This naturally leads to another important aspect of the student experience: well-being and pastoral care. When we talk about student well-being in higher education, the conversation often focuses on mental health and access to counselling or other specialist services. These are undoubtedly important, but well-being is much broader. It encompasses a student’s sense of belonging, safety, confidence and connection, as well as the practical, academic, financial, cultural and personal circumstances that can affect their ability to study and thrive.

For TNE students, these considerations can become even more complex. This is something I have seen repeatedly through my own work with TNE programmes and through conversations with students, academics and professional services colleagues across different international contexts. The specific challenges vary considerably, but there are some recurring themes: uncertainty about where to turn for help, differences in expectations around support, cultural barriers to asking for assistance and, sometimes, simply not knowing who is responsible for what.

Well-being starts before the student enters the classroom

For students studying for a foreign qualification outside their home country, the challenges may begin long before they arrive at their institution. Immigration and visa requirements, healthcare arrangements, accommodation, financial pressures, employment restrictions and understanding local legal and administrative systems can all create uncertainty. For students and their families, navigating these unfamiliar systems can be stressful, particularly when they do not know where to find reliable information or who is responsible for helping them.

This is an important distinction in TNE. A student studying for an international qualification in their home country may have many of these practical support networks around them already. A student studying in a third country may have far fewer. For example, a student from one country studying for a qualification awarded by a university in another country, while physically studying in a third, may need to navigate three different national contexts. The academic relationship may be relatively straightforward, but the student’s lived experience can be considerably more complex.

In these circumstances, pastoral support cannot simply be an online counselling service or a contact number buried somewhere within a student portal. Students need clear information, accessible points of contact and confidence that someone understands the context in which they are living and studying.

The well-being challenge is not always where we expect it

Some of the most interesting conversations I have had with TNE students have been about difficulties that institutions may not immediately recognise as well-being issues. A student can have excellent academic results and still feel isolated. They may be living away from their family for the first time, struggling to establish friendships, adjusting to a new culture or feeling uncertain about whether they really belong within an international university community.

Language can add another layer. As I discussed in my previous article, language challenges are not necessarily about formal proficiency. A student may arrive with an excellent IELTS score and still struggle to understand local pronunciation, accents, colloquialisms, professional jargon or cultural references. The same can be true in reverse. Students studying in their own language may find themselves working with international academics or professional services colleagues whose communication style is unfamiliar.

These experiences can be frustrating and, over time, can contribute to anxiety, disengagement or a feeling of being an outsider. This is why well-being in TNE needs to be considered in the context of the whole student experience rather than as a separate service.

Cultural context matters

Well-being is not understood or experienced in exactly the same way everywhere. Attitudes towards mental health, counselling, disability, family involvement and seeking professional help can vary considerably between cultures. A student may recognise that they are struggling but feel uncomfortable disclosing this to an institution or seeking formal support.

There may also be different expectations around the role of academic staff. In some educational cultures, students may be accustomed to discussing personal or academic difficulties directly with teachers. In others, approaching an academic to ask for help may feel inappropriate or intimidating. The existence of a support service therefore does not necessarily mean that students will use it. Institutions need to consider how support is communicated, who delivers it, how approachable it feels and whether students trust the people providing it.

Should TNE students receive more support?

This is an interesting question, and one I think institutions should be willing to ask. I would argue that, in some TNE contexts, students may need more proactive support than students studying on the home campus, rather than simply the same level of support delivered differently.

That view comes partly from conversations I have had with students studying TNE in different parts of the world. What has struck me repeatedly is how much students can be expected to navigate independently when they are physically distant from the awarding institution. What may appear to an institution to be a relatively straightforward online support offer can feel very different from the student’s perspective.

A student on the home campus can often draw on a wide ecosystem of support almost without thinking about it. They may know where the library is, how to contact their academic adviser, where to access health services, who to speak to about accommodation or how to find student societies. A TNE student may not have the same ecosystem around them. Providing an equivalent email address or online portal does not necessarily create an equivalent support experience. In some circumstances, therefore, equity may require additional or more proactive intervention, particularly during transition points or when students show early signs of disengagement.

