‘University matching’ in state-regulated Sino-Australian transnational higher education: a Bourdieusian social network analysis

ABSTRACT

The past three decades have seen proliferating research on Transnational Higher Education (TNHE), mostly understood through a market-oriented lens as a means of institutional and individual investment in economic and status gains. Less understood is the interplay between the state and the market logic in TNHE. Large-scale research on the market-state-status coordinated effect on TNHE is absent. This study makes a contribution in this regard through a Bourdieusian social network analysis of 130 state-regulated TNHE partnerships between 64 Chinese and 28 Australian universities. Descriptive analysis shows the evolvement of state-regulated Sino-Australian TNHE ‘networks’ over time from 2003 to 2019. Inferential statistics shows a significant homophily effect in the TNHE partnerships between Chinese and Australian universities with high rankings and research income. These results allude to a strong influence from the Chinese state on Sino-Australian TNHE partnerships.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational higher education
• university partnerships
• social network analysis
• Bourdieu
• China
• Australia

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge that the primary insights of this article are derived from the findings of the first author’s doctoral dissertation, following extensive revision for publication in this journal. The first author expresses sincere gratitude to Professors Karen Dooley, Michael Mu, and Carol Nicoll for their invaluable guidance and unwavering support throughout the PhD journey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In the new five-star system, Star 5 consists of the original Star 6 to Star 8, accounting for the top 5% Chinese universities; Star 4 aggregates the original Star 4 and Star 5, accounting for the top 17.9% to top 5%; Star 3 groups the original Star 2 and Star 3, accounting for the top 44.6% to top 17.9%; Star 2 is the original Star 1 which accounts for the top 65.1% to top 44.6%; and Star 1 is composed of the unranked Chinese universities, accounting for the rest 34.9%.