Improving the Impact of Cross-Border Education
Cross-border education refers to when students follow a course or programme that is produced and maintained in a different country from where they live. While cross-border education raises fears of cultural imperialism and loss of sovereignty among some, it should be seen as a solution to help developing countries to address the huge challenge of expanding higher education.
Age participation rates in higher education are languishing in the single digits for many developing countries. Cross-border higher education could help to increase access and keep in the country some young people who might otherwise migrate abroad to study and stay there.
The reality today is that cross-border education is making a negligible contribution to the provision of higher education that is accessible, available and affordable in most developing countries. While for-profit cross-border providers are active, they tend to offer low quality education at a high cost.
Improving quality assurance is the key to improving the impact of cross-border higher education. Developing countries need quality assurance mechanisms that are equipped to cope with cross-border education. Although there is an emerging concern for quality assurance, it is not matched by adequate human, institutional and financial resources. Governments need to take the lead here, working with principal stakeholders at the national level, notably higher education institutions, academic staff and students.
A valuable resource is Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education (www.oecd.org/education), developed jointly by UNESCO and the OECD, with help from COL. The Guidelines recognise the importance of national authority and the diversity of higher education systems. They present higher education as a vital means for expressing a country's linguistic and cultural diversity, nurturing its economic development and strengthening social cohesion.
The effectiveness of the Guidelines largely depends on strengthening the capacity of national systems to assure the quality of higher education. Leaders of developing countries need to recognise that an emphasis on quality assurance in cross-border higher education today will reap tremendous dividends in the future.