Who is responsible for pastoral care?

This becomes particularly important in partnership models. The local partner may know students much better and be best placed to identify changes in behaviour, attendance or engagement. The awarding institution may have specialist well-being expertise, established policies and formal escalation procedures. Neither institution should simply assume that the other is responsible.

In my experience, the strongest partnerships tend to establish clear responsibilities and referral pathways while maintaining a shared understanding that student well-being is a collective responsibility. This does not mean that every partner needs to replicate the full well-being infrastructure of the home campus. It means designing an appropriate support ecosystem for the local context and ensuring that students understand how it works.

Supporting the people who support students

There is also a staff dimension to this conversation. Academic and professional services staff are often the first people to notice that a student is struggling. They may see changes in attendance, engagement, academic performance or behaviour before a student ever contacts a formal well-being service.

Staff therefore need more than good intentions. They need appropriate training and development to recognise potential concerns, understand the boundaries of their role and know where and how to refer students for additional support. This is particularly important in TNE, where the person closest to a student may not be the person with access to specialist support.

I have also seen how much difference it can make when local staff and colleagues at the awarding institution have established relationships and understand each other’s roles. When those relationships exist, concerns can be identified and escalated much more quickly. When they do not, students can sometimes find themselves caught between institutions, with each assuming that the other is dealing with the issue.

Staff also need support themselves. International partnership work can involve significant demands, including working across cultures and time zones, managing complex relationships, dealing with difficult student situations and navigating different institutional expectations. Staff well-being matters not only because institutions have responsibilities towards their employees, but because staff who feel supported are better placed to support students. Professional development, peer support, clear escalation processes and regular communication between partner teams can therefore contribute to both staff and student well-being.

Families matter too

Conversations with students have also reminded me that the family dimension should not be overlooked. In many TNE markets, parents and families play a much more significant role in educational decision-making than institutions in some Western countries might expect. For students studying overseas, families may be particularly concerned about safety, accommodation, immigration status, academic progress and employability.

Clear and appropriate communication with families can therefore help build confidence in the institution and the partnership. At the same time, institutions need to balance family engagement with student autonomy, privacy and confidentiality. The role of families should be recognised without undermining the student’s independence.

Beyond the support service

Ultimately, pastoral care is not simply a service that students access when something goes wrong. It is an ecosystem that can involve the lecturer who notices that a student has suddenly withdrawn from class, the administrator who follows up after repeated unexplained absences, the local tutor who knows how to refer a student to specialist support, or a partner institution that understands when a change in behaviour represents a genuine concern rather than simply poor academic engagement.

These everyday interactions can be just as important as formal well-being services. Technology can certainly help. Digital check-ins, online counselling, well-being platforms and early-warning systems can make support more accessible and help institutions identify potential concerns. But technology should complement rather than replace human relationships.

Building environments where students can thrive

As TNE continues to expand globally, institutions will need to think increasingly carefully about what well-being and pastoral care mean across different contexts. The answer will not be identical everywhere. Effective support needs to reflect local cultures, regulatory environments, available services and student expectations while still maintaining clear standards and responsibilities across the partnership.

After speaking with students studying TNE across different countries and partnership models, I increasingly think the most important measure of pastoral support is not how impressive the formal support structure looks on paper, but what happens when a student actually needs help. Does the student know who to contact? Do they feel comfortable asking for help? Does the person they approach know what to do next? And, perhaps most importantly, does the partnership have enough understanding of its students to notice when something is not quite right?

Successful TNE is not only about enabling students to earn an internationally recognised qualification. It is about creating an environment in which they can feel safe, connected, supported and able to thrive while doing so.

In my next article, I will explore another important dimension of the TNE student experience: administrative clarity, and why seemingly small issues around information, processes and responsibility can have a surprisingly significant impact on student confidence and satisfaction.

