Transnational higher education by German universities: Main drivers and components

Transnational education plays a key role in the current debate on the internationalization of higher education, and represents one response to the burgeoning growth in worldwide demand for tertiary education. The main focus of the present paper is on provider and institutional mobility in tertiary education, concentrating on the case of German higher education institutions. This paper studies the existing federal program responsible for the development and organization of transnational study programs. Empirical data is presented along with German-backed universities, which are discussed as one possible means for Germany to provide transnational higher education abroad. This paper introduces various political dimensions that may be included in the development of binational universities and presents them as a preliminary result of the burgeoning diffusion of tertiary education.