"Simple TNE" and Three Ways to Achieve It.

As the world of Higher Education continues to be gripped by COVID, more and more UK Universities are looking at TNE provision as a way to diversify their international agendas away from inbound international campus recruitment. Some are seeking to enter the TNE arena for the first time, others are perhaps scrutinising their TNE portfolio more than ever before.

Over the last year or so I've read a lot of articles (and held a lot of conversations with sector colleagues) that relate to TNE provision, but much of what I’m reading and hearing seem to be viewing TNE provision through an unnecessarily complicated lens.

TNE, even in its simplest form, can indeed be a complex beast. The Quality Assurance processes and the diverse regulatory environments that sit at the heart of TNE can certainly be complicated. But, TNE can also be a beautifully simple (and profitable) delivery model.

Here are three ways that your institution can seek achieve “simple” TNE:

1 - Don’t let “Complicated” get in the way of “Excellent”.

Most of what I’m currently reading (and hearing) regarding TNE relates to a utopia of multi-faceted, deep and wide partnerships which include; co-curriculum design, faculty and student exchanges, research collaborations and a dual assault on developing meaningful relationships with businesses, the list can be endless.

Such partnerships are a truly wonderful thing, and it’s absolutely right to strive to engage in them, but they’re also the exception and not the norm. Also, and here’s the news flash, many of the most profitable and harmonious TNE relationships are simple, transactional partnerships that deliver a very easy to define mutual benefit to both parties against the back-drop of transactional model. "Simple" TNE.

The message here is to strive for multi-faceted, deep and wide relationships if you can, but don’t be afraid to engage in good old fashioned, simple, transactional TNE partnerships. I can almost guarantee that they will be less resource hungry and more profitable.

2 - Marry well, or not at all.

TNE is sometimes compared to a marriage, and this is an analogy that I really like. When institutions are getting to know each-other during the early stages of partnership negotiation stakeholders (on both sides of the negotiating table) really want, and sometimes even hope, for the relationship to work. This blind desire to “make it happen” can cloud judgement and often results in a bad marriage. A complex relationship that fails to deliver mutual benefits.

This can be avoided by ensuring that your institution has a robust approach to assessing all potential TNE opportunities, which includes a balanced scorecard approach to assessing critical areas such as; student volumes, revenues, delivery costs, risk, impact on resources and other factors besides. If strong mutual benefits don’t emerge very quickly, they’re probably not there (no matter how much you want them to be).

Be honest in your assessment, kick the tyres on revenues and costs, and don’t be afraid to walk away from a potentially bad partnership. There are plenty more fish in the sea.

3 - Defragment your internal resources.

I’ve spoken with a number of HE colleagues over the last year who have indicated that their institution engages in TNE but the activity delivers a deficit. At a time when resources and costs are being scrutinised by most Universities I find this dynamic fascinating.

The common factor in all of these conversations is that the task of TNE provision is highly fragmented across central teams, faculties and schools, with no single and central team at the hub of TNE delivery. What this means is that each faculty (or even schools within a faculty) has different policies, processes and procedures, a different approach to Quality Assurance, student engagement and partner engagement. As a result, literally everything is fragmented and/or replicated, which is not cost effective.

There’s no doubt that the tentacles of TNE provision need reach far and wide across a University, with a deep level of engagement required of all academic areas, as well as multiple central teams. However, a common factor amongst institutions that deliver TNE efficiently, and with surplus, is that they have a common, University-wide approach to policies, processes and procedures, driven by a central team that focusses 100% on TNE delivery, and engages the academic areas of the institution.

In conclusion, if your institution is seeking to engage in TNE for the first time (or is assessing its approach to TNE) don't believe the hyperbole, start with simple and don’t over complicate.