UNESCO-OECD Guidelines for Quality Provision in CBE: Role of the QA Agencies and their Networks

1. UNESCO-OECD Guidelines forQuality Provision in CBE: Role of the QA Agencies and their Networks Dr. Antony Stella Audit Director AUQA A u s t r a l i a n U n i v e r s i t i e s Q u a l i t y A g e n c y

2. Cross-Border Education (CBE) • Movement of people across borders • Age old phenomenon • Mobility of programmes and institutions • Recent origin • Developments in ICT • New forms of educational delivery • New providers

3. Emerging Scenario • Demand for higher education is expanding • HE institutions tend to expand their internationalisation efforts • Cross-border HE is also expanding • Cross-border education has benefits and downsides • Uneven development in QA • Lack of national capacity for QA of CBE • Gaps in international cooperation to address QA of CBE

4. Lack of national capacity for QA • Asia-Pacific • Most QAAs are recent initiatives • uneven development in the national capacity • on-going changes in fairly stabilized systems • foreign providers are not adequately covered • A recent survey by the APQN • ensuring quality of exports - Australia, India, Malaysia and New Zealand • imports - Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand and Philippines

5. Lack of national capacity and international cooperation for QA • Possible consequences: • Risks for students/learners • Harms for the education professions • Risks for importing countries • "UNESCO-OECD guidelines respond to this scenario"

6. Why UNESCO? UNESCO has existing frameworks: • Regional conventions on the recognition of qualifications • 1998 WCHE and WCHE + 5: identified the challenges of higher education and globalization and HE’s role in the knowledge society as an element of sustainable development • UNESCO Global Forum on International Quality Assurance, Accreditation and the recognition of Qualifications (since October 2002)

7. How UNESCO and OECD? • Both UNESCO and OECD have been working on the issue of quality assurance of cross-border higher education for some years • UNESCO/Norway Forum on Globalisation and Higher Education (May 2003) • OECD/CERI experts’ group on mapping international quality assurance, accreditation and recognition of qualifications [OECD (2004), Quality and Recognition in Higher Education: The Cross-border Challenge]

8. How UNESCO and OECD? • Resolution of the 32nd session of the UNESCO General Conference "Higher Education and Globalisation: Assuring Quality of Global Higher Education and Promoting Access to the Knowledge Society as a Means for Sustainable Development" (15 October 2003) • OECD/CERI Governing Board meeting (29-30 October 2003) agreed to work on Guidelines • OECD/UNESCO/Norway Forum on "Trade in Educational Services: Managing the internationalisation of post-secondary education", Trondheim (3-4 November 2003): official launch of the project

9. The Process • Three drafting meetings, April 2004, UNESCO, Paris; October 2004, MEXT,Tokyo, Japan; January 2005, OECD, Paris; • Inclusive Process: all 190 Member States invited as well as stakeholder groups both at IGO and NGO level; • Participative: official representatives from 94 Member States, 28 observers from MS; 22 NGOs; experts… • INQAAHE participated in the deliberations.

10. Resolution of the 33rd session of the General Conference held in October 2005 • The Guidelines have been issued as a Secretariat document on `Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education’ elaborated in cooperation with OECD

11. Main features of the Guidelines • They are developed with an education perspective • They are voluntary and non-binding • They are elaborated jointly by the UNESCO and the OECD • All countries in the world have been invited to participate in the elaboration of GuidelinesNational and international NGOs are directly participating in the drafting meetings • Resource for developing countries • Provides a framework of cooperation and capacity building • Responsibilities to both sending and receiving countries • The Guidelines are not just addressed to Governments, they address also 5 other groups of stakeholders

12. Guidelines for the QA agencies • including CBE in all its modes in the scope of QA • strengthening the network initiatives for the QA agencies to discuss cross-border education issues • information dissemination on the QA mechanism and its implications • adherence to ‘Code of Good Practice’ • mutual recognition agreements with other agencies • strengthening the international orientation of the quality assurance processes

13. Is adopting the Guidelines sufficient? • The acheivement of the Guidelines’ objectives depends upon: • Dissemination efforts • Implementation process • Follow-up actions by various stakeholders • Interanational co-operation and networking • Building capacity • Improving information on cross-border HE providers and programmes • Assessment of implementation efforts • Revision of the Guidelines in light of cross-border HE developments

14. Role of QA Agencies • Role of Networks • Role of QA Agencies • QA agencies of provider countries • Perspectives and practices of Australia by Dr. David Woodhouse • QA agencies of receiving countries • Perspectives and practices of Hong Kong by Mr. Peter Cheung

15. Thank you A u s t r a l i a n U n i v e r s i t i e s Q u a l i t y A g e n c y