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INTERNATIONALISATION OF UNIVERSITIES IN MALAYSIA A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Shaidatul Intan Natalia Mhd Jabar LLB, MSc ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” – Charles Dickens. This PhD has been a challenging yet beautiful journey; one I never sincerely thought that I was capable of completing. It started with an initial belief that Professor Bradley Barnes had entrusted to me since our brief meeting during the Poster Day at the University of Kent in the summer of 2009. It then turned into the submission of my formal proposal and the agreement from Dr Daragh O’Reilly to be my second supervisor. Time has passed by very quickly since then, Dr Elizabeth Carnegie decided to be part of my supervisory team, which decision I am eternally grateful for. If it was not for her enthusiasm and visionary mind, the journey through my thesis amendment would have taken a very different course. I would therefore, applaud my supervisors for the time, patience, encouragement, understanding and expert knowledge that they have provided me with. This journey has also provided me with opportunities to meet, work and learn from remarkable members of the academia worldwide. This is especially via the American Marketing Association (AMA) network where I managed to gain perspective from Dr Anthony Lowrie, Dr Jane Hemsley-Brown and Dr Mathew Joseph. I have also recently been provided with the chance to apply my knowledge on internationalisation within a practical setting. All of which I have to thank Dr Wilder Fulford and Mr Jeff Klein for. I would also like to express my gratitude for the continuous assistance provided by the extremely hardworking Management School team, especially Mr Davy Heymann, Ms Mandy Robertson, Ms Harriet Godfrey, Mrs Josie Smith and Mr Loo Yeo. I appreciate every attention that all of you have provided me with to ensure the successful completion of my PhD. Thank you to each of the respondents, not only for participating in my research, but for entrusting me with information that would have otherwise been treated with confidentiality. I am also thankful to all of my friends who have been my main support system; without them I would not be where I am today. To Perry, thank you for ensuring that every day is filled with the beauties of the world. As I complete this chapter of my life, thank you for being there through every nervous breakdown, every single moment of belief and disbelief and for constantly reminding me that there will be light at the end of every tunnel. Thank you also to Shabira, Matthew and Dionysis who helped me with printing. Thank you to Marie for exchanging your life stories, which kept me going. Thank you especially to Amil Thomas, Sam Kanaan and Arnauld Dandoy who have been my source of inspiration, motivation and guidance. Last, but of course not least, my eternal thanks to my family; Dato’ Mhd Jabar, Datin Norzilah Risah and Haris who have supported me in various ways: financially and emotionally. Daddy, I would not have understood the field if it was not for your experience in FDI. Mummy, I would not have been able to proceed if I did not inherit the courage that you have. Most importantly, I would not have been here for all the sacrifices that both of you have made to ensure that I studied at the highest education level. Haris, I would not have dreamt to further my studies if I did not have someone to look up to the way I do to you. ‘You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only option you have.’ CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction: Internationalisation and Malaysia Internationalisation of higher education has been increasingly recognised as a major trend since the late 1980s. Exchanges of faculty and students soon became common and at the same time universities are also motivated to respond to the needs of the rapidly globalising economy. Bennell and Pearce (2003) found that this is done by universities through internationalising their curricula. In addition, differences in national education policies have also narrowed significantly during the last decade. Moreover, the value of education exports from some developed industrial economies has grown exponentially as education institutions and government themselves have been offering a wide range of education and training services (Bennell and Pearce, 2003). This, coupled with tremendous change in the education landscape of Malaysia, particularly at the tertiary level where the country is fast becoming a centre of educational excellence in the region, has been a major factor that has motivated this research. Furthermore, private education leading to vocational and professional qualifications is playing an increasing important role in higher education and is also consistent with the move towards privatisation in public higher education institutions (PHEIs) in Malaysia. These developments, which were brought about from policy initiatives, have led to a rapid expansion in the number of institutions offering higher education and greater diversity in the number and types of providers operating in Malaysia. In 1996, the Malaysian government announced a major change in its higher education policy, whereby foreign universities are now encouraged to establish branch campuses in-country rather than rely on arm’s length collaborative links with local and mainly private institutions (Bennell and Pearce, 2003). Bennell and Pearce (2003) noticed that these changes stemmed from growing concerns to maintain high, internationally acceptable education standards in the light of extremely rapid growth in enrolments. Such policies have created a favourable investment climate for foreign universities wishing to invest in Malaysia. Lee (2004) reported that universities are being made to operate like business organisations. She also observed the transformation from producing and transmitting knowledge as a social good to emphasising the production of knowledge as a marketable good and a saleable commodity. As a result, higher education in Malaysia has become a highly competitive sector in which PHEIs have sought to improve the quality of their education provision by partnering with foreign universities. This, accompanied by national policy to welcome foreign universities into Malaysia, has created great interest in the sector on a global scale. The study therefore builds on existing research in the higher education sector of Malaysia. Specifically it will focus on the subject of internationalisation of universities. It was found that a vast number of literature on internationalisation of higher education tends to examined strategies in terms of curriculum and cultural issues (Law and Muir, 2006; Knight, 2004). Another branch of literature saw internationalisation as the consequence of globalisation. In addition, other studies also identify various jargons such as transnational, multinational and glocalisation which resulted in the confusion of what internationalisation actually means. Furthermore, theories on internationalisation of higher education have always been treated separate from the theories of the internationalisation of firms. Only a small number of literatures would bridge the gap between both fields, one of which is Healey (2008). Healey adopted the Uppsala Model (1977) when trying to understand whether or not higher education internationalisation is internationalising. However, this is without success. It is important to note that, the mistake made by Healey was to incorporate a model which has been consistently updated. Therefore, building on Healey’s literature, this study therefore aims to understand the internationalisation process of universities by adapting the Business Network Internationalisation Process Model as proposed by Johnason and Vahlne (2009) will be examined. A more extensive discussion is as explained in Chapter Two: Literature Review. Therefore, in order to understand the aim of this research, two research objectives are identified: (1) what is internationalisation and (2) what are the important components when trying to understand internationalisation and (3) what are the theories pertaining internationalisation process. In order to answer, the aforementioned research questions, this study will therefore translate the different modes of entry within the context of higher education. This includes (1) direct export, (2) sales subsidiaries, (3) international joint venture or franchised programme and (4) the establishment of foreign branch campuses. In doing so, it is also important to understand the rationale behind the selection of Malaysia for the purpose of this study, this is as explored in Section 1.2. 1.2 The Nature and Significance of Malaysia The first rationale behind choosing Malaysia is as reflected on Figure 1.1 Transnational Higher Education: Import and Export Activity in Selected Countries (Both Institution and Programme Mobility) illustrate the status of Malaysia as a major importer in which case the major exporter; UK and Australia have a dominance presence in the country. Therefore, there exist the two extreme players located in a country. Therefore, countries which would like to internationalise or be a major importer or major exporter could learn from Malaysia. Furthermore,

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