The quest for capacity development in Chinese higher education: Can top foreign universities serve as ‘catfish’ in China? A study exploring foreign faculty members’ experiences in Sino-Foreign Joint Ventures

Abstract

In current times of globalization and the increasing importance of the global knowledge-driven economies, transnational education (TNE) has taken an important place in the international education industry. Instead of students crossing borders to obtain foreign degrees, universities are now increasingly taking their institutions overseas offering students an ‘on site’ experience. Driven by the massification of higher education, economic reforms, open-door policies and globalization pressures, TNE has become a flourishing business in China. Importing TNE has received high development priority as China expects to increase its global competitiveness by learning from advanced education systems. This study takes a critical stance at the capacity development promises of Sino-foreign Joint Ventures (SFJVs) by providing insight into the ‘lived’ experiences of an often-neglected group in the development and internationalization literature, namely foreign faculty members. By building on 39 semi-structured interviews, the international movements of these scholars are questioned by asking how capacity development takes place, what capacities are developed and which factors hinder and assist scholars in the development of capacities. By building on the theory of accumulated capitals of Bourdieu, this paper argues that the forms of capital which are fundamental to the Chinese HE are profoundly different to those of the SFJVs, which complicates capacity building by foreign faculty. The paper concludes that the needs and concerns of faculty members should be prioritized to maximize the intentions of capacity development in Chinese HE.