American higher education overseas: Three case studies of cross-national relationships in the Arabian Gulf (Qatar, United Arab Emirates)

The instances of American involvement in global educational initiatives have historically been viewed through the center-periphery model---wherein the U.S. is at the center and is the producer of research, knowledge, and structures. In comparison, the foreign students or countries receiving American education are on the periphery and represent the consumers, not creators of knowledge. The global spread of the American system of higher education is often recognized for the opportunities it offers and equally renounced for its imperialistic undertones. Necessary, in light of new models of collaboration, is a reevaluation of the appropriateness of the center-periphery model for analyzing and practicing cross-national educational initiatives.; This study was undertaken in an effort to examine the structures of the new international relationships and the practices unfolding within global educational programs. The Arabian Gulf was the focal point for this study, and three not-for-profit universities that employ American education systems and have specific relationships with U.S. universities were chosen as investigation sites: Texas A&M University Qatar, United Arab Emirates University, and the American University of Sharjah. A case study for each model of institution-to-institution cross-national collaboration was presented---the branch campus, component borrowing, and the international American University---by gathering data through institutional documentation, administrator interviews, student questionnaires, and site visits.; The study found that the principal transformation evidenced across the three styles of importing American higher education in the Arabian Gulf was a shift in the level of power located in the host countries, including: the incentive for establishing the relationships, the reflection of regional needs and culture in adaptations to programs, the motivation and goals of the students, and more of the benefits of the relationship being realized by the Gulf institutions. The results suggest that the center-periphery theory adequately reflected and critiqued the historical practice and theory of cross-national educational relationships, but the current composition of the field is not effectively analyzed using the model.