Abstract
This chapter explores Chinese university leaders’ (CULs) perceptions of effective transnational professional development. CULs shared their experiences of attending two professional development courses offered by Finnish universities. I interviewed 12 CULs both during and following their experiences in China and Finland, and collected their learning reports. The data were analysed with thematic analysis. The analysis focused upon the contents of the training, the methods and formats of the training, and some of the wider social issues. The study raises the question of whether the perceptions and reflections from CULs have implications for future university leadership training in China. Such focused studies assist in evaluating the purpose and outcome of investment in such training programmes which are becoming frequent but whose outcomes are often unclear.
This research was supported by the Shaanxi Office for Education Sciences Planning [grant number SGH17H256], the Shaanxi Provincial Social Sciences Fund [grant number 2016P026], Shaanxi Association of Higher Education [grant number XGH17154], and the Baoji University of Arts and Sciences Research Fund [grant number 17JGYB28, ZK15098, and ZK11121].
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Notes
- 1.
NAEA sits directly under the MOE and is responsible for development and delivery of national educational leadership and management training programmes in the education sector.
- 2.
The University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology were merged to create Tampere University from 1 January 2019.
- 3.
In the context of China, newly established universities mean institutions authorized to approve bachelor’s degrees by the MOE after higher education expansion in 1999. These universities account for about half the number of existing universities in China (Xu, 2014).
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Shaanxi Office for Education Sciences Planning [grant number SGH17H256], Shaanxi Provincial Social Sciences Fund [grant number 2016P026], Shaanxi Association of Higher Education [grant number XGH17154], and Baoji University of Arts and Sciences Research Fund [grant number 17JGYB28, ZK15098, and ZK11121].
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Xing, X. (2019). Chinese University Leaders’ Perceptions of Effective Transnational Professional Development. In: Liu, H., Dervin, F., Du, X. (eds) Nordic-Chinese Intersections within Education. Palgrave Studies on Chinese Education in a Global Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28588-3_3
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