– Dr Suzanna Tomassi is Executive Director of External Affairs at NCUK, a leading UK pathway provider, and Founder of CoachEd Global, a consultancy specialising in executive coaching and global education advisory.

She is a highly experienced strategic leader and board member with over 20 years’ expertise across UK Government and higher education. Her work focuses on internationalisation, governance, risk oversight, commercial growth, and organisational transformation. Suzanna’s career spans the UK Department for Business and Trade and four major UK universities, where she has shaped national policy, strengthened regulatory and quality frameworks, and led large-scale international expansion initiatives.

An expert in transnational education and global operations, Suzanna has driven multi-country growth strategies, co-authored accreditation guidelines, and facilitated major international investments in UK higher education.

For additional background, please see:

• “Language and communication in TNE: Building bridges across academic and cultural boundaries“
• “Academic support and learning resources in TNE: Delivering student success across borders”
• “Beyond borders: Why student support matters more than ever in transnational education”

The post Well-being and pastoral care in TNE: Supporting students to thrive across borders appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

When we talk about language in international education, the conversation often focuses on English language proficiency. This is understandable given the global reach of English-medium education and the role that English plays in many international partnerships. However, language and communication in TNE are much broader and more complex than this.

To begin with, language is not simply about the words we use. Communication is the thread that connects every part of a successful TNE partnership, from the student experience and academic delivery to partnership management, staff collaboration and external engagement, and creates shared understanding across all stakeholders. This distinction matters because TNE partnerships bring together diverse communities of students, their families, employers, academics, professional services staff, institutional leaders and other external participants. Each group may bring different linguistic backgrounds, educational experiences, cultural assumptions and communication styles. Therefore, the success of a partnership depends not only on what is communicated, but also on whether that message is understood in the way it was intended across all groups of stakeholders.

Beyond language proficiency

One of the challenges in discussing language support is that it is often framed primarily around student ability. Institutions may focus on entry requirements, language assessments, academic writing support, or additional learning resources. These are all important. However, language proficiency alone does not automatically translate into academic confidence.

A student may meet all formal language requirements and still find themselves uncertain about how to participate in seminars, interpret feedback, structure an argument or understand what is expected when asked to “critically evaluate” a topic. These challenges are not necessarily about a lack of ability. They are often about navigating unfamiliar academic cultures.

Higher education systems vary significantly in how they approach teaching and learning. Expectations around independent study, questioning ideas, engaging in debate, working collaboratively, or expressing disagreement may differ considerably between countries and institutions. The challenge is not that one approach is better than another. Rather, it is about ensuring students understand the expectations of the environment in which they are studying. In this sense, effective communication goes beyond helping students understand academic content. Instead, it is about helping them understand how to succeed within a particular academic context.

The hidden curriculum of higher education

Many students entering TNE programmes are also navigating what is sometimes described as the “hidden curriculum” of higher education – the unwritten expectations, behaviours and conventions that experienced students and staff may take for granted. This may include:

• What does a lecturer expect when they ask students to contribute to a discussion?
• How should students approach feedback from academic staff?
• When is it appropriate to challenge an argument or ask for clarification?
• What does academic independence look like in practice?

For students who are familiar with the academic culture of their institution or the country where they study, these expectations may feel natural. For others, they can represent a significant challenge. This is particularly relevant in TNE because students may be studying an internationally recognised qualification while remaining within their local cultural and educational context or they might be pursuing foreign qualifications outside of their home country and the country of the degree provider. As such, supporting students effectively requires recognising both parts of that experience. The goal should not be to replace students’ existing educational identities or experiences. Rather, it should be to help them develop the confidence and skills to navigate different academic environments.

Communication challenges within partnerships

While student communication is clearly important, some of the most complex communication challenges in TNE happen behind the scenes. TNE partnerships are, at their core, networks of people working together across geographical, institutional and cultural boundaries. This includes academic teams, professional services colleagues, quality assurance teams, administrators, senior leaders and external stakeholders.

