General Index of Documentary Resources
on Transnational Higher Education
(CD-rom: QA-TNE)
Pre-amble: These documents are part of a collection by Mark Skinner of resources for JCU which emanated primarily from the China-Australia Workshop for Quality Assurance and Management in Transnational Education Delivery held in Beijing and the Off-shore Education Quality Assurance Symposium in Adelaide at the end of 2005. The documents are organised into a number of folders, as outlined below. This general index lists the entries and provides some selected annotations.
Further research on TNE is available through Australian Education International at: http://aei.dest.gov.au/AEI/PublicationsAndResearch/ResearchDatabase/Default.
This site has access to over 5,000 resources.
Folder 1: JCU Policies and Documents
- JCU Policy formulated from 2003, but not on the JCU policies website and maybe not well disseminated. It legislates clear requirements for off-shore ventures, but JCUS is exempted.
- The application of the Privacy Policy in third party situations will be difficult to oversee. Other JCU policies may also be in the same situation. Mechanisms for reviewing and implementing such policies for off-shore will need to be addressed.
- These and the subsequent procedures documents provide guidelines which will be very useful in the production of a wider procedures manual.
- Faculty of Law Business and the Creative Arts, Quality Assurance Procedures for Articulation Agreements (Feb. 2004)
- Interim proposal for QA procedures between the Faculty of Law, Business and Creative Arts and JCUS. Amended by JCUS and used as QA specification in recent off-shore proposal.
- To specify and control access to support services
Folder 2. Australian Government Legislation and Policy
- Australian Education International: Developments in Sino-foreign Programmes and Schools Application Procedures and Lists
- UNISA: Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual
- Considers delivery in LOTE: AQF qualifications and statements of attainment covered by the AQTF must be delivered and assessed at a level of English language proficiency appropriate to the context of delivery. This does not preclude the use of languages other than English (LOTE) to support training delivery and assessment. Where units of competency and/or qualifications have been delivered and assessed entirely in a LOTE, then the language of delivery and assessment should be noted on the testamur
- Includes early moves to regulate quality assurance for course delivery through an agent: if the course is to be offered in special circumstances such as at a distant location or through an agent, the endorsing authority must be satisfied that: the special circumstances will be made clear to students before enrolment; - the facilities and services are of adequate standard for the courses offered ; - in the case of delivery through an agent, the teaching staff are adequately qualified, and effective quality assurance measures are in place, and appropriate guarantees by the principal institution given for the protection of students; the endorsement of the course is not transferable to another provider.
- ESOS Regulations (2001)
- includes: require the partner[s] to be subject to the same academic quality assurance processes as the university itself and monitor these processes throughout the period of the partnership
- Our reputation for high quality is underpinned by our quality assurance measures. We need effective mechanisms to assure quality for the continual improvement of our programs but also to prove to our students, our education partners and to foreign governments that Australian education is of high quality, whether perating in Australia or overseas.
- DEST commissioned to fund projects to strengthen off-shore higher education
- HigherEd support: COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA : Higher Education Support Act 2003
- Cgs: COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA : Higher Education Support Act 2003 guidelines for commonwealth grant scheme (2004)
- This announcement is the current driver of review of off-shore course delivery. It clearly indicates the Governments intention to protect the reputation of Australian Universities by regulating their off-shore activities. The Strategy focuses action in three areas: Better communication and promotion of Australia's quality arrangements to all stakeholders, within Australia and internationally; Increased access to data and information about Australia's transnational education and training; and A strengthened national quality framework , in order to ensure the quality of Australian education and training delivered transnationally.
On 17 November 2005, Education and Training Ministers across Australia agreed a Transnational Quality Strategy framework to ensure the quality of Australian education and training delivered in other countries remains at the forefront internationally.
Folder 3. AVCC QA projects
(These projects were funded to strengthen Australian TNE)
ANU: ANU QA LOTE: A Report into Quality Assurance for Teaching Offshore in a Language Other Than English - Comprehensive key document which applies not only to Lote situations. Appendixes provide checklists and a schedule for LOTE based off-shore delivery
- practical and comprehensive package which has a clear framework and which includes a whole range of checklists. Being adopted by other universities.
- Flinders has produced a whole range of guides for teaching off-shore, including guides for tutors and induction programs for staff and students. Very worthwhile.
- Checklist for external programs
Provides a model framework for TNE. Well worth examining. Based on a four-box model which can be incorporated into three manuals: a Project Initiation Manual, Project Management Manual (one each for the provider and partner institution), and a review manual for QA audit purposes. Also looks to research TNE planning and QA issues at UK and Australian universities with a focus on China and develop a “conceptual framework” for offshore QA, and to produce a manual for professional development.
