“The British Council is committed to supporting more sustainable and scalable TNE partnerships between Türkiye and the UK, and to deliver into the wider region,” said Martin Hope, the organisation’s global head of education and science.
“We’ve been working with local partners to identify opportunities to grow UK-Türkiye TNE partnerships in research and with grants for exploratory partnerships,” he told delegates at the EURIE conference in Istanbul.
Bringing together international education leaders from around the world, the three-day conference, now in its 10th year, saw delegates discussing key topics – focussing particularly on the rise of the Eurasian market.
Naming Türkiye as one of seven “global priority countries” for these partnerships, Hope said there was “significant growth potential to support the further development of [the country] as a transnational education hub for the region”.
He told delegates that while TNE partnerships offer “a tremendous opportunity to widen access and enhance quality”, there was more to be done to develop TNE models that “support equity”, are sustainable and add economic, social and reputational value to both the host country and international partners.
We’ve been working with local partners to identify opportunities to grow UK-Türkiye transnational education partnerships in research and with grants for exploratory partnerships
Martin Hope, British Council
Hope’s comments build on baseline research, published in 2021, which outlined ways in which the UK and Türkiye could work together to strengthen ties between their respective higher education institutions – especially in regards to research and other collaborations.
He told delegates that looking at TNE partnerships was “essential” for any country wishing to grow its higher education sector – especially as international students increasingly look beyond opportunities in the traditional “Big Four” study destinations and towards growing markets such as Türkiye, China, South Asia and the Gulf.
The UK was home to some 6,555 Turkish students in the 2023/24 academic year, according to the most recent HESA data.