In my own experience, some of the most challenging aspects of international partnership work have not necessarily been related to strategic alignment or programme design, but to the everyday communication required to make partnerships operate effectively. A phrase such as “student support”, “quality monitoring”, “course”, “module”, “term”, “credit” or even “engagement” may appear straightforward, but different colleagues may interpret these concepts in different ways. Expectations around timelines, decision-making processes, escalation routes, and responsibilities can vary considerably.

Many operational challenges within partnerships are, at their core, communication challenges. Successful partnerships therefore require more than formal agreements and governance structures. They require ongoing dialogue, opportunities to build relationships, and a willingness to understand how different teams operate.

Communication across languages and locations

It is also important to recognise that not all TNE is delivered in English. Across the world, there are successful international partnerships delivered in local languages, reflecting the needs of students, national contexts and institutional strategies. In these cases, language-related challenges may look very different.

For example, a local partner may deliver a programme in its national language, while colleagues at the awarding institution who are not part of the core delivery team, may not have sufficient language capability to fully engage with teaching materials, student feedback, or academic discussions. This can create challenges around communication, oversight, quality assurance and partnership engagement, possibly even feelings of exclusion or disengagement.

The solution is not necessarily for every colleague involved in a partnership to become fluent in every language used across the network. However, institutions do need to consider how they maintain effective communication and shared understanding when linguistic differences exist. This may require additional investment in translation processes, bilingual staff capability, local expertise, technology solutions, or simply greater awareness of where communication barriers may emerge.

The role of staff capability

Much of the conversation around TNE focuses on student preparedness, but staff capability is equally important. Academic and professional services colleagues working in international partnerships need opportunities to understand each other’s contexts, expectations and ways of working. This includes understanding differences in:

• academic cultures;
• administrative processes;
• communication styles;
• approaches to student support;
• expectations around decision-making and accountability.

Staff development therefore becomes an important part of effective communication. This is not simply about induction or familiarising colleagues with institutional policies. It is about creating opportunities for academic and professional services staff from both partner institutions to learn from one another, understand different educational cultures and develop the confidence to communicate across them. Joint training, staff exchanges, peer observation, collaborative curriculum development, and regular partnership meetings can all help create a shared understanding that ultimately benefits students.

The strongest partnerships I have encountered are those where staff relationships are actively developed (and often in person) rather than assumed. Regular communication between teams, opportunities for knowledge exchange, and genuine collaboration help build the trust required for partnerships to succeed over the long term.

Communication beyond the classroom

Effective communication in TNE extends well beyond the partnership itself. Students are rarely the only audience institutions need to engage. Parents, employers, professional bodies, government agencies and local communities all play an important role in shaping perceptions of international education.

Clear communication is particularly important when explaining the value of TNE qualifications. While awareness of international education continues to grow, there can still be misconceptions about how TNE programmes compare with degrees studied on the awarding institution’s home campus. Institutions therefore need to communicate consistently that students are working towards the same academic standards and learning outcomes, while also highlighting the additional benefits many TNE graduates develop, including intercultural competence, adaptability and the ability to operate across different cultural and professional environments.

Employers, too, increasingly value graduates who can work confidently across borders and cultures. Helping external stakeholders understand these strengths not only benefits graduates, but also reinforces the credibility and long-term reputation of TNE partnerships.

Technology can support communication, but not replace it

Technology has transformed the way international partnerships communicate and frankly, how we liaise with others across all industries. Virtual meetings, digital learning environments, collaboration platforms, and increasingly sophisticated AI tools have made it easier for teams and students to connect across borders. However, technology can support communication, but it cannot replace human understanding.

A translated document may communicate words, but it does not always communicate meaning. A virtual meeting may enable discussion, but it does not automatically build relationships. As TNE becomes increasingly digitally enabled, institutions will need to continue investing not only in platforms and systems, but also in the human connections that allow partnerships to thrive.

