Abstract:
The article reflects on the construction of a common Master’s programme across four universities
located on four continents, in order to explore the role of networks in international
educational collaboration. The study draws on the documented processes of the principal
members of the programme team. It is presented as a case study of the development of the
programme that uses ideas drawn from actor-network theory to draw attention to the conjunction
of human and non-human actors that shaped the resulting web-based courses. Constraints
arising from major institutional and systemic obstacles were addressed through the effects of
the actor-network. The reciprocity of action and de-centring of individual activity made possible
through the collaboration enabled the human actors to sustain a level of innovation within
their own institutions that would not have been possible through them acting alone.
