3/11/17

TRANSNATIONAL HIGHER
EDUCATION &
THE YOUTH QUESTION

YiEn Cheng, Dr.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Division of Social Sciences
Yale-NUS College

TRANSNATIONAL HIGHER
EDUCATION &
THE YOUTH QUESTION

Objectives:
Obtain topical knowledge of an aspect in
Education & Society
Understand dynamics of transnational higher
education
Apply sociological (and geographical)
imagination to different manifestations of
contemporary higher educational change

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More policy-driven approach More critical, qualitative approach

More about models and networks More about lived experiences
Franchises
(overseas program
provided by local
institutes)
Branch campuses International
(INSEAD, JCU) Student Migration

Conceptualizing the
Transnational in Contemporary
Higher Education
Twinning program
(joint degrees; Institutional
institutional Overseas Education
partnerships) (Study Abroad,
Online Learning Exchange)
(Distance Learning;
MOOCs)

Transnationality in education not so new

educational circulations key to shaping colonial cities and
nations (Pomfret, 2016)
Colonial education system; study abroad local elite (Queens
Scholarship)

Preoccupations in contemporary educational change

- geopolitics of global knowledge economy
- networks, flows, and movement
- politics of diversification and expansion

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geopolitics of global knowledge economy

- domestication of higher education (N. Koch, 2014) -
re-signification of global in local -
- Internationalization/soft power: reversing global
trends

Singapore Global Schoolhouse

East meets West and bridge-space (Sidhu, Ho & Yeoh, 2011)

networks, flows, and movement

- Networks and nodes (Hoyler and Jons, 2008)
- Mobility and flows key to reproducing knowledge
economies/cities

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/international-
student-flow-viz.aspx

http://www.globalHigherEd.wordpress.com

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politics of diversification and expansion

- Flexibilization of human capital (Peters, 2009)
- Multiplication of reputation (Collins and Park, 2016)

TRANSNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

ON THE GROUND

What restructuring of higher education tells us about

shifting relationship between state and youth?

Young peoples perspectives

Social reproduction + Cultural production

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Case I:
Private higher education
in Asia / Singapore

Case I: Private higher education: the Asian situation

Institutionally diverse

Majority of private HEIs

in Asia are typically of
mediocre or low quality

demand absorbing

(Asian Development Bank,

2012)

https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/public
ation/29869/private-higher-education-across-
asia.pdf

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Case I: Private higher education: Singapore Portrait

Case I: Private higher education: Singapore Portrait

Private degree students and new class

formations?

A collective sense of marginality and injustice about

the denigration of private degree education

Subject to middle-class aspirational norms (degree as

the norm)

But need to confront experiences of condescension,

misrecognition, and precarity typically associated with
non-elite people

Basis for the constitution of a distinct class culture

(Woronov, 2011) additionally in my study, class is
relational and situated, often affective, and transitional

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Case I: Private higher education: Singapore Portrait

Private degree students and their streetcorner

sentiments and values (McLaren, 1999)

I dont think we are inferior to local university students. They may have proved that they are very good
with scoring in exams, but we are also good in other things. Like in SPI, our lecturers are not like
professors in local universities who never worked in the real world before; they have industry
experience and knowledge. So we actually get to learn from their experience and not just textbook
theories. Of course Im not saying all lecturers do this, there is this difference there, which I think is very
useful to prepare us for the current job market. Actually its better that students learn about things that
are more applicable now that its so hard to get a good job.

Case I: Private higher education: a Singapore Portrait

Making Pedigree or Mediocrity?

Phan (2016) argues contrary to overwhelming positive speculations

about transnationalization of HE to produce transformative value,
the landscape produces mediocrity

Diversification entails segmentation and classification (Bourdieu) ->

Private degree students as mediocre class within broader economy
of value-subjects

My research argues that the production of mediocrity needs to be

examined alongside everyday struggles with and against
images/meanings of value (Cheng, 2015; 2016)

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Case II:
Liberal arts experiments
in Asia / Singapore

Case II: Liberal arts in Asia: an experimental moment

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Case II: Liberal arts in Asia: Singapore, the Halcyon Soars

Case II: Liberal arts in Asia: Singapore, the Halcyon Soars

Another global citizenship story?

relationship between education and the cultivation of certain kinds of citizen subjects: the
democratic citizen (Mosher 1994); multicultural citizen (Banks 1997); global citizen
(Matthews and Sidhu 2005); cosmopolitan citizen (Mitchell, 2003)

https://www.yale-nus.edu.sg/about/vision-and-mission/

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Case II: Liberal arts in Asia: Singapore, the Halcyon Soars

Liberal arts experiments not narrowly about meeting global economic trends,
nor only about institutional aspirations

Also an experiment in citizenship-making, at the interstices of the state,

educational institution, and young people themselves

Additionally, students at Yale-NUS are also producing vibrant forms of

citizenships:
- counter-scenes (strong LGBTQ education; Octant etc.)
- vocal about social change
- active community participation and building

Concluding Notes

Transnationalization of higher education a new global reality

Young peoples perspectives are central to understanding the frontiers

of educational change

New transnational formations on the ground that requires

sociological analysis of multiple kinds; i.e. theories that can deal with
emerging issues around
- politics of diversification and expansion
- new class cultures (shifting and processual)
- movement of knowledge, people, credentials
- higher education and citizenship formations

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References

Banks, J. 1997. Educating Citizens in Multicultural Society. NY: Teachers College Press.

Cheng, YE. 2015. Learning in neoliberal times: private degree students and the politics of value coding in Singapore. Environment and Planning A. 48(2): 292-308.

Cheng, YE. 2016. Critical geographies of education beyond value: moral sentiments, caring, and a politics for acting differently, 48(4): 919-936.

Collins FL and Park GS. 2016. Ranking and the multiplication of reputation: reflections from the frontier of globalizing higher education. Higher Education.
DOI:10.1007/s10734-015-9941-3

Hoyler, M. and Jons, H. 2008. Global knowledge nodes and networks. In Johnson, C., Hu, R. and Abedin, S., editors, Connecting cities: networks, Sydney: Metropolis,
12451.
Hubbard,

Koch, N. 2014. The shifting geopolitics of higher education: Inter/nationalizing elite universities in Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, and beyond. Geoforum, 46: 46-54.

Matthews, J. and Sidhu, R. 2005. Desperately seeking the global subject: international education,citizenship and cosmopolitanism. Globalisation, Education &
Societies 3(1): 49-66.

McLaren, P. 1999. Schooling as a Ritual Performance: towards a political economy of educational symbols and gestures. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Mitchell, K. 2006. Neoliberal governmentality in the European Union: education, training, and technologies of citizenship. Environment and Planning D 24(3): 389
407.

Peters, M. 2009. Education, Creativity and the Economy of Passions: New Forms of Educational Capitalism. Thesis Eleven, 96(1): 40-63.

Pomfret, D. 2016. Youth and Empire: Trans-colonial childhoods in British and French Asia. Stanford University Press.

Sidhu, Ho and Yeoh. 2011. Emerging education hubs: the case of Singapore. Higher Education, 61 (1): 23-40

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