Borderless Higher Education Challenges Ahead Dr Hans de

Borderless Higher Education: Challenges Ahead Dr. Hans de Wit Dean Windesheim Honours College, VU University Amsterdam/Windesheim University of Applied Science, Zwolle, the Netherlands Editor of the Journal of Studies in International Education (Sage/ASIE) Kuala Lumpur, December 3 -5, 2007

Internationalisation of Higher Education Traditional Meanings: Diversity of Related Terms to Internationalisation of Higher Education 1. Curriculum related: International studies, global studies, multicultural education, intercultural education, peace education, etc. 2. Mobility related: Study abroad, education abroad, academic mobility, etc. Most frequently used synonym: International Education

Emerging factors/rationales • Standards, Status and profile • Ranking • Strategic alliances • Regionalisation (Bologna Process) • National Security (9/11) • Other Political and Ideological influences • Higher education increasingly more an actor than re-actor to globalisation, trade in educational services: • Revenue Generation • Skilled Migration

New: cross border delivery of education related Ø Borderless education Ø Education across borders or cross-border education Ø Global education Ø Offshore education Ø International trade of educational services Ø Also refered to as Transnational Education

Borderless Higher Education • Athough it is not a new phenomenon, it is its rapidly increasinging scale since the 1990’s that makes it a relevant phenomenon • The privatisation and deregulation of higher education has stimulated traditional public and private higher educaiton get involved • New private ‘for profit’ providers have entered the market • GATS (1995), including trade in educational services, became a highly debated response to this increasing phenomenon • International trade in education services accounts for app. 3% of global services exports, primarily through student mobility • Trade is already more important than aid in higher education

Globalisation and its link to Higher Education (1) Increasing Unmet Demand for Higher Education • Demographic Trends • Degree and Diploma Programmes • Lifelong Learning

Globalisation and its link to Higher Education (2) Growth in Numbers and Types of new Providers • • Corporate Universities For-profit private institutions Media Companies Education Brokers

Globalisation and its link to Higher Education (3) Innovative Delivery Methods • • Distance and e-learning Franchises Satellite Campuses Twinning / Joint Degree programmes

We see • “A shift in paradigms of internationalisation from cooperation to competition” (Van der Wende, 2001) • But this does not imply that: All institutions of higher education play the same active competitive role, and that It always happens at the cost of the more common approach to international cooperation and exchange

Types of Cross-Border Education Activities • 1. People Students/Trainees Professors/Trainers Student Mobility Academic/Trainer Mobility • 2. Programmes Educational Programmes Academic Partnerships • 3. Institutions/Providers Foreign Campuses Foreign Investments (Knight, 2003, OECD)

Modes of supply Source: OECD Trade Mode Definition of supply Service crosses the Mode 1 border Example Non-trade term Distance education Programme mobility Mode 2 Consumption abroad Students study abroad Mode 3 Establishment Mode 4 Temporary Academic teaches movement of natural abroad persons Branch campuses, training companies (language, executive) People (student) mobility Institution mobility People (academic) mobility

Four Approaches to cross-border post-secondary education, OECD, 2004, 232 Import Strategies Export Strategies Capacity Building Strong Economic Rationales Revenue Generation Rationales Same as Mutual Understanding plus: - Meeting Demand for Higher Education - Enhancing the Country’s Human Capital -Building a better Higher Education System thanks to spill-overs coming from Partnerhsips with Foreign Institutions Same as Skilled Migration plus: - Developing Higher Education as an Expert Industry - Using Cross-border Education to Finance the Domestic Higher Education Sector and Change its Governance Skilled Migration Rationales Same as Mutual Understanding plus - Attracting Highly Skilled People to build or maintain the receiving country’s Knowledge Economy - Enhancing the Competitiveness of one’s Higher Education Sector Weaker Economic Rationales Mutual Understanding II Rationales -Academic -Geostrategic -Social - Cultural - Political - Economic -Academic - Geostrategic -Social - Cultural - Political - Economic

Crossborder supply • Crossborder supply means the provision of a service where the service crosses the border but does not require the physical movement of the consumer. • Examples in higher education are: distance education, E-learning and virtual universities.