Building shared understanding

As TNE continues to expand globally and competition grows between nations and individual providers, language and communication become increasingly important. The future of international education will involve partnerships between institutions, countries, and communities with increasingly diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The most successful partnerships will not simply remove language barriers. They will actively create shared understanding between students, staff, institutional partners, employers, and wider communities.

Perhaps the most important question institutions can ask themselves is not simply whether information is being communicated. It is whether that information is being understood in the way it was intended. Because ultimately, effective communication in TNE is not about ensuring everyone speaks the same language. It is about ensuring everyone understands the same purpose. In the end, successful TNE partnerships are built not simply on shared programmes, but on shared understanding.

In my next article, I will explore another important dimension of the TNE student experience: wellbeing and pastoral support, and how institutions can create environments where students feel supported, connected and able to thrive across different international contexts.

– Dr Suzanna Tomassi is Executive Director of External Affairs at NCUK, a leading UK pathway provider, and Founder of CoachEd Global, a consultancy specialising in executive coaching and global education advisory.

She is a highly experienced strategic leader and board member with over 20 years’ expertise across UK Government and higher education. Her work focuses on internationalisation, governance, risk oversight, commercial growth, and organisational transformation. Suzanna’s career spans the UK Department for Business and Trade and four major UK universities, where she has shaped national policy, strengthened regulatory and quality frameworks, and led large-scale international expansion initiatives.

An expert in transnational education and global operations, Suzanna has driven multi-country growth strategies, co-authored accreditation guidelines, and facilitated major international investments in UK higher education.

For additional background, please see:

• “Academic support and learning resources in TNE: Delivering student success across borders”
• “Beyond borders: Why student support matters more than ever in transnational education”

The post Language and communication in TNE: Building bridges across academic and cultural boundaries appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

For students studying through TNE, academic support is often one of the most significant factors shaping their confidence, engagement, and ultimately their success. Yet it is also one of the most complex aspects of international partnership delivery.

I believe that the question is not whether students have access to support. Most partnerships can rightly point to virtual learning environments, online libraries, academic skills resources, and local teaching teams. The more important question is whether students studying thousands of miles away experience the same opportunity to succeed as their peers on the home campus. And that distinction matters.

Academic equivalence does not necessarily require identical experiences, but it should require equivalent opportunities to achieve learning outcomes. As TNE continues to diversify across franchise arrangements, validations, joint programmes, international branch campuses, articulation pathways, and increasingly flexible digital delivery models, ensuring that equivalence becomes both more challenging and more important.

Academic support is more than providing resources

It is tempting to think about academic support as a collection of services: access to journals, study skills workshops, writing centres or library inductions. But in reality, academic support is an ecosystem. Students need access not only to resources, but also to guidance on how to use them effectively. They need timely feedback, opportunities to ask questions, confidence in academic expectations, and clear pathways to seek help when difficulties arise. Many students entering TNE programmes are also navigating unfamiliar approaches to learning. Expectations around independent study, critical thinking, referencing, group work or academic integrity may differ considerably from previous educational experiences. What appears straightforward to academic staff may represent a significant transition for students.

Supporting that transition should not be viewed as remedial work. Rather, it is an essential component of helping students succeed within a different academic culture.

The challenge of delivering consistency across multiple locations

While one of the greatest strengths of TNE is its ability to bring internationally recognised qualifications closer to students, it also creates one of the sector’s greatest operational challenges.

Unlike a single campus, TNE partnerships operate across different educational cultures, regulatory systems, technological infrastructures, languages, and institutional environments. A student studying the same programme in Kuala Lumpur, Cairo, or Tashkent may technically be enrolled on the same degree, but their day-to-day academic experience can look remarkably different.

