"Glocal" transnational higher education: A case study of a Finnish-Vietnamese collaboration

This article presents a case study and an analysis of transnational higher education programs from the perspective of a multidirectional interplay between global processes and national and institutional interests. Using journal articles, ministry reports, websites and documents from higher education institutions, the analysis focuses on the national and local negotiation of the two-folded discourse in transnational higher education. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into the discourse prevalent in this field of research and shed light on the shared interests and converging aims of the transnational higher education partners. In this study, by applying approaches of discourse analysis, textual data are analyzed to make visible the assumptions on what is, can or will be understood as good and desirable in the context of transnational higher education. Methodologically, the study draws on the idea of the intertextuality of texts, emphasizing that texts are constructed in relation to other texts. Accordingly, the article shows how a case of transnational higher education between Finnish and Vietnamese higher education institutions can be gathered as an example of the hybrid global/local space of transnational education.