Collaboration in devising and delivering engineering programmes

The globalisation of higher education can be feared as competition threatening the viability of institutions and the livelihood of their employees, or embraced as presenting opportunities for creating strategic partnerships enabling the delivery of quality programmes to a wider national or international clientele. In the global aerospace industry, for example, competitors become partners to deliver on particular projects. The main requirements to be a player are to be credible and have something to offer. Other important requirements include sensitivity to cultural differences, and having a robust yet flexible infrastructure capable of reliable delivery in the face of rapid change of circumstances. It cannot be said that the University of South Australia (UniSA) in Adelaide, Australia, possesses all these qualities to the extent needed, but it does have the rudiments in place and considerable experience in operating effectively in city, state, national and international partnerships. In this paper, the authors address the criteria and demonstrate how their School has progressively built the capability for operating in the emerging era of global higher education.