Transnational education (TNE) in the United Kingdom is entering a key phase. The nation’s International Education Strategy 2026 places collaborative programmes and overseas activities at the core of its global objectives, favouring their expansion over merely attracting more students to study in the UK.
Growing Pains for a Rapidly Expanding Sector
TNE has become the quickest-growing segment of UK higher education. Enrolments in programmes delivered abroad now surpass the total of international students who come to study within the United Kingdom. Simultaneously, many host nations are increasingly viewing inbound TNE as a means to remedy skill shortages and to bolster their own education systems.
International organisations have taken note of this shift. UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development roadmap for 2030 identifies TNE as a more inclusive and environmentally sustainable form of mobility compared with traditional student travel.
Dr Fabrizio Trifiró, associate pro-vice-chancellor for educational partnerships at Bath Spa University, points to three principal obstacles. The first relates to the lingering view that TNE delivers a lower-quality experience than on-campus study. This perception is reinforced by uneven external quality-assurance practices and the absence of uniform recognition for qualifications obtained through online, franchise or validation routes.
The latest amendment to the Council of Europe-UNESCO Code of Good Practice stresses the importance of evidence that TNE is quality assured on a basis comparable to domestic provision when informing qualification recognition decisions. Without such proof, authorities find it difficult to make recognition decisions.
In the context where external frameworks remain absent or underdeveloped, the burden can be expected to shift to providers’ own internal governance. The revised Committee of University Chairs’ Code of Higher Education Governance sets out that governing boards should participate in shaping TNE strategy and in ensuring robust assurance covering academic standards, risk management and financial oversight.
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As TNE grows in strategic importance for both sending and receiving countries, more is being asked of it than the delivery of teaching and qualifications. Expectations are rising across all the traditional missions of higher education institutions, including research and innovation and community and industry engagement. This is set out clearly, for example, in the Malaysia Higher Education Blueprint 2026-2035, India’s National Education Policy 2020 and Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India Regulations, Vietnam’s Resolution 71-NQ/TW and China’s recent opening to TNE partnerships.
Institutions must handle a difficult decision matrix. While host countries often promote the establishment of branch campuses, such models demand substantial resources and are hard to scale. The United Kingdom’s predominant approaches—validation and franchise arrangements—are less resource-intensive but encounter significant recognition hurdles.
It will be critical going forward to embed civic mission and opportunities for research and innovation into the design of these partnerships from the outset, and to articulate them clearly. The relationship must move beyond a purely transactional exchange toward a transformational partnership built on shared values rather than merely contractual compliance.
Trust in Partners: Aligning Values and Objectives
Neither high-quality delivery nor broader societal impact can be realised without a robust, well-functioning partnership grounded in trust. Crucially, confidence between institutions must be actively cultivated and continuously maintained, not presumed from contractual obligations alone. When planning, delivery and oversight become purely procedural rather than relational, trust between TNE partners risks deteriorating.
Building a Durable Future
He is an international education expert and practitioner, with over 15 years’ experience in the quality assurance and regulation of international education. Trifiró is a member of the board of directors of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) and was the former programme director for the Education World Forum, the world’s largest gathering of education ministers.
