The New Technologies and Borderless Higher Education: the Quality Imperative

Abstract

The new information technologies are contributing powerfully to the internationalization of higher education. The development of quality assurance mechanisms for course offerings and full degree programmes delivered internationally is lagging. Only the United States, Australia, and Hong Kong have taken steps to regulate the quality of imported or exported higher education offerings. To fill the gap, a non‐governmental international organization, the Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE) was created in 1995. This organization will certify the quality of given international higher education programmes, including those delivered, to a greater or lesser extent, by electronic means, that meet its standards as laid down in its Principles for Transnational Education. These are summarized in the article.