International University Alliances: Reframing Higher Education Internationalisation in a Changing Geopolitical Context

Eligibility: UK/International (including EU) graduates with the required entry requirements

Duration: Full-Time – between three and three and a half years fixed term

Application deadline: 1 October 2024

Interview date: Will be confirmed to shortlisted candidates

Start date: May 2025

For further details contact: Dr Mark Rahimi (m.rahimi@deakin.edu.au) and Prof Ly Tran (ly.tran@deakin.edu.au)

Introduction

This PhD project is part of the Cotutelle arrangement between Coventry University, UK and Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. The successful applicant will start in May 2025, study the first year at Coventry University, the second year at Deakin University and the final 1.5 years at Coventry University. 

This doctoral project aims to understand the agency and resilience of international university alliances in a changing geopolitical context and the relationship between those alliances and university internationalisation strategies.

This interdisciplinary project is designed as a collaboration between supervisors at the Centre for Global Learning of Coventry University and the School of Education of Deakin University. The supervisory team will be drawn from both Universities. See details of the Cotutelle programme.

Project details

International university alliances, which emerged in the late 19th century and proliferated in the past three decades, have been an integral element of internationalisation strategies in higher education. Some 185 national, regional and global universities associations of which the majority were established from 1990s onwards (Brankovic, 2018).

Termed differently as alliances, associations, consortia, or networks, university groupings take many forms and operate with different objectives and at different territorial scales. One shared feature is that they create a new set of actors, logics, and relations between and beyond universities, including ties between countries and regions (e.g. Asia, Europe, Africa, etc.). Therefore, geopolitics could impact international university alliances in different ways. Previous studies were often concerned with negative consequences of geopolitical tensions, such as disruptions to student mobility, research collaborations, branch campus agreements, and portrayed higher education as a ‘victim’ of geopolitical contestation.

This doctoral project, however, aims to understand the agency and resilience of international/regional university alliances and the relationship between those alliances and university internationalisation strategies. Therefore, we welcome PhD applications with a proposal exploring critical issues related to international university alliances in a regional or global changing geopolitical context. (For example, what factors enable some alliances create spaces capable of reframing internationalisation agendas, overcoming the constraints of geopolitics, generating collaborative advantages, and delivering transformational changes to higher education.)

Benefits

The successful candidate will receive comprehensive research training including technical, personal and professional skills. All researchers at Coventry University (from PhD to Professor) are part of the Doctoral Research College, which provides support with high-quality training and career development activities.

This is an exciting opportunity to study a PhD as part of a cotutelle arrangement between Coventry University, UK and Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. The PhD Student will graduate with two PhDs, one from Deakin University and one from Coventry University, each of which recognises that the program was carried out as part of a jointly supervised doctoral program.

Candidate specification

Applicants must meet the admission and scholarship criteria for both Coventry University and Deakin University for entry to the cotutelle programme.

• Applicants should have graduated within the top 15% of their undergraduate cohort. This might include a high 2:1 in a relevant discipline/subject area with a minimum 70% mark (80% for Australian graduates) in the project element or equivalent with a minimum 70% overall module average (80% for Australian graduates).
• A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field requiring at least four years of full-time study, and which normally includes a research component which is equivalent to at least 25% of a year’s full-time study in the fourth year, with achievement of a grade for the project equivalent to a H1 standard or 80%.

OR

• a Masters degree, with a significant research component, in a relevant subject area, with overall mark at minimum Distinction.
• In addition, the mark for the Masters thesis (or equivalent) must be a minimum of 80%.
• Please note that where a candidate has 70-79% and can provide evidence of research experience to meet equivalency to the minimum first-class honours equivalent (80%+) additional evidence can be submitted and may include independently peer-reviewed publications, research-related awards or prizes and/or professional reports.
• Language proficiency (IELTS overall minimum score of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in each component).

The potential to engage in innovative research and to complete the PhD within a prescribed period of study.

Please note that applicants are required to confirm that they are able to physically locate to both Coventry University (UK) and Deakin University (Australia).

How to apply

To find out more about the project, please contact queanh.dang@coventry.ac.uk

All applications require full supporting documentation, a covering letter, plus a 3000-word research proposal showing how the applicant’s expertise and interests are relevant to the project.

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