Abstract:

Between 2012 and 2017, the Business Administration (top-up) programme (BABA SDL) has had over 1000 students spread across 7 international collaborative partnerships worldwide, with 7 new partners expected to join the team before the end of this year. By engaging in a combination of online and face-to-face learning spanning one full year, students can gain their UK degree without leaving their home country.

UK Module Leaders provide the online contents, discussions and assessments. The different local tutors guide the face-to-face sessions locally, and provide examples that are relevant to the students, their country and their culture. The knowledge shared between module leaders and local tutors is used to inform the curriculum of the programme and develop further online content.

Students have access to the same module pages online, regardless of their location, enabling them to communicate with each other, the module leaders and all the local tutors across the world. This exposes them to a global mind-set, through a multi-dimensional learning experience. These students do relatively better than the students enrolled in the same programme on campus.

Overall, the SDL programme provides a safer alternative to the traditional transnational education models (i.e. franchise). The global classroom benefits everyone because it relies heavily on knowledge transfer between all the key people involved the programme. This may inform, improve and make a positive change in local business practices.

Keywords:

SDL, Supported Distance Learning, Collaborative Provision, Globalisation, Local communities, Higher Education, Blended learning, knowledge transfer.