International branch campuses (IBCs) have become a prominent mechanism through which higher education institutions pursue internationalization and global engagement. In the Middle East, their expansion has been shaped by neoliberal approaches to higher education alongside state-led strategies focused on economic diversification, human capital development, and nationalization agendas. These developments have produced policy-dense environments characterized by regulatory oversight, geopolitical negotiation, and evolving relationships between higher education and national economic priorities. Within this broader context, higher education functions simultaneously as a site of knowledge production, workforce development, and global positioning. While existing scholarship on international branch campuses has largely focused on empirical case studies and institutional outcomes, less attention has been given to the development of conceptual and theoretical approaches that explain how institutional adaptation unfolds within complex transnational environments. This gap is particularly evident in the Canadian context. Although Canadian institutions have established a growing presence in the Middle East, the Canadian IBC experience remains underexamined, especially in relation to how institutional practices evolve within contexts shaped by both globalization and national sovereignty. This dissertation develops and applies a multi-dimensional conceptual framework for Canadian international branch campuses to examine how a Canadian IBC operates at the intersection of institutional strategy, national policy, and cultural context. Addressing fragmentation in the IBC literature, the framework integrates political, cultural, and educational lenses to analyze how regulatory structures, cultural dynamics, and institutional practices interact within transnational higher education environments. Particular attention is given to the role of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) within these dynamics, as applied education institutions navigate the alignment of workforce-oriented programs with national development priorities. Drawing on an intersectional analytical approach informed by postcolonial theory, particularly Said’s analysis of Orientalism and Foucault’s theorization of power/knowledge, the framework conceptualizes these dimensions as mutually constitutive rather than analytically separate. The study employs a qualitative case study of the College of the North Atlantic–Qatar, a Canadian transnational TVET institution, drawing on institutional and policy texts situated within Qatar’s higher education landscape. Findings demonstrate that institutional adaptation in transnational higher education is not a temporary response to external pressures but an enduring condition of institutional life, discursively shaped through negotiation, regulatory constraints, and historically embedded relations of power. The international branch campus operates within a sustained liminal “third space” in which legitimacy, authority, and institutional purpose are continually negotiated. By advancing a multi-dimensional framework grounded in the Canadian branch campus experience, this dissertation reframes institutional adaptation as relational, intersectional, and ongoing, offering analytical insight for institutions and policymakers navigating complex nationalizing environments.

 

 

Shawna Garrett is a senior leader and scholar-practitioner in international higher education, with extensive executive experience across Canadian, international, and transnational post-secondary contexts. She has held leadership roles, including Registrar at College of the North Atlantic – Qatar, President and CEO of EduNova Cooperative, Registrar and Director of Student Services at NSCAD University, and Registrar and Associate Vice-President, Enrolment Management at Sheridan College. She has also held international leadership roles, including Principal of the British Columbia Academy at the Nanjing Foreign Language School in China and as a Director of ECC in Japan.

 

She is currently a PhD candidate in Educational Studies at Acadia University, completing her dissertation through Nova Scotia’s Inter-University Doctoral Program in Educational Studies. Her research examines Canadian international branch campuses (IBCs) operating in the Middle East within complex transnational higher education environments. Situated at the intersection of institutional strategy, national policy, and cultural context, her work advances a multi-dimensional conceptual framework that moves beyond predominantly empirical approaches to theorize institutional adaptation.

 

Grounded in philosophical inquiry, her research draws on postcolonial and critical theory, including Edward Said and Michel Foucault, to examine the relationship between power, knowledge, and institutional change. Using a qualitative case study of the College of the North Atlantic–Qatar, she conceptualizes IBCs as operating within a sustained liminal “third space.” Her work ultimately reframes institutional adaptation as relational, intersectional, allomorphic, and ongoing within complex transnational higher education systems and spaces.