Tracing the global-local dimensions of UK higher education

To trace the global and local dimensions of UK higher education is to engage with the forms taken by emerging and alternative provision, and their relations with mainstream higher education. These are the overlapping and intersecting zones of transnational, private and college higher education.

The students in the zones mentioned above are studying for UK qualifications and credits in offshore locations, through distance and online programmes, and at private providers and further education colleges. Their courses are variously recognised, accredited, funded, licensed, franchised or validated by UK authorities.

The reporting of these segments is recent and uneven, and they rarely feature in the standard maps of UK higher education drawn for policy and academic purposes. In reviewing the available evidence on patterns of provision and participation in these zones, the conceptual and empirical questions posed by global-local mapping are examined and its benefits and limits are considered.

Download the presentation