Transnational education is often discussed in terms of growth, market reach and institutional prestige.
Yet Jiayi Wang’s research article invites us to think differently.
Rather than seeing TNE as a straightforward export of programmes across borders, the paper argues that it should be understood as an ecosystem:
a living network of people, institutions, systems and relationships that must be nurtured if partnerships are to be sustainable, equitable and meaningful.
This matters because headline success can hide deeper fragility.
The study draws on 245 survey responses, 20 stakeholder interviews and more than 1,000 regulatory audit findings to show that many TNE partnerships remain vulnerable. They are too often shaped by weak institutional integration, rigid curriculum transfer and fragmented support for staff and students. In practice, this means partnerships may look successful on paper while struggling with communication breakdowns, cultural disconnects and uneven power relations on the ground.
The article identifies five major barriers to building sustainable TNE ecosystems. These include
- insufficient institutional support,
- lack of cultural and pedagogical contextualisation,
- communication and administrative fragmentation,
- strategic misalignment between partners,
- and overreliance on delivery-only models.
What is especially striking is that the problem is not simply poor management. It is a deeper issue of design.
When host institutions are treated mainly as delivery sites rather than genuine partners, TNE risks becoming transactional, inflexible and disconnected from local realities.
At the same time, the article is not pessimistic. It shows that stronger partnerships are possible when institutions invest in collaborative governance, contextualised curricula, integrated student support, and long-term relationships between people.
Successful ecosystems are agile, adaptable and aligned （triple A system).
They share decision-making, respect local expertise, and move beyond narrow education-to-education arrangements to engage employers, governments and wider communities. In this sense, TNE becomes more than degree delivery. It becomes a platform for institutional development, knowledge exchange and regional impact.
The core message is clear: the future of TNE depends less on replication and more on resonance. Sustainable partnerships are not built through control alone, but through trust, co-ownership and responsiveness to context. If TNE is to endure in a complex world, it must be reimagined not as a transaction, but as a reciprocal ecosystem designed to evolve and create value for all partners involved.
Read the full research paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14682273/2026/80/1