Size and impact • Potential due to new technologies • Limitations due to lack of access to these technologies and limitations in learning methodologies • Potentials still primarily national (Open Universities) and in Continuing Education (University of Phoenix) • Still limited in scope, no reliable global data available

Presence of Natural Persons • Presence of natural persons means persons travelling to another country on a temporary basis to provide service • Such as professors, teachers and researchers working abroad in higher education. (Knight, 2006 c, 63). Although happening quite frequently, exact numbers are not known and impact neither. Will continue to be an important factor, with different implications in North and South. “USA is an overwhelming ‘brain gainer’ in relation to the rest of the world, whereas most nations face a net loss of research personel to the USA. ” And The USA at the doctoral and postdoctoral stage has by far the most postitions worldwide. (Marginson/Van der Wende, 2007, OECD)

Commercial Presence • Commercial presence means that the service provider establishes or has presence of commercial facilities in another country in order to render service. • Examples are local branch or satellite campuses; twining partnerships, articulation programmes, and franchise arrangements.

Size and Impact I • Difficult to document the extent of institution and programme mobility • Definitions and sources are not always the same • Much information is still based on anecdotal evidence • There is still a lot of trial and error, see for instance recent Australian withdrawals, and not always is clear what is closed and what is (still) in operational existence • Not all countries maintain an official list (China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Thailand do) (Naidoo, 2007)

Size and Impact II • Asia-Pacific region, Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America in that order are facing strongest commerical presence • Australian, British and US institutions the main ones operating them. • Wholly-owned branch campuses and joint venture operations represent a very small share.

Size and Impact III • Examples of such wholly-owned and joint venture operations indicate potential: • Laureate Education Inc. : 209. 000 students in 19 offshore operations • Others: Apollo International (5 campuses), De. Vry Inc. (Canada and Carribean), and Career Education corporation (France, UK, Canada and UAE)

Size and Impact IV • Programme mobility is much larger and established than institutional mobility: estimated 3. 500 -4. 500 programmes. • Australia is the most active exporter: 1569 programmes and 37 institutions involved (42. 4 programmes per institution), followed by the U. K. (1002, 79, 12. 7), the USA (333), New Zealand (137, 29) and Canada (81, 16). • The largest importing places are Singapore (966), Hong Kong (827) and Malaysia (490), with China (410) and India (249) as emerging markets. (Naidoo, 2007)

Size and Impact V • For Australia, enrollment in programme mobility accounts in 2006 for 30% of all international students, compared to 18% in 1996. forecast for 2025 is 47%. • Primarily postgraduate (56%), in business administration and economics (51%), and a mean enrolment of 40 students of which 54% full-time students (Davis et all, 2000).

Size and Impact VI • For Canada, a recent AUCC survey indicated that Canadian institutions are engaged in 194 programmes and that in these 10, 798 students involved. Of these, 58 were franchises, 37 twinning programmes, 34 distance education. • As top motives for involvement in knowledge export were mentioned: Enhanced Reputation as an international institution; opportunities for international student recruitment; alternate source of income generation; and new national/international partnerships. • As main barriers were mentioned: lack of financial support to offset the upfront costs; lack of faculty and professional staff; and lack of internal institutional support. (AUCC, 2007)

Size and Impact VII • Emerging exporters are: France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain in Europe and Russia in former Soviet territories ; Malaysia, Singapore, China and India in Asia. • Emerging importers are Mauritius, Qatar, UEA and. Vietnam. • China, India, Malaysia and South Africa are examples of countries that have recently introduced restrictions on institution and programme mobility.

Consumption Abroad • Consumption abroad is the provision of the service involving the movement of the consumer to the country of the supplier; • In higher education it means students going to another country to study. • It is at present the most common of the four modes of supply. • The other three are still marginal and in a phase of trial and error, although –as indicated – programme mobility is increasing rapidly.

