As the largest survey of enrolled students globally, the Student Barometer now has over 4 million responses. It gives unprecedented insight into the evolving views of students in both their university experience and their motivations in choosing a particular institution or country. Increasingly it is also capturing the experience of transnational education students and in the 2023 iteration captured the opinions of over 14,500 students in TNE provision. It includes students in campuses in Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai and China as well as students where a local partner delivers the qualification in local colleges and universities in Singapore, Malaysia, Greece, Vietnam, Trinidad and Tobago and Hong Kong.
With over 86,000 students in the global 2023 benchmark, we can get some insights into how TNE provision globally compares with more traditional forms of HE delivery.
Decision-making factors for TNE students
We know from our global data that the key decision-making factor is future career impact, and this is no different for TNE students - as can be seen in the chart below it is in fact slightly higher for TNE students. Similarly, earning potential scores highly for TNE students compared with the global benchmark.
(Note the chart here shows the mean scores where students choose on a scale of importance – getting a 4.00 would be where 100% of students stated this element was very important.)
Current economic pressures have impinged on the decision-making process - as you can see from the chart both cost of living and cost of study are slightly more significant for TNE students. Most TNE provision is more affordable than overseas study fees and, in addition, local students can often work whilst studying and/or maintain their current role whilst enhancing their academic qualifications.
Influencers of choice of provider for TNE students
As well as decision making factor, we also examine who influences students in making their choice. 49% of TNE students said that family were a key influencing factor compared to 42% in the global benchmark. This is even higher for Chinese (54%), Taiwanese (63%) and Malaysian (54%), and inevitably much higher for Undergraduate students (56%) compared to Post-Graduate(35%).
TNE students’ satisfaction with the learning experience
The whole idea of educational benchmarking is comparing provision across a range of different context, cultures and locations where we can’t expect a ‘mirror’ of the home campus, but we would hope for high levels of satisfaction with the student experience.
When we look at the learning it is pleasing to see that TNE provision in 2023 scores well compared to the global benchmark. Let’s focus on our learning indices - there are over 25, but let’s focus on 10 key factors.
The percentage figures represent those who are both satisfied and very satisfied. Of course, these aggregated figures flatten out some of the variances and it is important for individual providers to examine their own scores and look at strengths and weaknesses. But broadly speaking for most elements TNE provision actually outscores the global benchmark.
TNE students’ satisfaction with the support services
Finally, the support services can be a challenge for a TNE providers who don’t often have the resources of the ‘home’/awarding institutions.
You can see both global provision and TNE provision score well over 80% satisfaction for the vast majority of elements. Campus eating places is the one that stands out!! My experience, having visited most TNE campuses in Asia, is that the local food offerings are so cheap, plentiful and delicious that the on-campus offering cannot compete, which is often not the case in the UK or Australia!
I think it is crucial that institutions who are serious about student experience across their campuses and TNE provision should take into account the student voice and listen to their views about the provision in all its complexity. The Barometer is an ideal tool to do this, by giving both comparable data across provision as well as externally benchmarking, enabling institutions to enhance the provision wherever it is!
Find out more about how International Student Barometer data can enhance your TNE provision:
