Strategic International Partnerships and the Networked International Higher Education Space

In recent years, and particularly since the turn of the century, there has been significant growth in the reported number of international partnerships in the global higher education space. Alongside this growth has been the emergence of multiple types of partnership and collaborations, exhibiting an increasing level of complexity. One category of partnerships that receives much attention is ‘strategic international partnerships’. This article focuses on this type of partnerships, first problematizing the concept to try tounderstand its core elements, and then analysing current definitions and knowledge about this particular form of partnership activity. Finally, it asks the question – is the term strategic international partnerships helpful when seeking to differentiate different partnership activity? Perhaps we need a new shared definition or conceptualisation of this type of partnership which captures the essence of recent debates about why institutions could and should partner and collaborate with other organisations, and how they might evolve in the future. The article draws out some key messages about strategic international partnerships and makes some recommendations for institutional leaders and managers.