Joana Westphal & John McNamara: Transnational education: UK perspectives

Several months ago, Universities UK International (UUKi) and the British Council released a report titled ‘The scale of UK higher education transnational education 2020-21’. This report offered a snapshot analysis of what’s happening with UK transnational education (TNE) across the globe. Since the UK’s departure from the EU, TNE programmes have become more attractive to European students as access to the UK has become more challenging. However, there continue to be critiques of this phenomenon, for example as being a heavily commercially-driven model.

In this episode of the EAIE Podcast, host Laura Rumbley is joined by Joana Westphal, Head of Transnational Education (TNE) at UUKi, and John McNamara, Global Head of Research for the Education Insights Hub at British Council, to address the latest developments related to UK TNE in Europe and beyond. Is there a need for an EU-wide TNE strategy? What are some of the opportunities and challenges on the horizon? And are there particular good practices to share? Take a listen to this episode to learn more!

About Joana Westphal

Joana Westphal is Head of Transnational Education (TNE) at Universities UK International (UUKi). She works within UUKi's Policy and Engagement Team leading the TNE programme to support universities in building sustainable, scalable partnerships across the globe. Joana has worked in international higher education across different areas, including recruitment, research and TNE, with a particular focus on the Middle East and North Africa.

About John McNamara

John McNamara is Global Head of Research, British Council’s Education Insights Hub, and manages a broad portfolio of sector facing research. Key outputs include market intelligence briefs, thought leaderships reports, data tools, blogs and regular presentations to the UK education sector, HMG colleagues and international partners. Prior to joining the British Council in 2019, John ran his own international education consultancy, and before that worked as a senior economist with the Economist Intelligence Unit in London.