Utilising and extending the Varieties of Capitalism model by Hall and Soskice (2001) and its use in higher education (HE) studies (Graf, European Journal of Education, 44, 569–585, 2009), this paper illustrates the impact of diverse socio-economic contexts of partnering institutions on the policies and practices of transnational higher education in China. While prior research explored Sino-foreign cooperation models, much of it predates the pandemic and emphasises ‘sending countries’ over ‘host’ countries. Furthermore, previous studies have overlooked significant differences in the socio-economic policy contexts which even exist within countries described as having centralised modes of governance. This study reassesses the Chinese Ministry of Education’s goals in the Chinese Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools policy (MOE, 2013) and explores how partnerships take place in and between socio-economic contexts - such as market or state-coordinated societies - and we argue that policymakers and university partnership managers need to understand these variations in each partner’s context. We exemplify this approach by comparing partnerships within so-called ‘Liberal Market’ Economies and ‘Coordinated Market’ Economies from the Varieties of Capitalism framework — using the case of the Sino British College in Shanghai and the Sino Danish Centre in Beijing focusing on cooperation between these foreign and Chinese institutions. We analyse shifts in Chinese HE policies post-COVID. Our findings show that these joint ventures show the potential to build partnerships on shared understandings of ‘success’ brought about by similar modes of governance. The article contributes to the literature by advancing the use of the varieties of capitalism framework to highlight the role of economic governance models in allowing shared ideas of success between partners. It further highlights the need to understand sub-national or provincial levels of governance in countries such as China (Liu & Lim, Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 8(1), 29–55, 2024) but also highlighting how stakeholders in any transnational partnership need to be aware of potential opportunities and challenges depending on local governments.
