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The importance of cross-border cooperation in the quality assurance of TNE: A comparative overview of national approaches to TNE
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on the importance of cross-border cooperation in the quality assurance of transnational education (TNE) by offering a comparative overview of how TNE is quality assured by both sending and receiving countries. Through this comparative analysis, it will be possible to appreciate the diversity of approaches to TNE. The paper also shows that for the foreseeable future, progress towards effective and effiicient quality assurance of TNE cannot rest on the hope of developing an internationally agreed framework, but it must rest on strengthening cooperation between quality assurance agencies operating within different national frameworks.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper looks at four key sending countries of TNE, the UK, Australia, the USA and Germany, considering the main drivers for out-going TNE, its main features and how it is quality assured. It then considers the same aspects from the perspective of receiving countries of TNE, looking at four key receiving locations, China, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. It also offers an overview of some recent international initiatives aimed at fostering cross-border cooperation in the quality assurance of TNE.
Findings
In the backdrop of this overview of different approaches to TNE, this paper will conclude that for the foreseeable future it is not possible to develop an internationally agreed view and approach to TNE and its quality assurance. This conclusion allows the author to focus on the importance of cross-border cooperation amongst quality assurance agencies in sending and receiving countries for the effective and efficient quality assurance of TNE.
Originality/value
This is the first comparative study of different countries’ approaches to TNE and its quality assurance, taking into account both sending and receiving countries. It allows pointing to the key different features in different countries’ approaches and illustrates how these often relate to the underlining national strategic priorities and drivers for TNE (either in-bound or out-bound). It also allows the international community to realise that in the absence of a viable shared and agreed international framework for the regulation and quality assurance of TNE, it is of paramount importance to focus efforts on inter-agency cross-border cooperation in order to ensure that TNE continues to be of good quality and relevant to the respective communities.
... Particularly, many East Asian countries were intrigued by pursuing academic partnerships with the institutions in Western developed countries, such as Australia, Britain, and the United States, to internationalize their higher education (Dai et al., 2020a;Feng, 2013;Hawkins et al., 2000;Pan, 2021). Research shows the number of cross-border exchange programs has increased steadily in many East Asian countries for the past decades (Ota, 2018;Trifiro, 2019). However, under the influence of COVID-19, administrators at many institutions had to pause or adjust their programs to conform with safety restrictions (Pan, 2021). ...
... Many studies have been conducted to explore the experiences and perceptions of international exchange students in U.S. higher education, such as academic adaptation, cultural identity, social integration, and mental health (Diao, 2014;Jackson & Chen, 2018;Ryu et al., 2016;Sato & Hodge, 2015). Some researchers discussed the practices and procedures to develop cross-border exchange programs in East Asian contexts (Hu et al., 2019;Ota, 2018;Trifiro, 2019). Because few virtual exchange programs were available before the pandemic, limited studies have been conducted to investigate course design and delivery considerations in a transnational distance learning context. ...
The purpose of this autoethnography is to share my perspective of course design and delivery considerations based on my professional experience as an instructional designer for a virtual international exchange program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the impact of the global pandemic, the partner institutions decided to take advantage of distance education to continue their exchange program. I was the instructional designer to support faculty’s transition to online instruction. Little research has been conducted to explore instructional design practices for distance teaching and learning in an intercultural context. Therefore, I applied an individual autoethnography to collect and analyze data from my narratives and artifacts to understand my perspective of instructional design and delivery practices within a cross-cultural distance learning environment. The findings showed course design in transnational distance contexts was more complicated than in distance education in a single cultural context. My role as an instructional designer was influenced by factors at both micro and macro levels.
... The learning scope takes a dimension of the main objectives of any contemporary higher education institution and that is teaching/learning, research, and community outreach. It is also important to emphasise that with so much hyped transnational or cross-border education, there will hardly be a time when higher education entities the world over can agree to an internationally agreed view of this approach of education and its quality assurance (Trifiro, 2019). ...
Transnational educational partnerships among tertiary institutions have been around for a long time all over the world. There will always be cases where some institutions or countries have a better capacity and operational advantage over others. It is because of this rationale that educational institutions from two or more countries through collaborative partnerships and or relationships, rally or agree to counter contemporary challenges in their countries and they have been very successful in this for a long time. The COVID-19 pandemic created a disruption of education systems, affecting over 1.6 billion learners globally and hence the numerous surges of transnational educational partnerships. The study investigated the rating of a programme that is running under a transnational higher education partnership between two institutions in two different countries. An exploratory study of a qualitative design was adopted for this research and by use of a closed and open-ended questionnaire, data was collected. The questionnaire was designed to benchmark the three instructional strategies of the Community of Inquiry framework model, and these are cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Results reveal positive students’ ratings of the programme on all instructional strategies social, teaching, and cognitive presence with a few outliers. The study portrays an effective switch from a face-to-face lecture learning session programme, to online-modular learning without so many obstacles to affect the teaching-learning process. Future research could pick interest in more detailed experiences of students on such programmes, and this is in addition to the detailed responses for other stakeholders like instructors, administrators, and possibly parents.
