A Sociological Framework for Understanding the Participation of African Higher Education Institutions in Transnational Education

Abstract

Transnational Education (TNE) has potential for expanding access to higher education in Africa, which has chronic high rates of unmet demand for access. Paradoxically, African higher education institutions (HEIs) have the least participation in TNE. There is a dearth of systematic understanding of the factors that influence the participation of African HEIs in TNE and the impacts of their participation at both institutional and societal levels. This article proposes a sociological framework for investigating the factors that enable or hinder the participation of African higher HEIs in TNE, and the impacts of their participation on the institutions themselves and their respective countries. The framework is constructed with societal and organizational factors disparately identified through a purposive review of the literature.