Inter-agency cooperation in the quality assurance of transnational education: challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the findings of a study undertaken by the United Kingdom Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), with support from the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), aimed at investigating the challenges and limits to cross-border cooperation in the quality assurance of transnational education. The study builds on the outcomes of the recently concluded Erasmus Mundus project Quality Assurance of Cross-Border Higher Education (QACHE) and in particular the QACHE Toolkit developed as part of the project to foster cooperation between quality assurance agencies in quality assuring transnational education. Based on the responses to a survey sent to QAA’s partner agencies in key sending and receiving countries of transnational education, the study extract recommendations to agencies to help them developing viable strategies for inter-agency cooperation, identifying concrete ways in which they might or might not cooperate across borders.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-border higher education
• transnational education
• Quality Assurance of Cross-Border Higher Education (QACHE) Toolkit
• International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE)
• Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
• UNESCO/OECD guidelines
• cross-border cooperation

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the following partner agencies that have made the project possible by responding to the survey and further request of information: China Academic Degrees and Graduate Academic Information (CDGDC); China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE); Committee for Private Education SkillsFuture Singapore (CPE), Singapore; Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), Dubai, UAE; Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ); Malaysia Qualifications Agency (MQA); National Institution for Academic Degree and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education (NIAD-QE), Japan; Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI); Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Australia; and Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), USA.

Disclosure statement

The author does not gain any financial benefit from the direct application of this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a research grant from the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education.