable to expect international students to adapt to the cultural norms of the foreign institution without extensive support and guidance. The cultural paradigms from the institution offering the education are embedded in the institutional structure, policies, and approaches to education. Foreign students often have only minimal understanding of the educational practices and expectations of the nation exporting the educational services. These findings are similar to those of Trice who determined that faculty in American universities are cognizant of the difficulties faced by international students with cultural adjustment, but are often uncertain as to the approaches that should be used to assist these students.

The attitude of faculty towards international students can be a critical influence on the perception of the students of the quality of the institution and their satisfaction with the educational program. Trice examined the attitudes of faculty in four departments of a single university in the United States with data collected through interviews. The research was motivated by prior studies indicating that faculty in American universities often do not value or understand the international student population, and fail to consider their special needs and priorities. At the same time, faculty recognizes the need for international students to maintain enrollment. Tice's research failed to confirm the findings of previous studies. Most of the interviewees recognized that there were significant differences between domestic and international students in their academic needs. Approximately half of the interviewees also recognized that international students also had personal needs differing from American students. The research also produced the unanticipated finding of faculty concern that international students would have difficulty applying knowledge obtained in context specific programs when they returned to their homeland. A context-specific program involves the acquisition and application of professional knowledge in a specific environment such as an educational leadership program with extensive material on school administration in the American educational system. The findings also indicated that segregation of international students often occurs, which reduces the value of the cross-cultural educational experience.

Research conducted by Robertson, Line, Jones, and Thomas also examined the relationship between attitude of faculty towards international students and satisfaction among this student group. The findings were similar to those of Trice, indicating that a negative faculty attitude will reduce the satisfaction of international students with the educational experience. This research, however, also examined the specific factors leading to the negative attitude among faculty. The instructors perceived that the international students often did not have sufficient language skill to communicate at a level commensurate with the course level or degree program. As a result, instructors believed that they had to slow the pace of lecturing, which had a negative effect on the amount of material presented to domestic students. The faculty also believed that any formal assistance provided to international students with language skills was insufficient because of the inherent difficulty with improving skills while taking advanced courses of study. In addition, instructors perceived that international students lacked critical thinking skills, which were particularly important in graduate programs.

Research evidence also indicates that substantial variation exists in the factors influencing satisfaction with a residential university experience among international students. Douglas, Douglas and Barnes found that the cultural learning style influences the preferences of international students for the availability of different types of learning materials. Asian students value a wide range of physical textbooks in the university library while European students value direct assistance and support from instructors. Robertson, et al.identified variation among international students from various nations in feelings of social isolation, which was related to the amount of cultural differences between the student's home nation and the host nation for studies. All international students, however, expressed difficulty with understanding colloquial language both in the classroom and in social interactions, even students from nations using the same language as the host country.

The research identifying factors influencing satisfaction among international students, however, often used samplings of undergraduate students. Grebennikov and Skaines compared factors influencing satisfaction among undergraduate and graduate domestic and international students. The findings indicated that statistically significant differences existed between international and domestic students in the influence of various factors on satisfaction with the educational experience. Among graduate students, however, there were no differences between domestic and international students in the factors influencing satisfaction. The researchers, however, did not offer an explanation to account for the similarity in expectations and factors influencing satisfaction in international and domestic graduate students. To some degree, the findings of Grebennikov and Skaines were confirmed by a subsequent investigation of Kim and Sax who determined that gender, social status, and ethnicity do not have a significant influence on the amount of interaction with faculty and the overall satisfaction of students with the institution.

International students are also often dissatisfied with the level of support provided by foreign educational institutions. Students perceive that the institutions do not appreciate the range of difficulties faced by an international student receiving education in a foreign nation with different customs, norms, and language. Grebennikov and Skaines determined that international students will also seek advice or assistance from faculty or their assigned advisors when they encounter a non-academic problem such as an issue with accommodations or cultural and social adjustment. The response of the faculty to the problem of the international student is significant for the student's level of satisfaction with the institution.

There is substantial research evidence indicating that many universities fail to meet the needs of international students despite the considerable efforts made to market universities to international students. According to research conducted by Haggis, universities with international students at the undergraduate and graduate levels anticipate that these students will experience difficulties with adjustment to the academic curriculum and the educational norms of the institution. Universities can approach the issue from the premise that the problem lies within the student or it can attempt to adapt the educational experience to meet the needs of the international students. Universities presuming that adjustment problems lies within the student provide programs such as tutoring or mentoring to assist students with adjusting to the university environment. This approach is often based on the assumption that the international student is academically or linguistically deficient and must acquire the knowledge and behaviors necessary to integrate into the educational environment. Haggis indicates that the alternative approach of adapting the educational experience to meet the needs of the student requires alteration to the teaching approaches to more closely conform to the values and norms of students from different cultures. It requires a departure from the mass education paradigm found in many universities to embrace a more flexible approach to educate that uses some degree of customization to the needs of the students. The research supporting the conclusion of Haggis, however, was qualitative and based primarily on a review of previous studies. As a result, the findings and conclusion are not well supported by empirical evidence.

The position adopted by Haggis is similar to the argument advanced by Ahl concerning the need to perceive learning motivation as the result of the interaction of the individual with institutional situations and structures. The discourse concerning adult students and particularly international students frames any difficulties with learning in terms of inadequate learner motivation. The difficulty may be the result of the relationship between student and the institutional policies and procedures rather than an inherent shortcoming of the student. From this perspective, the institution should moderate its practices to meet the needs of international students. In contrast, Grebennikov and Skaines found that the majority of international students are relatively satisfied with the academic courses and procedures, but have a lower level of satisfaction with personal and social experiences. The institution has only limited control over the personal behaviors and social environment of graduate students. At the same time, negative personal and social experiences among international students can influence their academic motivation.

Some research findings indicate that international students often form their expectations about a university educational experience with only sparse knowledge about the institution based on published information and reputation. Prior to enrollment, international graduate students evaluate the competency of the educational staff based on credentials and professional status. In addition, students evaluate the formal support programs for international students. The international student also has substantial gaps in knowledge about the institution because of the difficulty with obtaining accurate information about the educational experience from individuals that have attended the institution. In many cases, the international student bases the selection of an institution on assumptions about the value of the institution's degree in their home nation for improving employment opportunities . As a result, the international student enters the institution with some expectations that may not be realistic and based on incomplete or inaccurate information. The actual experiences with both academic and non-academic aspects of the institution are equally relevant for the overall satisfaction of the international student with the education.