Cross-border Higher Education: issues and implications for quality assurance and accreditation

Abstract

Internationalization is transforming the world of higher education and globalization is changing the world of internationalization. The exponential growth in the mobility of students, programmes and providers across borders brings us new opportunities to increase access to higher education, yet it also introduces new risks. One of the most important challenges in cross-border education is how to ensure the quality of academics and to achieve the recognition/legitimacy of what qualifications are awarded. This paper focuses on key issues and implications such as registering and accrediting the diverse range of new types of foreign providers, whether they are traditional universities, commercial companies or partnerships of local/foreign, public/private or profit/non-profit providers of higher education. Examples of recent initiatives undertaken by various countries to monitor and ensure a quality provision of education are examined. These include codes of good practice developed by government bodies and university associations, the UNESCO/OECD Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education, as well as national regulatory frameworks developed by countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia for recognizing and approving incoming and outgoing cross-border programmes.