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Research On The Development Of Transnational Double Degree Project

Posted on:2015-04-20Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:J P ZhangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1107330476953941Subject:Management Science and Engineering
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Globalization is an inevitable trend in our socio-economic, industrial and even political lives. Transnational education has become a worldwide focus of international concern. Since 1990 s, transnational double degree program have been on the rise as an emerging educational collaboration model in the global context. As for China, establishing a more open and dynamic higher education system is indispensable to build an innovation-oriented country, and internationalization is regarded as an important way to improve the quality of higher education, thus, promoting transnational education collaboration becomes an urgent need to meet the demands of social development. With the advantage of in-depth collaboration, flexible management and better educational quality, transnational double degree programs have been considered as a helpful channel to further promoting the Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, introducing foreign educational resources of superior quality and enlarge supply of higher education. Therefore, in-depth study of the basic rule of double degree program is of important theoretical and realistic significance.The transnational double degree programs in Europe and Asia-pacific area have been chosen as the main research object. It employs historical analysis, comparative method and case study to find what double degree program is, why it appears, how it develops and what the tendency is.It is found that a dual or double degree program is “students study at(at least) two higher education institutions and receive upon completion of the study program a separate degree certificate from each of the participating institutions”. The number and nature of degree certificate are the key criterion to identify a program is double degree program or not. Diversity, subordination, marketability and flexibility are the main development characteristics.The original concept of joint training begins from the European Community in 1970 s. In the context of economic globalization and political regionalization, it has experienced three development stages with result from educational service trade, computer network and communication technology. During the over 40 years’ development, the concept of joint training transforms from educational aids to multidimensional value orientation, and the oriented driving forces become higher educational institutions from the outside request. While quality assurance and accreditation has been the focus of attention, distance education methods and the post-graduate level are becoming more popular.It is found that supranational organizations, national governments and higher education instructions are the main acting subjects who participate in the development of the double degree program. As the transmitter of globalization, supranational organizations deliver the prototype and specification of global political and economic development in the form of pressure and competition to the countries and higher education institutions. International conference, consensus statement, guidelines, funding support and transnational survey are their common actions to accelerate the international or mutual recognition of quality assurance, qualification, academic credentials and degrees. Governments play the key role of supervising subject, who provide political and institutional support for dual degree program by mandatory policies, such as laws, financial allocation and organization structuring, which matters whether the international double-degree certificates are legal or not. Higher education institutions are the implementing subject, who react by imitation or competition according to their own cultures, traditions, or targets. It’s the institutional measurements on curriculum arrangement, individual mobility, quality assurance and degree awarding differ with programs.According to how much discourse power owned by cooperating institutions, this paper divides double degree program into two categories---equal program and unequal program. On this basis, the characteristics and causes of different kinds of programs are analyzed by case study.It is found that government support is the important premises for double degree program; institutional strategic planning for internationalization is necessary to maintain dual degree program’s sustainable development; quality assurance is the vital lifeline of double degree program, and diploma assistance document is helpful to improve the credibility of double degree certificates awarded by joint training. In the meantime, there are still some challenges and problems which cannot be inevitable to face, that is, lack of internationally accepted qualification standards impeding mutual recognition of degree certificate, anomie of administration due to cooperation beyond national borders with result of damage to national educational sovereignty, the unbalanced discourse power of educational resources causing inequality in cross-border education, and the market or economic logic conflicting with academic logic of higher education.It is certain that Chinese-foreign double degree programs play an important role on introducing excellent foreign educational resources and satisfying people’s diverse demands on higher education. While there are some challenges need overcoming: deficiency of relative policies causing series of confusion in practice, lack of consciousness of dialogue and self-confidence to cooperate with foreign universities as the equal subject, and insufficient assimilation of international educational resources. It is suggested that the government should reduce the institutional obstacles while advance with times’ demand to adjust original policies, classification management and major construction simultaneously, and clarifying double degree’s legal position. The Chinese higher education institutions should establish self-confidence and foster the consciousness of equivalent discourse power, attempt to operate the trial implementation of certificate assistance documents and actively carrying out various cooperating patterns in order to improve their strength and competiveness.
Keywords/Search Tags:Double degree program, development framework, implementation strategy, classification, development tendency
PDF Full Text Request
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