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... The outward mobility exercise is meant to encourage students and staff from developing countries to return and contribute to their homeland, yet however, most of the beneficiaries tend to stay abroad, evoking issues of mobility ethics or brain drain (Yildirim et al., 2021). The provision of successful cross-border HE between the sending and the receiving country affords cooperation in the quality assurance of transnational education to the participants (Trifiro, 2019). ...
Purpose
The surging demand for higher education in Africa for expedited socio-economic growth and global sustainable development demands customising gains made elsewhere for local benefit through quality provision. This study contributes to local and international discourses on the refinement of results-based university learning content determination on the lines of the Bologna Process, and advocates the development of situationally relevant curricula for successful national advancement in Zimbabwe.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative study uses records and documentary analysis, interviews and meetings with key participants involved in shaping academic processes at one of the country's young and fragile universities. The introspective research approach enabled the cumulative experiential and reflective contributions of participants to shape both the dialogue and follow-up action on the adoption of minimum bodies of knowledge in university curriculum reform.
Findings
Participants celebrated efforts to pit harmonisation alongside autonomy in academic discourses, and suggested improvements on the mechanisms to define policy and operational frameworks for diversely-oriented academic establishments. They lauded and interrogated the discourse around minimum bodies of knowledge, calling for further critical research and analysis for defining clarity on its harmonisation function.
Originality/value
This paper traverses the rapidly expanding Zimbabwe higher education system's endeavours to regulate mandates and operations, in pursuit of relevance, quality and excellence and examines stakeholder efforts at determining streamlined university curricula. It contributes uniquely to collective regulation of multiple institutions towards quality academic agendas that underpin the life-long competences of the institutions' graduates.
... Underpinning all successful third party arrangements sits academic governance and quality assurance (Trifiro, 2019). Survey respondents from both the primary institute and its third parties agreed that "clear and consistent communication of expectations and requirements" are paramount for effective governance and management of third parties (70 per cent). ...
The marked increase in transnational higher education third party arrangements in recent years represents globalizing forms of education. Third party arrangements involve a partner institution being approved to deliver the primary institution’s government-accredited courses. The primary institute is accountable for monitoring and documenting quality assurance and the third party is responsible to the primary institute for meeting the required higher education standards. This arrangement is particularly attractive for students who want to undertake an accredited degree from overseas, while retaining close relational, industry and cultural links in the home country. There has been some recent examination of higher education third parties focused on equity, transcultural pedagogy, and quality assurance. However, little research has been done regarding the Australian context. Alphacrucis College is one of the largest non-university, faith-based independent higher education institutes in Australia with three onshore third party arrangements in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as two offshore in Finland and the Philippines. Based on a case study including participant observation and a staff survey, this research argues that the success of faith-based third parties is largely a result of shared values and collaborative relationships. These are outworked in professional development and mentoring in learning and teaching, joint research and scholarship projects, equity of student experience through resourcing, and effective governance and quality assurance built on trust. While other higher education institutes may not have faith-based approaches, these findings can serve to produce successful onshore and offshore third parties in a broad range of contexts.
... In previous publications I have argued for the importance of inter-agency cooperation for improving reciprocal understanding of expectations about quality cross-border provision, building trust between different education systems, and exploring innovative ways to address regulatory gaps, unnecessary regulatory hurdles, and reap the benefits of international education (Trifiro' 2018(Trifiro' , 2019. ...
... In previous publications I have argued for the importance of inter-agency cooperation for improving reciprocal understanding of expectations about quality cross-border provision, building trust between different education systems, and exploring innovative ways to address regulatory gaps, unnecessary regulatory hurdles, and reap the benefits of international education (Trifiro' 2018(Trifiro' , 2019. ...
This chapter explores the impact of TNE in Greece with particular reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4. The context of the research is a TNE collaborative partnership case study which involves Queen Margaret University in Scotland and Metropolitan College in Greece. A qualitative approach is used to gather and analyse primary evidence from TNE students and graduates. The findings suggest that TNE has had a positive impact in enabling access to good quality higher education in Greece in three respects: (1) affordability; (2) access to courses not available in the domestic HE system; and (3) the use of the host country language in delivery and assessment. This case study suggests that TNE promotes access to good quality higher education and creates a number of benefits for direct participants and wider stakeholder groups with direct reference to UN SDG4.
This chapter considers how quality assurance challenges are preventing our globally interconnected communities to fully harness the progressive potential of innovative forms of education provision such as TNE. TNE is a way to make available education programmes to people who would not otherwise be able to access them and thereby contribute to widening international access to quality and relevant education. Drawing on the author’s experience of quality assuring TNE and engaging internationally to facilitate the development of shared understanding and solutions to the quality assurance challenges associated with TNE, the chapter unpacks the rationale behind recurrent obstacles to the acceptance of and lack of recognition of different forms of TNE provision and qualifications. It suggests that the main single factor behind these obstacles is a restrictive understanding of the student experience and its relation to learning outcomes, and that by de-linking the modality of learning from the expected learning outcomes of a programme of study, it is possible to unleash the full potential of TNE provision to help host locations meeting the skills needs of their communities.
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.
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