Governing Transnational Quality and Research Partnerships in Transdisciplinary Programmes: China-Italy Insights

The expansion of transnational education and research collaborations increases organizational complexity in universities, particularly in transdisciplinary programmes, where epistemic traditions, assessment norms, and cultures diverge. Coordinating such programmes across countries, such as China and Italy, amplifies misalignment risks in academic standards and research outputs, which are valued differently across disciplines and national evaluation systems. This paper presents a case study of a China-Italy undergraduate programme in Engineering-Industrial Design, drawing on the authors’ empirical involvement, documentary evidence, partnership mappings, and triangulated thematic analysis. It examines curriculum and assessment alignment as well as research strategies within the context of disciplinary and national differences. The results show that compliance-based quality assurance and opportunity-led partnerships are necessary yet insufficient. Quality assurance often decouples from core academic practices like curriculum design, assessment, pedagogy, and faculty development. Research internationalisation risks leading to fragmented collaborations and misaligned publications without coordinated support. The undergraduate programme thus needs two integrated governance functions: Academic Quality & Transnational Alignment for curricular coherence, standards equivalence, assessment mediation, and site/partner coordination; Research Development & Strategic Partnerships for network building, partnership integration, and bridging research trajectories credible in both Chinese and Italian systems. This differentiation avoids overload while coordination fosters a unified academic identity. The study offers an empirical characterisation of alignment challenges in China-Italy transdisciplinary engineering-design programmes and a practical governance framework to enhance institutional capacity for collaboration and coordination.