Inter-Agency Cooperation in the Quality Assurance of Transnational Education: Challenges and Opportunities

Overview & Synopsis

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.