Cross-border learning / education refers to the movement of people, programmes, providers, curricula, projects, research, and services in education across national jurisdictional borders. Cross-border education is a subset of educational internationalisation and can be part of development cooperation projects, academic exchange programmes and commercial initiatives. It focuses on the mobility of students, programmes, and providers / institutions. Cross-border education is mostly known in higher and VET, but it can also become an integral part of undergraduate education.
Student’s mobility has grown in the past decade. The provision of education abroad, through academic partnerships, franchising, the opening of a branch campus or other arrangements, etc. has also grown significantly. These trends should raise new issues for policy makers and education stakeholders, in advanced economies as well as in developing countries.
Cross-border learning also facilitates active learning to develop life skills and character strengths through interactive workshops, thought-provoking media, and engaging intergroup dialogue processes that empower educators and students. Cross-border learning creates resources that are designed to serve society by strengthening vital skills and characters through engaging media and peer-led intergroup dialogues.
Following you may see the framework for cross-border education.
Quality provision in cross-border higher education.
Higher education is significantly growing due to the increased mobility of students, academic staff and institutions and new delivery modes, such as campuses abroad and Internet-based courses cross-border. This development offers several opportunities for individuals and their societies, but also raises issues about quality, reliability and recognition. The UNESCO/OECD guidelines encourage governments and other stakeholders (higher education institutions, student bodies, and organisations responsible for quality assurance, accreditation, and academic and professional recognition etc.) to take action based on three main principles:
● Mutual trust and respect among countries and recognition of the importance of international collaboration in higher education.
● Recognition of the importance of national authority and the diversity of higher education systems.
● Recognition of the importance of higher education as a means for expressing a country’s linguistic and cultural diversity and also for nurturing its economic development and social cohesion.
The guidelines are designed to help students get access to reliable information on higher education offered outside their home country or by foreign providers in their home country. They call on governments and stakeholders to make qualifications transparent and to provide greater clarity on procedures for their recognition internationally. Although these guidelines are not binding, their endorsement by two international organisations (UNESCO/OECD) have grouped over 190 countries, giving them significant force. Specific recommendations include:
● An invitation to governments to establish comprehensive systems of quality assurance and accreditation for cross-border higher education, recognising that this involves both sending and receiving countries.
● An invitation to higher education institutions and providers to ensure that the programmes that they deliver across borders and in their home-country are of comparable quality and that they also take into account the cultural and linguistic sensitivities of the receiving country.
● An invitation to student bodies to get involved as active partners at international, national, and institutional levels in the development, monitoring and maintenance of the quality provision of cross-border higher education.
