Internationalization is transforming the world of higher education and globalization is chang- ing the world of internationalization. The exponential growth in the mobility of students, programmes and providers across borders brings us new opportunities to increase access to higher education, yet it also intro- duces new risks. One of the most important challenges in cross-border education is how to ensure the quality of academics and to achieve the recognition/legitimacy of what qualifica- tions are awarded. This paper focuses on key issues and implications such as registering and accrediting the diverse range of new types of foreign providers, whether they are traditional universities, commercial companies or part- nerships of local/foreign, public/private or profit/non-profit providers of higher education. Examples of recent initiatives undertaken by various countries to monitor and ensure a qual- ity provision of education are examined. These include codes of good practice developed by government bodies and university associa- tions, the UNESCO/OECD Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education, as well as national regulatory frameworks developed by countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia for recog- nizing and approving incoming and outgoing cross-border programmes. INTRODUCTION Internationalization is of one the forces that is having a profound effect on higher education at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Inter- nationalization is a multifaceted process that is integrating an international dimension into the purpose, goals, functions and delivery of higher education. One of the key elements of interna- tionalization is academic mobility/cross-border education. It is true that academic mobility across borders has been a central feature of higher education for centuries. The fact that the notion of ‘universality’ is key to the concept of university demonstrates the existence of an international dimension since the very found- ing of universities as institutions of higher edu- cation and research. While the international mobility of students and scholars represent long-standing forms of academic mobility, it has only been over the past two decades that greater emphasis has been placed on the move- ment of educational programmes, higher edu- cation institutions and new commercial providers across national borders. The growth and changes in cross-border programmes and provider mobility are remark- able. There are new types of providers, new collaborative partnerships, new modes of deliv- ery, and new types of awards and qualifications that have been granted. This paper aims to examine the issues and questions concerning quality assurance and the accreditation of cross-border delivery that takes education to students in their own countries. The focus is clearly on academic programmes and institu- tions/providers moving across borders – and not on student mobility. The outline of the paper is as follows: The first section provides concrete examples of recent developments in a range of modalities of cross-border education – franchises, twin- ning, double/joint degrees, articulation agree- ments, branch campuses, virtual universities and others. It also points to the need to collect comparable data in order to inform the devel- opment of new policies and regulations, espe- cially insofar as concerns accreditation. The second section examines the key issues and dilemmas related to the registration of cross- border providers, accreditation and quality assurance systems, degree and accreditation mills, and the recognition of qualifications. In the third section, a number of new quality assurance and accreditation initiatives are examined. These include the new UNESCO/ OECD Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education, a number of Codes of Good Practice and several examples of National Regulatory Frameworks for send- ing and receiving countries. The last section addresses what is at stake if the higher educa- tion sector does not adequately address the quality assurance and accreditation challenges posed by cross-border education. 134 HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE WORLD 2007 Jane Knight Abstract I.8 CROSS-BORDER HIGHER EDUCATION: ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ACCREDITATION 0230000479_10_cha08 11/10/06 13:59 Page 134 brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC