IBC//Spaces
Globalising universities can be understood as economic actors engaging in the symbolic, social, and material construction of transnational spaces of higher education. The construction of international branch campus (IBCs), spatially concentrated in “education cities” in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Singapore, or Malaysia, are particularly visible expressions of internationalisation and marketization strategies in the contemporary knowledge economy. These spaces function as crystallisation points of globalisation, embedded in translocal networks and flows of people, knowledge and capital. Simultaneously, they are embedded in place-based local, urban and national development strategies. We conduct a multi-scalar and multi-sited research project, drawing on different perspectives in human geography, to map, understand, and contribute to debates on the geographies of globalisation of higher education.
The project is funded by the Leibniz Association's
Best Minds Competition 2018.
TEAM and Partners
Jana Maria Kleibert
Tim Rottleb
Alice Bobée
Marc Schulze
Neil Coe
Bas van Heur
IBC//spaces
IBS//spaces
Latest activities
Webinars at Regional Studies Association / Centre for Global Higher Education / Society for Research into Higher Education
Jana Kleibert will co-present “An Introduction to the Small Grant Scheme by the Regional Studies Association” on 21 April: https://www.regionalstudies.org/funding/small-grant-scheme/. Our paper “‘Education Cities’ to Transnational Education Zones” will be discussed at the Centre for Global Higher Education, University of Oxford: http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/events/education-cities-to-transnational-education-zones/. Alice Bobée and Marc Schulze will be on webinar panel “Transnational Higher Education: Read more about Webinars at Regional Studies Association / Centre for Global Higher Education / Society for Research into Higher Education[…]
Session at American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting 2021
Together with Prof Dr Martina Fuchs and her team at the Universität zu Köln we co-organised and participated in the session “Global production – global skills? Critical perspectives on knowledge and regional development” at the AAG Annual Meeting on 11 April 2021. The session provided insightful discussions on the role of transnational actors and offshore Read more about Session at American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting 2021[…]
Presentation at TNE-Hub Research Symposium
Marc Schulze and Tim Rottleb gave a presentation on „Anticipated benefits and missed opportunities of offshore campus imports – Experiences from Southeast Asia and the Arab Gulf region“ at the Third TNE-Hub Research Symposium on 31 March 2021. The symposium “Why Transnational Education? From market access to sustainable global engagement”, which was convened by Dr Read more about Presentation at TNE-Hub Research Symposium[…]
Kleibert & Schulze (2021) EduCity in Iskandar Malaysia: Eine transnationale Bildungszone als Megaprojekt
Jana Kleibert and Marc Schulze published a new paper in the Geographische Rundschau Special Issue “Mega projects in Asia”. The paper gives a glimpse of EduCity in the Johor-Singapore cross-border global city-region. Jana Kleibert & Marc Schulze (2021) EduCity in Iskandar Malaysia: Eine transnationale Bildungszone als Megaprojekt. Geographische Rundschau. https://www.westermann.de/anlage/4629098/EduCity-in-Iskandar-Malaysia-Eine-transnationale-Bildungszone-als-Megaprojekt
Research project on International Higher Education in Crisis: Covid-19 Impacts and Strategies
Globalisation’s challenges include a slowing of global trade caused partially by protectionist economic policies and, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic severely restricted human mobility and cross-border trade. This research project assesses how the current crisis impacts and reworks existing economic geographies, taking the higher education sector as a critical example through which to understand broader Read more about Research project on International Higher Education in Crisis: Covid-19 Impacts and Strategies[…]
Schulze (2020) Of bumping and bending: Foreign universities’ FDI strategies in Malaysia
Marc Schulze’s latest paper investigates how transnationally operating universities have interacted with state regulation of the higher education sector in Malaysia and strategically modified their geographical configuration. Marc Schulze (2020) Of Bumping and Bending: Foreign Universities’ FDI Strategies in Malaysia. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12472
Kleibert, Bobée, Rottleb & Schulze (2020) Transnational education zones: Towards an urban political economy of ‘education cities’
The research groups’ paper explores universities’ role as transnational urban actors in the political economy and develops the concept of transnational education zones. Jana Kleibert, Alice Bobée, Tim Rottleb & Marc Schulze (2020) Transnational Education Zones: Towards an Urban Political Economy of ‘Education Cities’. Urban Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020962418
Kleibert (2020) Brexit geographies of transnational education: Uncertainty, ‘global Britain’ and European (re-)integration
Jana Kleibert’s new article discusses how the economic geographies of TNE are re-modified by British universities’ spatial strategies under conditions of uncertainty over Brexit. Jana M. Kleibert (2020) Brexit geographies of transnational education: Uncertainty, ‘global Britain’ and European (re-)integration. Territory, Politics, Governance. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1837222
Kleibert, Bobée, Rottleb & Schulze (2020) Global Geographies of Offshore Campuses
Our report “Global Geographies of Offshore Campuses” presents new insights into the geographies of offshore campuses on the global, the country and the city scale. The report does not only show the dynamics of offshore campus investment, an uninterrupted rise in the number of physical presences and an increasing diversification of universities’ countries of origin Read more about Kleibert, Bobée, Rottleb & Schulze (2020) Global Geographies of Offshore Campuses[…]
Covid-19 crisis & branch campuses: reconfigured mobilities ?
International mobility being restricted in the current global pandemic we are going through, how will it impact students’ mobilities in branch campuses? On the one hand, in the Fall 2020 – and maybe even in early 2021 – branch campuses might solely recruit immobile domestic students living not too far from the branch campus. That Read more about Covid-19 crisis & branch campuses: reconfigured mobilities ?[…]