SPARK Festival 2021. The Impact of STEAM on Transnational Education: A Celebration of Transnational Education, Partnership Working, Knowledge Exchange and Cultural Diversity

Description

The Virtual Lounge aimed to create a reflective discussion, generate insights, and welcome opportunities for collaboration and innovation. This platform welcomes a range of global and local cultures, social groups and learning styles, and will ensure participants viewpoints and concepts are identified, valued, and explored for development. This connects to our core values and principles.

Birmingham City University has been operating Transnational Education (TNE) partnerships in Hong Kong for nearly 20 years. TNE models include both Flying Faculty and a validated academic supported curriculum, which has continued to operate despite the COVID-19 pandemic, since 2020 and other challenging factors throughout 2019.

The knowledge exchange through TNE provided an insight into the adoption of technology in our daily lives that has been accelerating the case for inclusion in the delivery of education and training for both staff and students. 

BCU supports the dissemination of new knowledge and measuring impact whilst supporting its university stance on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), as indicated within its EDI policy: ‘We are committed to embedding the highest standards of Corporate Responsibility across the University, to working to the highest ethical standards, and to educating our students to be socially, economically, and environmentally responsible citizens’. This makes a clear connection to the University’s core values of social inclusion and partnership working.

TNE partnership working is built on trust, respect, mutual understanding, and passion. By the very nature of working across borders, either virtually or face to face through flying faculty working with our colleague, student, and industry networks. TNE partnership working is an appreciation and celebration of equity (through practitioner, academic and student team building), diversity through an understanding of cultural context, delivery, and inclusion, through an internationally understood curriculum.

Period	23 Oct 2021
Held at	British Council, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	International