Who Should Make Sure Overseas Education Programs Are Worth Their Salt?

By Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser. Making sure that cross-border higher-education efforts offer quality programs can be a conundrum. The problem is that quality assurance remains centered in nations and defined by political borders. There is no shortage of organizations and proposals to remedy this problem, as we were reminded by the recent announcement of a new International Quality Group sponsored by the U.S.-based Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
But even in Europe, which because of the Bologna Process has been dealing with this issue longer than anyone, countries remain responsible for ensuring the quality of the higher education offered within their borders. Thus, when colleges and universities cross borders to offer their academic programs in a foreign land, they must deal with multiple expectations—and sometimes competing expectations—about how to assure the quality of their programs. Read More ...