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HUO Liyuan
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2185/2026.05.007
Beijing International Studies University, Beijing, China
“3 + 1” joint training programmes, in which students spend three years at a partner institution and return to their home institution for a final year, have expanded rapidly in Chinese higher education. Little is known about how students adapt when they cross institutional, disciplinary, and geographic boundaries within a single national system. A convergent mixed-methods design combined a survey of 54 joint-training students (University W: n = 21; University B: n = 33) with semi-structured interviews with 15 of them. A 33-item instrument measured four dimensions of adaptation. Survey data were analysed with independent-samples t-tests, Cohen’s d with 95% confidence intervals and Spearman correlations; Bonferroni correction was applied across the five institution-level comparisons (adjusted α = 0.01). Interviews were analysed thematically (Braun & Clarke, 2006) with deductive and inductive coding. The two institutions differed only in living adaptation, and the difference was large (d = -1.42, 95% CI [-2.03, -0.81], t(52) = -5.10, p < 0.001). It was concentrated in three campus-environment items: campus location and environment (d = -1.99), recreational facilities (d = -1.59) and the living environment (d = -0.97). Professional learning (d = -0.37), psychological adaptation (d = -0.15) and career planning (d = -0.29) did not differ reliably, nor did any year-level comparison. Restricting the institution comparison to first-year students, the only year level at which both partners enrolled participants (n = 21 vs. 16), reproduced the living-adaptation contrast (d = -1.46) while also yielding a difference in the full-scale composite (p = 0.008). Composites were intercorrelated (ρ = 0.36 to 0.88). Interview accounts located the same contrast in the physical campus rather than in teaching or belonging. In this programme, institutional differences were confined to the material conditions of campus life rather than to academic or psychological adjustment. Because geographic distance covaries with campus facilities, disciplinary specialisation, and peer composition, the difference cannot be attributed to distance alone; administrative and logistical coordination is the more actionable lever. The four boundary-crossing mechanisms appeared unevenly: Identification and coordination were common, reflection appeared mainly in second-year accounts, and no account met the criterion for transformation. Given the small sample and partially confounded design, results are exploratory and hypothesis-generating.
joint training programme, student adaptation, institutional distance, boundary crossing, mixed methods, higher education, China
HUO Liyuan. (2026). Student Adaptation Across Institutional Boundaries: A Mixed-Methods Study of a “3 + 1” Joint Training Programme in China. Management Studies, Vol. 14, No. 5, 304-317. doi: 10.17265/2328-2185/2026.05.007.
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