Some partnerships benefit from sophisticated digital infrastructure, extensive local library collections, and highly experienced academic support teams. Others operate in environments where internet connectivity is less reliable, access to licensed databases may be more limited, or students balance full-time employment alongside their studies. These differences do not necessarily indicate lower quality, but they do require thoughtful adaptation.

Successful partnerships recognise local realities while remaining focused on achieving equivalent academic outcomes.

Technology has transformed access, but not necessarily engagement

Digital technologies have undoubtedly reduced many of the barriers that once separated TNE students from their home institutions. Virtual learning environments, online library collections, recorded lectures, AI-enabled learning tools, digital assessment platforms, and virtual academic advising have significantly expanded access. However, access alone does not guarantee engagement.

Institutions often monitor whether students have been given access to online resources, but far fewer examine how confidently those resources are being used. Students may have thousands of electronic journals available to them while remaining uncertain about where to begin their literature search. Similarly, an extensive online study skills repository has little value if students are unaware it exists or find it difficult to navigate.

Academic support therefore requires active engagement rather than passive availability.

Partnership working makes the difference

Perhaps more than any other aspect of TNE delivery, academic support illustrates why successful partnerships depend upon genuine collaboration rather than contractual compliance alone, as responsibility for supporting students rarely sits neatly with one institution.

Home universities typically retain responsibility for academic standards, while local partners often provide much of the day-to-day teaching and student support. This shared responsibility requires strong communication, mutual trust, and clearly defined expectations. The most successful partnerships I have encountered tend to move beyond simply dividing responsibilities. Instead, they invest in joint approaches to staff development, regular dialogue between academic teams, and shared ownership of the student experience. As a result, academic support becomes something both institutions continuously refine together rather than something either side simply delivers.

Listening to students

One of the most valuable sources of insight is often the students themselves. Student surveys frequently measure overall satisfaction, but they may not always reveal the practical barriers students encounter during their academic journey. Questions such as these can often generate more meaningful conversations:

• Do students know where to seek academic help?
• Are support services available when students actually need them?
• Do students feel comfortable asking questions?
• Are learning resources accessible within local contexts?
• Do students understand what academic success looks like?

Listening to these experiences allows institutions to identify relatively small improvements that can have significant impacts on student confidence and achievement.

Moving beyond compliance

Quality assurance frameworks rightly examine whether institutions provide appropriate academic support. Increasingly, however, universities are recognising that compliance should represent the starting point rather than the destination. As competition within international education intensifies, the quality of the student experience is becoming an increasingly important differentiator.

Students are unlikely to judge their university primarily on the wording of partnership agreements or the sophistication of governance structures. Instead, they will remember whether they felt supported when they struggled with an assignment, whether feedback helped them improve, whether they could easily access learning materials, and whether they felt genuinely connected to their university. Those everyday experiences often shape perceptions of institutional quality far more than the organisational arrangements operating behind the scenes.

Looking ahead

As TNE continues to evolve, academic support will become increasingly important. Artificial intelligence, personalised learning technologies, hybrid delivery models, and expanding global partnerships will all create new opportunities to support students more effectively. At the same time, these developments will require institutions to think carefully about digital inclusion, staff capability, academic integrity, and equitable access across diverse international contexts.

Perhaps the most important question institutions that are serious about TNE and their student experience can ask themselves is not whether overseas students receive the same support as students on the home campus. Instead, they should ask themselves whether they are “giving every student, wherever they study, an equivalent opportunity to succeed?”

The answer is unlikely to be found in a single policy or platform. It will emerge from thoughtful partnership working, continuous dialogue, and a shared commitment to placing students at the centre of international education.

In my next article, I will explore another important dimension of the TNE student experience: language and communication, and how institutions can help students navigate both academic expectations and intercultural learning across increasingly diverse partnership environments.

– Dr Suzanna Tomassi is Executive Director of External Affairs at NCUK, a leading UK pathway provider, and Founder of CoachEd Global, a consultancy specialising in executive coaching and global education advisory.

