Tension between Internationalization and Localization of Sino-foreign Cooperative University

• In Event: Exploring Higher Education Collaborations: Examining Internationalization, Partnership Dynamics, and Sustainability

Proposal

Purpose of Study
Sino-foreign cooperative universities (SFCUs) represent a significant development in China’s higher education sector (Qin, 2021). These entities are the product of collaborations between Chinese institutions and foreign universities, with unique operating models that are influenced by both local education policies and international academic standards (Mok & Han, 2016). Despite the rapid development of SFCUs, they face numerous challenges in the process of institutional transplantation and organizational adaptation. This study focuses on the degree of integration of internationalization and localization in SFCUs in terms of international campus, curriculum teaching, and personnel structure, and analyzes the interaction between SFCUs and students, teachers, parents, government, and the market. The guiding research question is: How do SFCUs balance the tension between internationalization and localization?

Theoretical Background
This study combines the concepts of the global integration-local responsiveness model and institutional theory to guide our analysis. Based on the dichotomy paradigm of global integration (I) and local responsiveness (R) in strategic management, Shams and Huisman (2012) reconstructed, redefined and integrated management complexity from a strategic perspective to construct a multidimensional framework, identifying staffing, curriculum and research as three key areas where international branch campuses must take a position between global integration and local responsiveness. Shams and Huisman's global integration-local responsiveness paradigm provides a theoretical framework for the tension between internationalization and localization faced by cross-border cooperative universities in this study. The institutional environment requires organizations to be consistent with it, but this does not mean that organizations are completely passive in complying with the regulations of the institutional environment, but rather have considerable agency. The set of choices constrained by the institutional environment generally establishes the direction and basic principles of the organization's actions. The agency of the organization means that the organization is not a passive actor shaped by the cultural template in the institutional environment, but will consciously accept the organizational constraints, and more importantly, the organization can make "strategic choices". For example, Wilkins (2018) pointed out, based on Suchman's (1995) three sets of legitimacy building strategies, that the degree of dependence on local resources and institutional influence lead to different legitimacy building strategies. Therefore, the research on organizations by new institutionalist theorists is an important theoretical cornerstone of this study and can provide certain guidance and analytical methods for this study.

Methods
This study used qualitative research methods and collected data over several months of fieldwork, including campus visits, observations of activities, classes, and student clubs; interviews with 30 students and 10 faculty members; and review of various documents such as national policies, local regulations, and campus communications. We conducted a content analysis method on the interview texts, in which the coding process was carried out in an iterative manner. Our coding method was mainly deductive, allowing codes to emerge naturally from the data, while also being influenced by our conceptual framework. Specifically, data analysis includes: 1) reading and rereading data; 2) keeping track of themes, hunches, interpretations, and ideas; 3) looking for emerging themes; 4) constructing typologies; 5) developing concepts and theoretical propositions; 6) reading the literature; and, 7) developing a story-line (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998).

Finding
Our analysis shows that although internationalization is usually more visible, advocated, and practiced than localization in SFCUs, an undercurrent of localization still exists and develops over time. On the one hand, in order to survive in the increasingly competitive education market, SFCUs have made internationalization an important feature of their universities, such as emphasizing the importance of English as the main language of work and study in SFCUs and hosting various international programs to enhance students' international perspectives. On the other hand, since SFCUs are physically rooted in Chinese society, the needs of Chinese students, employees, and local communities are considered and reflected in various localization initiatives. For example, SFCUs have incorporated some traditional Chinese cultural elements into the class and students' daily lives, and SFCUs also seek opportunities to serve the local community to strengthen connections and mutual understanding.

Author

• Jiaxin GUO