The perceptions of key stakeholder groups on how transnational higher education contributes to building a knowledge-based economy in a developing country

Many developing economies are focusing on an expansion of higher education as the core of their vision to become knowledge-based economies. Current trends indicate that an important part of this expansion will involve the franchise transnational educational partnership model. In this context, this research studied Sri Lanka’s transnational educational partnerships to model the perceptions of the effectiveness of local franchising partnerships, with UK institutions, in supporting the development of a knowledge-based economy. Several important gaps were identified in the extant literature relating to this area. The main unit of analysis has been public universities, conceptually, the three concepts explored in this research have been studied tangentially to each other, and methodologically, data collection has been on specific stakeholder perspectives, relating to a specific concept. In contrast, this research explores the role of transnational educational partnerships, it is also the first to explore a conceptual framework constructed around three key areas, human capital theory, academic pedagogy, and university-industry partnerships. Methodologically, this study used multidimensional data sampling, to provide a more coherent and holistic understanding of the perspectives on this area. This led to the application of a phenomenology research paradigm, using a mixed-method strategy to identify the phenomenon associated with the concepts. This research contributes to the academic debate through theory extension, in relation to developing a new version of the triple helix model, based on the transnational educational partnership model and its role in supporting the development of a knowledge-based economy. The findings indicate that there is generally positive perception of the role these play and that the three concepts explored are closely interrelated, and need to be integrated, as they mutually support each other. This research has implications for practitioners, policymakers, and other developing economies following a similar trajectory.