She is a highly experienced strategic leader and board member with over 20 years’ expertise across UK Government and higher education. Her work focuses on internationalisation, governance, risk oversight, commercial growth, and organisational transformation. Suzanna’s career spans the UK Department for Business and Trade and four major UK universities, where she has shaped national policy, strengthened regulatory and quality frameworks, and led large-scale international expansion initiatives.

An expert in transnational education and global operations, Suzanna has driven multi-country growth strategies, co-authored accreditation guidelines, and facilitated major international investments in UK higher education.

For additional background, please see:

• “Beyond borders: Why student support matters more than ever in transnational education“

The post Academic support and learning resources in TNE: Delivering student success across borders appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

I started modestly, with two LinkedIn posts exploring aspects of student support in TNE. What surprised me was not only the level of engagement, but also the quality of the conversations these posts sparked behind the scenes and across the sector. Those discussions made one thing very clear to me: While TNE continues to expand globally, there remains a growing appetite to talk more openly and practically about the student experience within international partnerships.

That interest has inspired me to develop a short mini-series focusing on student support in TNE. At about the same time, 91ɬ��Monitor invited me to create a series of slightly more detailed reflections and articles, so here I am!

TNE as a core pillar of internationalisation

The timing of the series feels particularly relevant. Earlier this year, the UK government published a revised International Education Strategy (IES), reaffirming TNE as a central pillar of the UK’s global education ambitions. TNE is no longer viewed as a complementary activity sitting alongside international student recruitment; rather, it is increasingly recognised as a strategic mechanism for extending educational access, strengthening international partnerships, supporting skills development, and building long-term global influence across different levels and subsectors of education.

For me personally, this evolution has been especially interesting to observe. I was fortunate to be involved in several revisions and iterations of the IES following its original publication in 2019, during my time with the UK Department for Business and Trade. Over the years, it has been fascinating to see how the conversation around TNE has matured, from something often discussed primarily in commercial terms, to a much broader recognition of its role in diplomacy, skills development, capacity building, research collaboration, and student opportunity.

The scale of global international education continues to grow at pace. UNESCO estimates that globally mobile students now number more than 7.3 million worldwide, up from around 2 million in 2000, with demand .

Alongside this mobility growth, TNE itself has expanded dramatically. According to the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), in 2024/25 there were 669,950 students studying for UK qualifications through TNE programmes overseas, an +8% increase on the previous year and . Given the drop in direct student recruitment, this figure is expected to exceed the number of international students physically studying in the UK at many institutions.

Key markets for UK TNE continue to include China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Egypt, Hong Kong, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and increasingly countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia. We are also seeing growing interest and expansion in regions where demographic growth, skills demand, and pressure on domestic higher education systems are creating significant opportunities for international partnerships.

Competition intensifying

At the same time, competition is becoming far more diverse and sophisticated. While the traditional Big Four destinations (Australia, Canada, the UK, and US) remain highly influential, countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UAE, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and even emerging regional education hubs in Central Asia and the wider Gulf are investing heavily in internationalisation and TNE capacity. In many ways, TNE is becoming one of the defining features of global higher education internationalisation.

Multifaceted potential

Institutions engage in TNE for many different reasons, and while financial sustainability undoubtedly remains important, I like to think that the motivations today are often considerably broader and more strategic.

For universities, TNE can:

• Create a springboard for multilevel strategic engagement in priority markets;
• Extend institutional reach and global visibility;
• Support international research and innovation partnerships;
• Diversify student pipelines and international engagement;
• Strengthen alumni networks in strategic regions;
• Enhance institutional resilience against geopolitical or recruitment volatility;
• Contribute to civic and diplomatic objectives;
• Create opportunities for curriculum innovation, intercultural learning, and employability.

As such, for many institutions, successful TNE partnerships are now viewed as long-term strategic relationships rather than purely recruitment channels.

Equally important are the reasons that host governments, local providers, employers, students, and families choose to engage with TNE.

