UK universities’ international KPIs – PART 4

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UK universities’ international KPIs – PART 4

Posted on 12 Feb 2025 at 16:57 by Vicky Lewis

TNE students, programmes and partnerships

This is the fourth in my series of blogs sharing insights and emerging ideas on ways to measure international success, based on a review of university international strategies. Links to earlier blogs in the series are provided at the end of this one.

TNE image In the second blog of this series, I noted (with plenty of caveats) that, across recent UK international strategies, the number of individual KPIs relating to ‘transnational students, programmes and partnerships’ has overtaken the number relating to ‘attracting international students to the UK campus’.

There’s an interesting parallel with current sector debates about when the number of UK transnational education (TNE) students is likely to outstrip the number of international enrolments on UK university home campuses (see UWN’s TNE numbers will overtake foreign students in UK – Experts).

The increasing emphasis on TNE is partly because it’s no longer the preserve of modern, teaching-focused institutions. When I reviewed the KPIs used in institutional strategic plans back in 2020, I noted that: ‘The only KPI category where the younger institutions clearly dominate is the one focusing on TNE, reflecting the fact that this is a strand of international activity embraced earlier as a deliberate strategy by many younger HEIs and only more recently starting to be actively pursued by some of the more traditional universities.’

It now appears to have moved firmly into the mainstream for most UK institutions. But what kinds of KPIs are used to measure success when it comes to TNE?

How is TNE success measured?

An analysis of the KPIs of six published international strategies with an end date between 2024 and 2030 shows that five include KPIs relating to TNE. Between them, they list 10 TNE-related KPIs. Only one of the five strategies belongs to a research-intensive university.

Four of the KPIs relate to student numbers: either ‘number of students enrolled on TNE provision’ or a more specific measure such as the number of students studying through (or progressing to the university from) international articulation partnerships.

Three relate to the number of partnerships or programmes. One institution sets one- and five-year targets for (a) number of scalable international partnerships including franchising and (b) number of academic programmes delivered transnationally. Another (taking a broader view of partnerships than just TNE) aims for continuous improvement in the number of international partnerships with HEIs that meet ‘a suite of qualifying metrics’ (presumably defined elsewhere).

Two KPIs are finance-based, with one aiming for a financial margin of 35% or greater for each TNE partnership, and another seeking to grow income from TNE provision by at least 200% over an 8-year strategy period.

One KPI relates to degree outcomes of TNE students. The target is for outcomes to be close to those for on-campus students, with no partnerships showing significantly worse performance.

Commentary on TNE KPIs

There are no big surprises and little innovative practice among this particular batch of KPIs.

Some of the TNE KPIs support other strategic priorities. For example, the number of students progressing from TNE partners to the university supports international student recruitment; and the focus on degree outcomes of TNE students links to international student experience and success.

The most interesting KPI is probably the one relating to closing the degree outcomes gap, which suggests that TNE graduates at this institution may have historically performed less well than their on-campus counterparts – and that it's deemed strategically important to address this issue.

The target of steadily increasing the number of partnerships meeting ‘a suite of qualifying metrics’ may align with a common ambition in many international strategies to define and establish a small number of multi-faceted, ‘strategic’ partnerships.

I imagine internal implementation plans are in place to support delivery of the international strategies and that these set out some of the KPIs in more detail (for example, spelling out what ‘scalable’ means in the context of the KPI relating to ‘number of scalable international partnerships’).

What’s missing?

Some of the TNE dimensions mentioned in the narrative of strategy documents are not reflected in this set of measures. There’s no reference, for example, to widening access through TNE or to having a positive impact on the partner institution, or in the host country more broadly.

Looking back at the KPIs in some of the international strategies I reviewed in 2020, there appears to have been more variety and – in some cases – more specificity.

Some aimed to establish a certain number of institution-level partnerships in a particular world region. One sought to ‘grow the number of joint ventures with partners to establish micro campuses overseas’. Another to build up a ‘critical mass of students’ in ‘International Centres… offering a portfolio of University programmes’.

There is also reference to quality of provision and, in one case, ‘excellent student feedback through an increased range and number of student surveys, annual monitoring and QAA reports’. You can quibble about whether increasing the number of student surveys etc. is the right approach (and about how ‘excellent’ is defined). However, the emphasis on TNE student experience is to be commended.

Where is there room for innovation?

It’s worth mentioning here the Education Insight Global Engagement Index, developed by Dr Janet Ilieva, which proposes some alternative ways of benchmarking TNE provision, suggesting that a high proportion of postgraduate TNE can serve as a proxy for capacity building; and that a high proportion of TNE delivery in ODA countries can demonstrate commitment to emerging economies.

I was encouraged recently to be made aware of one institution whose global engagement KPIs include geographic diversification of TNE, engagement of under-represented groups in TNE, and co-created collaborative provision. The devil is, of course, in the detail of how these are defined and measured, but they are the kinds of areas – along with TNE student experience and graduate outcomes – which it would be heartening to see more of among TNE-related KPIs, providing a more nuanced set of aims than simply growth in numbers or income.

Next blog in this series

In my next blog, I’m going to share insights into KPIs associated with attracting international students to the UK campus – another popular measure of international success.