The Epistemological Chain: A Tool to Guide TNE Development

Transnational Education (TNE) has been a growing area of university business with a range of models developed to provide high quality educational products to partners across the world. However, given the changing geo-political environment, the continued rationale, efficacy, and legitimacy of current TNE partnership templates must be questioned. This paper therefore presents an alternative conceptualization to drive future work in this area, one which prioritizes the place of knowledge and transformational learning. I propose a new learning-based framework, the Epistemological Chain (EC), and describe how this can guide future TNE interactions and establish an alternative paradigm based upon cooperation and the co-creation of learning. Exemplars are provided that illustrate the extremes of the framework. The EC's future utility and application are then discussed with regard to TNE partnership design, operation, and evaluation. In summary the paper provides an original framework that places education firmly back at the heart of TNE.