Summary picture of Consumption Abroad: International Student Circulation • If we look over the whole period of 1965 -2005, what is most striking are the numbers. India alone sends in 2005 more students abroad than the total number was for 1950 (107. 500), and the ten countries with the largest number of students abroad in 2005 equals the number of all international students of 1985 (939. 000). • Secondly we see an increase in students from emerging countries, but relatively spoken mainly from China, India and South Korea. The Western European and North American countries stabilize their numbers and see a reduction in percentages, and the other developing countries increase but in variations and not with the big numbers as do the other three.

Summary picture of International Student Circulation 2 • The top receiving countries remain to a large extent the same, only Australia has been able to come close to the top 4: U. S. A. , United Kingdom, Germany and France. • If we look at the % of foreign students as part of total enrolment and we do not include the students that move around within Europe (46% of their mobility), Australia has a far higher number of international students (17. 7% of the total student body) than the U. S. A. (4. 6%) and Europe (3. 2%). • The Arab States which had a high position as receiving countries in the sixties and seventies see their position go down after that and become more active in sending than receiving students. Only very recently one can observe efforts by states as Jordan, Dubai and Qatar to become higher education hubs in the region, but the effect of their investments still have to become clear over the years.

Summary picture of International Student Circulation 3 • The efforts of other countries to increase the number of incoming students, such as China, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore already paying off, as is the new role that South Africa plays as receiving country for Sub-Sahara Africa. • Where North-North circulation is stabilizing, the South-North flows are still on the rise and a second flow of South-South circulation is taking place, with the receiving countries being those who Cummings describes as late-development and the sending countries being early-development. • In this also a regionalisation of South-South circulation is taking place: for instance Malaysia concentrating on Southeast and West Asia as well as China and Singapore, and South Africa on Sub-Saharan Africa. • For the top receiving countries, skilled migration is becoming an increasingly more important rationale. Easier visa and work permit regulations are becoming available. • At the same time, higher cost related tuition fees for non-national/regional students are introduced.

Three different Approaches of national strategies for Cross-border education in Asia • Government-Regulated Approach Examples: China, Malaysia and Korea • Market-Oriented Approach Examples: Australia and Hong Kong • Transitional Approach from state-controled to free-market approach Examples: Japan and Taiwan (Futao Huang, 2006, 8)

Regulations regarding foreign providers • Several countries have made new regulations, Example of China • • • Joint ventures must not be operated for profit as main objective Tuition Fees may not be rasided without approval Half of the Board of Directors of joint ventures must be Chinese Development plans must be approved by two-thirds or more of the board members The chief administrative officer responsible for hiring and firing staff must be a Chinese national Joint venture must have a Chinese partner Foreign religious institutions cannot be partners The programmes must follow China’s educaitonal policy and be in line with Chinese public morals and ehtics Curriculum outline and list of teaching materials to be submitted to the ministry for approval • • Bashir, 2007

UNESCO/OECD Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education • Objectives of the guidelines endorsed by OECD and UNESCO: • ‘Students/learners protection’ from the risks of misinformation, low-quality provision and qualifications of limited validity. • Qualifications should be readable and transparent in order to increase their international validity and portability. Reliable and user-friendly information sources should facilitate this. • Recognition procedures should be transparent, coherent, fair and reliable and impose as little burden as possible to mobile professionals. • National quality assurance and accreditation agencies need to intensify their international cooperation in order to increase mutual understanding. • (OECD, 2004, 17) (www. oecd. org/edu/internationalisation/guidelines

Risks of increasing trade in higher education (in particular for developing countries) • Opposition is higher to institution and programme mobility than to student mobility, even though the last one is more substantial and creates potentially more negative impacts (such as brain drain) • Loosing sovereignty over the education sector • Excessive concentration on ‘job-related training’ • Growing inequity in access to higher education • Vulnerability to aggressive not-regulated (not in the home nor in the host country), low quality foreign providers • Unequal access to higher education markets (Bashir, 2007)

Opportunities • Competition will increasingly be based on quality and price. This provides opportunities for intradeveloping trade, similar to what has been described for student mobility. Examples are Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and Qatar. • Low- and middle income countries with a need to increase higher education, can look at commercial presence as an option, also to reduce study abroad and brain drain. Regulation and quality control as maintaining a minium of quality public funding and provision is required.