Literature

Nomenclature is an issue with the literature on international education and as the research described here has elements of both transnational and international education we use both terms.Knight (2008，2011) comments on the growing dimensions of international education and these include both the host country and activities overseas. For this paper，we differentiate between activities by the country which is the exporter and the importer of the education services. Although two years of the degree is delivered in China，mainly by the Chinese university with some courses taught by visiting Australian lecturers，Australia is the exporter and China is the importer.Terminology has been an acknowledged problem in this area as changes in provision of services and overlapping terms create uncertainty.

The relationships and nuances of meaning among“cross-border，”

“transnational，”“borderless，”and“international”modes of education are causing confusion (Knight，2008，p. 2) .

Transnational，or cross-border，education has been an expression used to refer to programs that Australian institutions have traditionally delivered offshore，usually with a partner in the host country. As international education markets increase so too does the size and shape of transnational arrangements.(https://www.daowen.com)

In the last decade，however，new types of cross-border post-secondary education have emerged. Cross-border education does not only include international student mobility，but also the mobility of education programmes and institutions across borders (Vincent-Lancrin，2005，p. 2) .

Online learning has also had an impact but Marginson (2004) contends that many early attempts at online distance，transnational education programs were expensive and often not successful as they needed to be‘customised for cultural and linguistic variations’(p.74) .These comments are supported by the 2015 Australian Government's consultation document on international education which acknowledges the challenges of online delivery. The issues facing online delivery include resourcing，capital investment，academic training and employers favoring students who have not studied inclusively online so they have had the opportunity to developinterpersonal skills.

Countries like China，with a growing middle class and national strategies to develop a knowledge economy make up a large component of the international student market with Chinese students comprising 37.6% of international students in Australia in 2013 and of those，212，553，or 86% were in public institutions (Project Atlas Australia，2015) . Many Chinese international students are self-funded and have migration strategies associated with their education. The Australian government has been supportive of employment opportunities for a skilled workforce upon graduation (Tan，2012) . There is a shortage of early childhood teachers in both Australia and China so the opportunities for the students studying in the program described here would be expected to be enhanced employment choices. The arrangement that students can gain a dual qualification by studying between two countries is potentially beneficial for both Australia and China and is an example of the additional approaches to international education being explored.The model discussed in this paper is known as a Collaborative Articulation Program (CAP) and it is connected to the reform initiatives of the Chinese government as a proposal for the CAP program was presented to and approved by，the national Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) (Sun ＆Bandello，2007) . In the CAP model that is the focus of this study. The Australian university is the exporter of the education but the location is both China and Australia. This particular model has changed patterns of mobility and delivery for students (Guruz，2011) and has subjected the teaching curriculum in both universities to considerable pressure as the two degrees had to be mapped together to become an appropriate degree for external accreditors in both China and Australia. Contextual relevance was therefore an issue. China is also becoming an exporter of transnational education (Yang，2008) . That Australia could import education services from China by sending Australian students to study in Chinese institutions has become a growing suggestion for this partnership.

Yang (2008，2014) also explains that China's international activities in higher education have been driven by reforms that have been aligned with economic growth and market reform. This is very much the case in early childhood teacher education as the Chinese government has undertaken an ambitious reform agenda in recent years (Liu ＆ Pan，2013) and intends to increase access and quality of early childhood services across the country by 2020 (Zhou，2011).Some reform initiatives are listed below as the context for this research is foregrounded by the Chinese government's aims to increase access and quality of higher education as well as the reform agenda for early childhood education. Therefore，the context for this paper is the emphasis on Chinese universities responding to calls to improve quality provision and the education reform environment，especially for early childhood education.