This chapter highlights how the increasingly knowledge-driven global
economy has made university education ever more important. In the knowledge
economy, employment security has been disappearing. The kinds of workforce needed
must be flexible, adaptive and multi-skilled, able to keep up with the pace of global
changes. However, due to the slowness of replacement of the existing workforce with a
new generation of workers, lifelong learning is the only practical way to create the
required new skill-sets. As such, the employability of individuals depends on their
transportable knowledge and skills gained through a high level university education,
which enables them to be flexible and have an increased propensity to learn
continuously. Universities are themselves transformed by the knowledge economy with
growth of student enrolments and increasing internationalisation. The growth of
university enrolments is not limited to onshore students; there are various forms of
transnational education and growth in universities’ international branch campuses. The
United States has the longest tradition of setting up branch campuses with recent
developments from Australia and United Kingdom. While there has been a
proliferation of international branch campuses, there has been a shift in host countries
from the Middle East to Asia, especially in China and Singapore. Globalisation,
universal access and growth in higher education have placed significant demands on
universities to develop new models to service growing and diverse student needs at a
time when resources are strained. With increasing competition, there are unintended
consequences such as escalating tuition fees, rising student debts when universities are
increasing their spending on marketing and branding activities.
Keywords: Branding, International branch campus, Knowledge society,
Knowledge workers, Life-long learning, Marketing, MOOCs, Student loan debts,
Transnational education (TNE), World-class universities.