- UNISA: A Professional Development Framework for Academic Staff Teaching Australian Programs Offshore
- helpful
Folder 4. China Regulations and Documents
AEI have just released a Market update report on Chinese Foreign Cooperations. It includes a translation of the Ministry of Education's latest administrative opinion on current MOE administrative opinion on running foreign cooperations. Section 4v. of the opinion states: "The introduced foreign subjects and major core subjects shall respectively account for more than one third of all subjects and core subjects for the Chinese-foreign co-operatively run education programme. The number and teaching hours of the major core subjects of the responsible teaching staff of the foreign education institution shall respectively account for more than one third of all the subjects and teaching hours of the Chinese-foreign co-operatively run education programme. "
" Article 27. A Sino-foreign cooperative educational institution will carry out administration with respect to teachers and students in accordance with law. The foreign teachers and administrative staff appointed by a sino-foreign cooperative educational institution should have an academic degree at bachelor level or above and the corresponding professional certification, and should have at least 2 years' education or teaching experience. The foreign Sino-foreign school co-operator should select and send a certain number of teachers from its institution to assume teaching positions at the Sino-foreign cooperative educational institution."
- PRC 211 Project University list (2003)
- Regulations of the PRC on sino-foreign cooperation in the running of schools (2003)
- Implementing Measures of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in the Running of Schools (2004)
- List of In-operation Chinese-foreign Joint Education Programs Conferring Foreign and Hong Kong SAR Degrees (2004)
- AEI TNE (2004):
In August and September, the Ministry of Education released the application forms for establishment and review of joint programs and schools. AEI has prepared English translations of these documents. There were also reports of the closure of ten joint programs involving foreign education providers.
As part of on-going developments in transnational education in China, Australian Education International (AEI) China understands that over the last six months the Chinese government has issued several notifications and internal memorandums to all education authorities in order to implement the Implementation Measures of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . This is aimed at ensuring that all Chinese-foreign cooperatively education programs comply with the new legal requirements
The legal and policy environment continues to unfold for transnational education in China . Since the release of Implementation Measures of the Regulations on Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Running Schools in June, the Ministry of Education has released application forms and notifications explaining the review of current joint schools and education programs. There have been reports of greater monitoring of joint education programs by authorities and the notifications point to suspending, in due course, joint schools and education programs that do not comply with the Implementation Measures and other laws.
Folder 5. Hong Kong Regulations
Before any off-campus program of study is launched, the awarding institution should have developed detailed and comprehensive policies governing the offer of these types of programs. There should be quality assurance mechanisms and procedures.
Clear and comprehensive advice on setting up programs.
Folder 6. International Policy
(The AVCC Code of Practice has drawn significantly from the following guidelines)
Folder 7. Publications
(Comprehensive review of education governance across the region)
- Contract negotiation TNE (2005): Good Practice: Contract Negotiation for Transnational Higher Education http://www.obhe.ac.uk/products/reports/
The purpose of this report is to highlight a number of key considerations in the overall process for developing and entering into an overseas collaborative contract. While the context is a collaboration governed by English law and which meets the standards of quality assurance provided for in the UK, the issues are of relevance across borders as they focus on the practical hurdles and pitfalls in working with another institution to deliver higher education in the local jurisdiction.
Report by legal firm in the UK . Strong on highlighting risks of off-shore ventures and risk management.
If the questions relating to registration and licensing are complex, the situation becomes even more complicated when one looks at accreditation and quality assurance of programmes and providers moving across national/ regional jurisdictional borders.
- Useful typologies.
- OBHE National protocols (2006): Globalisation, Institutional Aspirations and Regulation: The Australian National Protocols http://www.obhe.ac.uk/products/reports/
Worthwhile account of a carefully thought through project. Since 1994 the University of Sydney has conducted degree conversions programs, and more recently master's programs, in the Health Sciences in Singapore in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Management. In this paper we position our case study in the larger framework of Australian international education delivered off-shore, briefly outline the history of this relationship, describe the course delivery model, and present a partnership model derived from critical reflection on this successful partnership.
In this paper we discuss some results of an experiment using inexpensive and readily available Internet technologies to overcome those disadvantages.
The purpose of this paper is to examine similarities and differences in how various countries and organisations are using the terms borderless, cross-border, transnational, and offshore education and to identify key and common elements.
- Emphasizes the need to collect data.
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