Educational tourism (edu-tourism) has emerged as an increasingly strategic domain at the intersection of higher education internationalisation, public policy, and sustainable development. While the European higher education landscape has long examined university–society engagement, branding, and cross-sector partnerships, comparatively fewer empirical studies have explored how these dynamics operate in rapidly internationalising systems in the Global South. This paper addresses this gap by examining the challenges and opportunities of edu-tourism in the Qatari context, with a particular focus on how university reputation and brand image shape international educational mobility and how edu-tourism, in turn, contributes to economic and socio-cultural sustainability.

Grounded in institutional theory, the study conceptualises edu-tourism as a partnership-driven phenomenon involving universities, government actors, and wider socio-economic stakeholders. It develops and empirically tests an integrated model linking university reputation and brand image to edu-tourism outcomes, and subsequently to economic and socio-cultural sustainability. Importantly, the study examines the moderating roles of marketing innovation and government policies, highlighting how institutional capacity and regulatory alignment can amplify—or constrain—the developmental impact of edu-tourism.

A quantitative, multi-source research design was adopted to ensure analytical robustness and to mitigate common method bias. Data were collected in two phases from a total of 289 respondents. University administrators (including managers, directors, and faculty members) assessed economic sustainability, socio-cultural sustainability, marketing innovation, and government policy dimensions, while international students evaluated university reputation and brand image. Structural Equation Modeling using Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM) was employed to test both direct relationships and moderation effects within the proposed framework.

The findings demonstrate that university reputation and brand image exert significant positive effects on edu-tourism, confirming the strategic importance of institutional branding in international higher education markets. Edu-tourism, in turn, contributes positively to economic sustainability through revenue generation, employment creation, and sectoral diversification, and to socio-cultural sustainability by fostering cultural exchange, social cohesion, and intercultural understanding. Moreover, marketing innovation and supportive government policies significantly strengthen these relationships, underscoring the importance of coordinated institutional strategies and enabling policy environments.

This paper contributes to EAIR’s core themes of engagement and partnerships in higher education by offering empirical evidence on how universities can function as active development actors through structured collaboration with government and society. While the study is situated in Qatar, it is intentionally positioned within a comparative and dialogical perspective. Participation in the EAIR conference provides a valuable opportunity to engage with European experiences of higher education governance, partnership models, and evaluation practices, allowing for critical reflection on similarities, differences, and transferable lessons across contexts.

By bringing evidence from a non-European, rapidly evolving higher education system into a European research forum, the paper aims to contribute to mutual learning and knowledge exchange. It highlights how insights from the European institutional research tradition can inform emerging edu-tourism strategies elsewhere, while also offering alternative perspectives from the Qatari experience that may enrich European debates on internationalisation, sustainability, and the societal role of universities. The study therefore aligns closely with EAIR’s mission to promote research-informed dialogue that supports strategic decision-making and meaningful engagement in higher education systems worldwide.

In the context of today’s changes and transformations, the concept of responsible education has become one of the priority goals in creating a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, and crisis-resistant society. Higher education institutions are expected to operate as open, collaborative systems that contribute not only to knowledge creation but also to societal wellbeing and regional development. In this regard, learning ecosystems should break the boundaries of the university and create conditions for new ways of thinking in contemporary societies.

Challenge-based education has emerged as a transformative pedagogical approach that connects students, academics, and external stakeholders in the educational process (Höffken & Lazendic-Galloway, 2024; European Commission, 2021). This approach brings together students, teachers, stakeholders, and communities to solve real-life problems and develop environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable solutions that foster both individual and collective wellbeing. Gallagher and Savage (2023) note that challenge-based learning is a highly flexible method applicable across disciplines and study programs. However, there remains a lack of research examining how learning ecosystems change through the application of challenge-based learning.

Therefore, this study aims to analyse how challenge-based learning influences the structure, partnerships, and processes of higher education learning ecosystems. To address this aim, the study applies a focus group methodology involving stakeholders and higher education teachers who implement challenge-based learning in their practice. Focus groups method allows to capture participants’ experiences, perceptions, and insights regarding stakeholder collaboration and learning ecosystem transformation.

Findings indicate that the implementation of challenge-based learning significantly expands the boundaries of traditional learning ecosystems. External stakeholders move beyond consultative roles to become co-designers of learning experiences, mentors, and evaluators. This shift fosters more practice-oriented curricula and strengthens the relevance of learning outcomes to labour market and societal needs. The findings also reveal that challenge-based learning promotes horizontal knowledge exchange. At the institutional level, the study identifies enabling and constraining factors influencing ecosystem transformation.

This presentation includes the latest theoretical and empirical research. It proposes a definition of social innovation in education (Maldonado-Mariscal & Schröder, 2023) and examines its transformative potential in higher education (Maldonado-Mariscal and Kriegel). Through historical and contemporary analysis, it explores how universities have evolved from a focus on teaching and research to a 'third mission' that incorporates social responsibility and civic engagement (Breznitz & Feldmann, 2012). Initially framed around economic contributions, this third mission has expanded to address broader societal challenges. In this paper, I introduce the concept of the 'engaged university', which is particularly relevant in the Global South, where institutions act as regional change agents through knowledge and technology transfer (Appe et al., 2017). Universities are increasingly seen as spaces for activism and multi-directional knowledge exchange with communities (Loorbach & Wittmayer, 2024), highlighting the importance of co-creating knowledge with society. This collaborative approach fosters innovative educational practices that respond to contemporary global challenges. In addition, I will present a case study of a European project (Labs4Change) that illustrates how universities can drive social innovation in education (Maldonado-Mariscal, Landaberea Etxebeste, and Echarte Peña). Overall, this presentation emphasises the crucial role of universities in societal engagement in fostering social change.

Reference:

Appe, S., Rubaii, N., Castro, L. D., & Capobianco, S. (2017). The concept and context of the engaged university in the Global South: Lessons from Latin America to guide a research agenda. Journal of higher education outreach and engagement, 21(2), 7-36.

Breznitz, S.M., Feldman, M.P. (2012). The engaged university. J Technol Transf, 37, 139–157 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-010-9183-6

Loorbach, D. A., & Wittmayer, J. (2024). Transforming universities: Mobilizing research and education for sustainability transitions at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Sustainability Science, 19(1), 19-33.

Maldonado-Mariscal, K. and Schröder, A. (2023) Social innovation in education. In Howaldt, J.; Kaletka, (Eds.). (2023). Encyclopedia of Social Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing. Pp. 221-226. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800373358.ch39

Maldonado-Mariscal, K. and Kriegel, M. (in press, 2026) Social Innovation in Education. Unlocking the transformative potential of higher education.In Schwarz, E. and Audretsch, D. (eds.) 2026. Handbook of Teaching and Learning in Social Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd

Maldonado-Mariscal, K. (TU Dortmund); Landaberea Etxebeste, M. and Echarte Peña, A. (Mondragon University), Social Innovation in Higher Education: Experimental Practices in Living Labs in Europe. Paper in preparation