Faculty experiences in delivering an American university curriculum in an international branch campus: a case study of the university at Buffalo, the State University of New York undergraduate program at the Singapore Institute of Management.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20316538

This instrumental case study explores the experiences of visiting faculty members at an American university's international branch campus (IBC) in Singapore. It is concerned with one aspect of the broader topic of quality assurance in transnational higher education: the manner in which faculty hybridize their home campus course curricula for use at the IBC. This problem of practice is analyzed in relation to Hofstede's (2001) theory of cultural dimensions and follows from the research of Coleman (2003), which deemed that variation between campuses in transnational educational projects is not necessarily problematic. The study is comprised of a rich description of the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York undergraduate program at the Singapore Institute of Management, interviews of 13 visiting faculty members, and document analysis; it also includes a comprehensive review of the literature on quality assurance in transnational higher education. It was found that visiting faculty members primarily adjust their course curricula to account for some structural and cultural differences at the branch campus, but strive to maintain the character and objectives of the American higher education that originates from the home campus. The thoughtful and purposeful engagement of faculty in this process of hybridization contributes to the quality and success of the IBC.