Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education 2 (PMI2) special issue – enhancing employability, entrepreneurship and global citizenship in international higher education

Citation

Wilson, J. and Li-Hua, R. (2011), "Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education 2 (PMI2) special issue – enhancing employability, entrepreneurship and global citizenship in international higher education", Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, Vol. 3 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jce.2011.40503aaa.002

Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education 2 (PMI2) special issue – enhancing employability, entrepreneurship and global citizenship in international higher education

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, Volume 3, Issue 1

Globalization increasingly affects the university sector around the world. Innovation and emerging technologies relentlessly compress the world in space and time and universities have been challenged to follow suit. Innovation and internationalization in higher education have been viewed as a response to globalization. Internationalization and knowledge transfer are significant priorities for the education sectors in both developed and developing countries, not least because of their contribution to modernisation and enhanced innovation, competitiveness and quality of life. In relation to China and the UK, achieving internationalization and knowledge transfer can be facilitated by strategic academic partnerships between the universities in both countries. The second phase of the UK Prime Minister’s Initiative (PMI2) for International Education, launched in April 2006, plays an important role in the internationalization of UK higher education. The aim of PMI2 is to build on the success of the first phase to secure the UK’s position as leader in international education and sustain the managed growth of UK international education delivered both in the UK and overseas. PMI2 also seeks to encourage universities and colleges to collaborate and to forge longer term strategic partnerships with universities overseas. As an integral part of the University of Salford’s PMI2 Project, this PMI2 special issue has been initiated and covers six quality papers from academics and researchers within PMI2 partners and beyond with a particular focus on employability, entrepreneurship and global citizenship among partners between China and the UK.

Teaching and learning strategies have increasingly highlighted aspects of employability and entrepreneurship in higher education. However, as how to develop graduates’ employment skills and entrepreneurial spirit, there is a need for more empirical evidence and these papers discuss these crucial issues and debate challenges and opportunities in innovation and internationalization in higher education based on successful PMI2 experiences. This collection of papers is dedicated to strengthening our understanding of the realization of innovation and internationalization in higher education and how to develop graduates’ employability and entrepreneurship in our teaching and learning strategies. We have summarized the six papers into the following sub-themes.

1 Innovation and internationalization in higher education

The featured paper by Richard Li-Hua, John Wilson, Ghassan Aouad and Xiang Li examines the impact of globalization upon higher education and considers strategic aspects of innovation and internationalization. In doing so, it considers how to translate overall institutional strategy into managed objectives. The paper identifies a number of strategic elements which are crucial to the successful implementation strategy of innovation and internationalization. It is based on the Salford PMI2 project and illustrates the significance of collaboration in higher education between China and the UK.

2 Embedding employability, skills and talent in the business and management curriculum

The papers by Paul Iles and Ting Ting Jiang examine the key issues of demand and supply of talent and how employability is embedded in the business and management curriculum. They draw on the experience of students, employers and tutors, and establish theoretical frameworks based upon case studies.

The paper by Paul Iles and Ting Ting Jiang reports on their PMI2 project, one of seven to develop and strengthen partnerships with Chinese institutions in employability and entrepreneurship. Involving a partnership between Leeds Metropolitan University, England, and the Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China, the aim has been to analyse the Hangzhou and Zhejiang economies and examine current Chinese company requirements for skills and talent and their implications for teaching and learning and graduate supply. This was intended to strengthen the existing partnerships at a civic level between Leeds and Hangzhou and the successful MA in Trade and Finance run by the two universities.

Qian Sun’s paper has been based upon two in-depth case studies supported by interviews, which are represented as two distinctive employer engagement models. These two models are compared in terms of context, employer perception, curriculum development and challenges for sustainability. The study generates an understanding of the differences and suggests a collaborative framework between these two programmes, which draws the advantages of both sides together. The findings also shed light on the development of curriculum to engage employers, recognise a move away from “teaching” to “managing learning opportunities” and the complexities of employer engagement and explore how this may be embedded.

The paper by Chris Proctor explains how employability and entrepreneurship are embedded in the practice of professional placements in a large UK Business School, grounded in literature and research concerning the relationship between professional experience and employability. It explores possible further developments of this practice into student entrepreneurship. Professional experience is of immense value to students and the organisations that host them. Despite reluctance on the part of some of these two-key stakeholders, it has the potential for further expansion in terms of number of students on placement, their location, their experience and integrating placements with entrepreneurship education.

3 Entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurial education

The paper by Jenny Jiwei Shi and Peter John Sewell explores the entrepreneurial spirit in China and the UK, while the paper by Wu Lu and Luzhuang Wang examines entrepreneurial education in China. With a combination of questionnaires, observations and statistical comparisons derived from a PMI2 exchange project, Jenny Jiwei Shi and Peter John Sewell have discovered fundamentally different philosophies in China and in the UK, which lead to different models and approaches. Examples of best practice in employability and entrepreneurship education in a global context are highlighted. Models of employability are discussed and the challenges, opportunities and possibilities of future work are also presented.

We would like express our sincere thanks to the British Council for the support received in all PMI2 projects and to authors, reviewers and in particular to Professor Ghassan Aouad, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Salford, UK; Dr John Law, Higher Education Adviser, British Council; and Xiang Li, Salford Business School, University of Salford, UK, for their contributions.

We do hope that the PMI2 special issue will inspire other scholars to share our curiosity and interest in promoting employability, entrepreneurship, innovation and internationalization in higher education.

John Wilson, Richard Li-HuaGuest Editors