Transnational education: our expectations and our challenges. Is anyone listening? From teachers’ and students’ perspectives

This is a pre-print of a paper from International Education, A Matter of Heart 2006. http://www.conferences.monash.org/matterofheart/At the time of presenting this paper Rohani Mohamad was an academic at the Sunway University College, Malaysia.In the 70’s and early 80’s, many Malaysian students went to the West to further their tertiary education. They completed their undergraduate program from year one in the respective foreign countries. In the late 80’s, there was a shift in trend. More students conducted their initial years in Malaysia before finishing off their final years in the West. Multiple twinning programs that utilize foreign curriculum but implemented in Malaysian environment are offered at various private educational institutions. In the light of this phenomenon, trans-national education or cross-border education is not novel within the Malaysian educational landscape. This paper is a reflection of the author who had experienced trans-national education as a student and currently experiencing it as a teacher. We ponder upon the nature of experiences that students involved in trans-education encounter that potentially modify their learning behaviors. As for the students, we conclude that they generally experience three types of shocks that are cultural shock, learning shock, and assessment shock. Observations made on the challenges faced by the students to adapt to the demands of the curriculum, novel strategies of teaching and learning as well as requirements of assessments are reported. Finally, we proposed some steps that could be taken to reduce the impact of multiple shocks and enhance learning in trans-national program