Trans-knowledge? Geography, mobility and knowledge in transnational education

Abstract

Is there anything more mobile and less sticky than the knowledge imparted and created through transnational higher education (TNE)? Transnationalism implies an inherent mobility and fluidity—a process at ease with geographical distance and difference. By definition, the mobility of knowledge lies at the heart of TNE; it crosses, transects, and overcomes the parochialism and embeddedness of national education systems, to deliver educational programs to students who are both culturally and spatially removed from home. TNE provides, argue the authors, a fascinating case study of the mobility of knowledge, not least because it lies at the forefront of recent, hugely significant developments in the internationalization of higher education (HE), globally, and yet, very little is known about the geographies of knowledge within this innovative form of teaching and learning. This chapter critically examines the mobility of knowledge as a consequence of the growth and expansion of TNE, focusing specifically on the movement of academic programs between the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.