The research by  HE Global, a joint initiative between the British Council and the International Unit, found a number of universities have prioritised TNE in their international strategy or overall strategy and say increasing student numbers is the main driver for TNE provision, followed by increasing income and growing overseas reputations.

Of the 134 universities in the UK, 99 participated in some form of transnational education in 2014/15, reaching 381,610 students, a 13% increase from 2012/13 figures (this excludes the 283,000 students registered for Oxford Brookes ACCA course).

The report defines TNE as “the provision of a higher education degree programme leading to a UK qualification for students based in a country other than the one in which the awarding institution is located. This includes joint, double or dual awards”.

The report identifies a trend among HEIs to establish overseas partnerships with NGOs, governments, companies and private and public universities

While international branch campuses might provide a larger return on investment, the report identifies a trend among HEIs to establish overseas partnerships with NGOs, governments, companies and private and public universities and predicts that most of the growth in the next three years will be in this provision model.

Vangelis Tsiligiris, a senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University and the founder of TNE Hub, said that while partnerships have become more common, the growth of TNE is dictated by market demand and external factors such as foreign provider laws.

“The big motives of TNE are part of a bigger strategy, different institutions have different resources. One university may be able to support branch campus development and another university may not,” he said. “Your resources and your strategy plus the market you want to penetrate are the factors that are going to determine what type of TNE you should pursue.”

Since 2010, the number of programmes that include a stay in the UK has increased 25% according to the report. With the UK’s current onshore regulations for international students, Tsiligiris expects to see more models incorporating a study stint into programmes with overseas partners.

“If you see the decline in international students in the UK for a number of different reasons for the next four to five years, if you have one year as a compulsory year through a TNE programme, that might compensate part of the loss of international students in the UK,” he said.

Compulsory study time in the education providers’ home country isn’t unheard of in the world of TNE. In the Netherlands, a third of a TNE must be carried out at the host institution by default.

“If you have one year as a compulsory year through a TNE programme, that might compensate part of the loss of international students in the UK”

The top five countries where TNE activity is highest has remained consistent since 2012/13, however countries outside of this block change, reflecting the variability of TNE delivery. Excluding Oxford Brookes figures, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Oman are consistently the countries where most TNE provision is delivered.

Meanwhile Egypt, Sri Lanka, Greece, the UAE and India made up the top 10 in 2014/15. Over a quarter (28%) of TNE is carried out in Asia and just under a quarter (23%) is delivered in the EU.

Africa and the Middle East each account for 14% and 13% of activity while single digit figures represent the proportion of delivery in Central/South America, North America, Europe outside the EU and Australia.

Tsiligiris said he expected the top TNE markets to continue to change throughout the “lifecycle of TNE”.

“It’s not a static model. If you want to export higher education, the type of provision and collaboration you will use, depends on the level of the cycle that this country is in,” he noted.

Demands change as markets mature, he said, adding that he thinks Malaysia is a market that may have peaked.

“To remain afloat and to remain competitive higher education institutions need to change their provision so as to meet the market conditions of that time. In Malaysia I think the market is already beginning to be overcrowded. I think the challenge for UK universities is to try to diversify their provision in terms of TNE,” he said.

Almost all of the responding institutions said their overall institution’s plan or their internationalisation blueprint included a TNE strategy reflecting the level of commitment to exporting education long-term.

“We don’t talk about branch campuses; we are an international university with multiple locations”

“We don’t talk about branch campuses; we are an international university with multiple locations,” Ruth Moir, assistant principal international development at Heriot-Watt University, said in one of 12 case studies included in the report.

Until 2013, the clearest picture of UK TNE had been given by Aggregate Offshore Record (AOR) returns collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

In 2013, HE Global produced its first report on UK HE TNE giving greater detail into the scale and scope of TNE activity. The report for 2014/15 surveyed 62 HEIs including institutions with 5,000 or more offshore enrolments. The survey responses accounted for 68% of all TNE students in 2014/15.

Still, TNE activity remains difficult to measure using current metrics. “It’s almost impossible to map with a great degree of accuracy all the different types of arrangements that are happening and the size of them,” said Tsiligiris.

“The problem is that higher education these days has become more internationally active and therefore it’s not clear cut between students studying in the home country and students studying offshore. There is so much overlap.”