ENQA President and Director, Douglas Blackstock and Anna Gover, presented a paper on the quality assurance of trans-national education (TNE) at the 2023 European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF).
The paper explores the need for robust and clearly defined quality assurance policies for trans-national education in order to protect student interests, and ensure that they are receiving the same quality of education as that delivered in the institution’s home country. There is currently a lack of clear lines of responsibility and transparent information about how TNE is quality assured, risking both duplication and gaps in coverage. Input for the paper was received from some of ENQA’s global partners, in Hong Kong, Latin America, and Africa. While these regions clearly recognise the benefits that TNE has to offer for the local population, there are very real concerns about standards, recognition of qualifications, and value for money. These concerns have led some regions, where capacity allows, to develop their own requirements for the quality assurance of incoming TNE.
The paper includes a review of the existing tools to support the quality assurance of TNE and a call for stakeholders in the most prominent sending countries to lead by example. ENQA also recognises the role it has to play in facilitating dialogue and information sharing, as well as strengthening awareness and use of existing tools. The Association is currently discussing how it can best address this topic through further activities.
The paper is available here.