Host nations increasingly view TNE as an important strategic tool for supporting national development ambitions and expanding access to high-quality higher education opportunities. In many countries, growing youth populations and rising demand for tertiary education are placing significant pressure on domestic education systems. TNE partnerships can help address this challenge by increasing capacity, broadening programme availability and enabling students to access internationally recognised qualifications without necessarily needing to leave their home country.

At the same time, governments often see TNE as a mechanism for supporting national workforce development and skills priorities, particularly in sectors linked to economic transformation, innovation, healthcare, technology, engineering and business. TNE can also help reduce outbound brain drain and the associated economic leakage that occurs when large numbers of students study overseas. By retaining students domestically, countries are often able to keep talent, investment and graduate outcomes within local economies while still benefiting from international expertise and academic collaboration. Beyond student access, many host nations and local institutions value TNE partnerships for the opportunities they create around knowledge exchange, curriculum development, staff training, research collaboration and the strengthening of local higher education capacity. In this sense, well-designed TNE partnerships are increasingly seen not simply as education delivery models, but as long-term contributors to economic development, institutional enhancement and international collaboration.

Local institutional partners may benefit through curriculum enhancement, staff development, quality assurance practices, research collaboration and international reputation. Employers frequently value TNE graduates because they bring internationally benchmarked qualifications alongside local cultural and market understanding. Students and parents may gain access to globally recognised degrees at a significantly lower cost than studying overseas, while avoiding visa, travel and living expenses. At a macro-economic level, well-designed TNE ecosystems can support productivity, innovation, human capital development, and regional competitiveness. In short, the value proposition of TNE is increasingly multi-dimensional.

But what about student supports?

Yet as TNE partnerships continue to grow globally, institutions are increasingly asking an important question: how can we ensure students studying in different locations feel equally supported, connected, and able to succeed? This question sits at the heart of many conversations I have had over recent years.

We have spent considerable time across the sector discussing quality assurance frameworks, regulatory structures, market entry strategies, and partnership models. All of these are relevant. But sometimes, the lived student experience, particularly in distributed or partnership-delivery models, receives less attention than it deserves.

The reality is that students studying through TNE may face very different challenges depending on geography, language, local infrastructure, cultural context, digital access, teaching models, and expectations around support. A student enrolled on the same UK degree in different countries may experience that programme in very different ways. And while many partnerships deliver exceptional student support, others continue to wrestle with questions around consistency, communication, ownership, and integration.

As we pilot this series of articles over the next few editions, I plan to reflect on and explore practical considerations around several areas of student support in TNE, including:

• Academic support and learning resources
• Language and communication
• Well-being and pastoral care
• Administrative clarity
• Student voice and engagement
• Employability and career development
• Partnership working in student support

Rather than to present definitive answers, my aim is to encourage discussion, share observations from across the sector, and highlight examples of thoughtful practice. TNE is now firmly embedded within the future of international higher education. But if partnerships are to remain sustainable, credible, and genuinely student-centred, the student experience must remain central to how we design, manage, and evaluate international provision.

I hope these musings spark further conversation and exchange of practice across the sector. If you are currently working in TNE, or thinking about developing provision, I would .

– Dr Suzanna Tomassi is Executive Director of External Affairs at NCUK, a leading UK pathway provider, and Founder of CoachEd Global, a consultancy specialising in executive coaching and global education advisory.

She is a highly experienced strategic leader and board member with over 20 years’ expertise across UK Government and higher education. Her work focuses on internationalisation, governance, risk oversight, commercial growth, and organisational transformation. Suzanna’s career spans the UK Department for Business and Trade and four major UK universities, where she has shaped national policy, strengthened regulatory and quality frameworks, and led large-scale international expansion initiatives.

An expert in transnational education and global operations, Suzanna has driven multi-country growth strategies, co-authored accreditation guidelines, and facilitated major international investments in UK higher education.

The post Beyond borders: Why student support matters more than ever in transnational education appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.