Why can we observe inconsistencies in countries‘ international education hub projects? And why have we seen moments of de-coupling at international branch campuses in Malaysia and Singapore recently? In their new research article, Marc Schulze and Jana Kleibert present a new economic-geographic perspective that could contribute to the discussion of these issues. The paper explores Malaysia‘s and Singapore’s international education hub ambitions and the presumed nexus of transnational education and regional economic development through the economic-geographic concept of strategic coupling and sheds new light on why and how states have strategically coupled their higher education systems with transnational education. In the comparative case study, the authors observe different forms of strategic coupling in higher education and relate the different governmental approaches to the states‘ broader, historically formed economic development strategies.
Marc Schulze & Jana M. Kleibert (2021) Transnational education for regional economic development? Understanding Malaysia’s and Singapore’s strategic coupling in global higher education. International Journal of Training and Development.