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
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 ?[…]
Guest Talk “Enclave Urbanism and Transnational Zones in Southeast Asia” at Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science
The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science invited Jana Kleibert as a guest speaker for a Southeast Asia Discussion Series seminar about “Enclave Urbanism and Transnational Zones in Southeast Asia” chaired by Prof. Hyun Bang Shin. The talk on 28 January 2020 drew on examples from Read more about Guest Talk “Enclave Urbanism and Transnational Zones in Southeast Asia” at Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science[…]
Workshop “The Political Economy of Brexit: Impact on Sectors, Regions and Implications for Policy” in Nottingham
The workshop on the political economy of Brexit organised by Sarah Hall (University of Nottingham) and David Bailey (University of Birmingham) in conjunction with the academic organisation The UK in a Changing Europe took place on 21 January 2020 at the University of Nottingham. Jana Kleibert contributed to the discussions with a lecture about “Offshore Read more about Workshop “The Political Economy of Brexit: Impact on Sectors, Regions and Implications for Policy” in Nottingham[…]
Offshore campus development worldwide – Forging a powerful locomotive for the transformation and globalization of higher education?
The first foreign university’s branch I set foot on is located on a compound consisting of red-brick buildings in the outskirts of Berlin. The building is part of a redeveloped factory ground where one of the formerly biggest producers of locomotives in the world had its production sites. Next to the buildings that hosts the Read more about Offshore campus development worldwide – Forging a powerful locomotive for the transformation and globalization of higher education?[…]
Transnational higher education in the United Arab Emirates and its culture of availability
While doing research on the phenomenon of offshore university campuses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of my interview partners in Dubai compared its broad selection of foreign universities to the city’s multi-cuisine restaurant scene. By this, he was invoking a common narrative. The UAE are often advertised as a place providing access to Read more about Transnational higher education in the United Arab Emirates and its culture of availability[…]