Enhancing quality in transnational higher education through institutional, national, and international approaches: a case study of a Sino-foreign Business School at Shanghai University

Existing research on the quality assurance of transnational higher education (TNHE) has examined institutional, national, and international actors separately, with limited understanding of how these levels interact in practice. This study examines how quality assurance is negotiated across governance levels within a Sino-foreign joint institution. Drawing on the glonacal agency heuristic, it presents a qualitative case analysis of X Business School at Shanghai University, a long-standing partnership with the University of Technology Sydney. Data were collected through focus group interviews with institutional leaders and administrators, and complemented by documentanalysis of institutional, national and international quality assurance framework. The findings show that the quality assurance operates through a hybrid governance arrangement shaped by the interaction of national regulation, institutional partnership governance, and global accreditation regimes. They also demonstrate the institutional agency in mediating these governance expectations through locally adapted teaching practices , coordinating internal quality mechanisms, and strategic engagement with international accreditation. This study contributes to TNHE scholarship by showing how quality assurance is shaped through the interaction of different forces and enacted through institutional agency, and offers insights into the governance dynamics of Sino-foreign joint institutions within the broader landscape of TNHE.