Promoting partnerships in quality assurance: the cross-border challenge

1. Promoting partnerships in quality assurance: the cross-border challenge World Bank Learning Seminar Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education (Sevres. 18-20 June 2006) Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic (UNESCO) Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin (OECD)

2. Key message • Stronger partnerships in quality assurance are necessary because of: • Growing mobility of students, professional and people • Growing mobility of educational programmes and institutions • Diversification of provision in higher education • Need for developing countries to develop their capacity in higher education

3. Outline • Capacity building through cross-border higher education and its challenges • Implications for quality assurance of the (UNESCO/OECD) Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education • Other UNESCO capacity building instruments • Appendix: Latest data on cross-border student mobility

4. Capacity building requires tertiary education Gross Participation Rates in tertiary education (2001) • Human capital leads to growth • Productivity • Innovation • Health • It takes human capital to train human capital • Tertiary education is important for primary and secondary education • Monitoring and evaluation are essential to capacity building and require highly trained people • The rapid expansion of higher education poses quality issues Source: Unesco Institute for Statistics

5. Building capacity (in tertiary education) through cross-border education • Expand access to tertiary education rapidly by supplementing domestic provision • Increase the variety and relevance of tertiary education • Improve the quality of tertiary education through spillovers and participation in international networks of knowledge

6. Capacity building

7. Student mobility Cost of studying abroad Recognition of degrees and qualification Brain drain Inequity Programme & Institution mobility Low quality provision No quality impact on local system Cultural relevance Stability of the system Challenges of cross-border higher education

8. Cross-border higher education presents new challenges for quality assurance • Higher education systems are often opaque viewed from abroad, which leaves room for disreputable providers • Student, academic and professional mobility induces a strong demand for recognition of foreign degrees and qualifications • Quality of cross-border education is a major concern for: • Importers of higher education (student protection) • Exporters of higher education (reputation)

9. Unaccredited and rogue providers are a real problem

10. (UNESCO/OECD) Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education • They are an EDUCATIONAL response to maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks of cross-border higher education

11. Principles of the Guidelines respect capacity building principles • Voluntary and non-binding • Mutual trust and respect among countries • Recognition of importance of international collaboration • Recognition of national authority and of the diversity of systems • Not a standard-setting instrument

12. Main (underlying) message • The quality of cross-border higher education is a shared responsibility between importing and exporting countries • Quality assurance should cover cross-border education in all its forms (student, academic, programme and institution mobility) • Stakeholders should collaborate internationally to enhance the transparency about the quality of HE and about HE systems • Cross-border delivery should have the same quality as home delivery

13. Main implications for quality assurance • Quality assuranceandRecognition • have a comprehensive quality assurance system, internal or external • have fair mechanisms for recognition of qualifications • Transparency and accessibility of information • be transparent about what you do and make the relevant information accessible internationally • Collaboration • Strengthen your collaboration with other stakeholders nationally, regionally and internationally

14. Guidelines and capacity building • The guidelines are independent on the arrangements of cross-border higher education (commercial, aid, partnerships) • They leave freedom to countries to scan locally and globally, and then reinvent locally • They take into account human, social and cultural needs (and not only economic ones)

15. Other UNESCO capacity building tools in this area • Regional conventions • International Information Tool on Recognised Higher Education Institutions • Distance education course: Methodological and organisational options in external QA systems (UNESCO-IIEP) (Anglophone Africa 2006) • UNESCO Tool-kit on the setting up of regulatory frameworks for Cross Border Education in cooperation with the APQNet (Asia and the Pacific Convention) • On-Line Course for Credential Evaluation – (Mediterranean Convention)

16. Table showing the development of the regional conventions on the recognition of qualifications in the different regions of the world. Region Secretariat Adopted Number of parties Last ratification Last meeting Planned meeting Africa UNESCO Dakar Arusha 1981 21 1998 Dakar, 2003 Dakar, July 2006 Arab UNESCO Beirut Paris 1978 14 1991 Beirut, March 2006 2007 Asia & Pacific UNESCO Bangkok Bangkok 1983 20 2003 Kunming, May 2005 Seoul, 2007 LAC IESALC Caracas Mexico City 1974 18 2005 San Salvador April 2006 Caracas, October 2006 MED UNESCO Paris Nice 1976 11 2001 Split, June 2005 Egypt, 2007 Europe CEPES Bucharest & Council of Europe Lisbon 1997 49 2005 Strasbourg June 2005 2007 UNESCO Regional conventions on the recognition of qualifications

17. International Information Tool on Recognised Higher Education Institutions • Aim: Increase transparency & facilitate students’ informed decision-making • The information tool would: • be hosted by UNESCO • include a comprehensive list of all higher education institutions recognized by a competent national authority • be free of charge, easy to access, simple, user friendly, provided online and searchable • Pilot: 8-12 countries from different regions and economic development (Dec. 2005 – July 2007)

18. Thank you! s.uvalic-trumbic@unesco.org Stephan.Vincent-Lancrin@oecd.org

19. International mobility of students • About 2.5 million foreign students in the world in 2004, 85% of whom in the OECD area • The majority (61%) of foreign students within the OECD area come from non-OECD countries • Student mobility has nearly tripled since 1980 and has increased by 50% since 1998

20. 25 top destination countries for foreign students in absolute terms (2004) 70% Source: UIS

21. 25 top receiving countries in relative terms (2004) Source: UIS

22. 25 top countries of origin of foreign students (2004) Source: UIS

23. Outbound mobility (%) (2004) Domestic students abroad expressed as a percentage of the country’s tertiary enrolments Source: UIS

24. Internal regional mobility (2004) Share of international students studying abroad in their region of origin Source: UIS

25. Distribution of all foreign students across regions (2004) Source: UIS

26. OECD receiving countries in North America Europe Asia-Pacific OECD From Africa 17% 79% 4% 12% From N. America 50% 40% 10% 6% From S. America 48% 48% 4% 4% From Asia 41% 30% 29% 45% From Europe 13% 82% 5% 30% From Oceania 28% 26% 46% 1% From WORLD 33% 54% 13% 100% Origin of foreign students in the OECD area (2003) Source: OECD

27. International mobility of programmes and institutions • Educational programme and institution mobility is still limited in scale but grows rapidly, especially in the Asia-Pacific region • 33% of all international students enrolled in Australian institutions studied from their country in 2004 (against 24% in 1996 and 37% in 2001) • Singapore: more undergraduate students accessed a foreign programme from Singapore than studied abroad in 2000 • China: 9-fold increase in foreign programmes between 1995 and 2003