UNESCO/OECD guidelines on “Quality provision in cross-border higher education”.
	In the context of increasing and new forms of cross-border provision of higher education, there is a need for new international initiatives to enhance quality provision in cross-border higher education at a global level by further strengthening quality assurance, accreditation and recognition of qualifications schemes at both national and international levels. UNESCO and OECD have been asked by their respective constituencies to work on the development of non-binding guidelines on “Quality provision in cross-border higher education”. Such guidelines would not supersede individual countries’ authority to regulate the quality assurance and accreditation of their own higher education system. The endeavour will involve the collaboration of both sending and receiving countries of education services and will have global reach. UNESCO and OECD have been asked by their respective constituencies to work on the development of such guidelines according to the resolution of the 32nd session of the General Conference of UNESCO, October 2003, and to the decisions taken at the OECD/CERI Governing Board meeting, October 2003. There are four main policy objectives for the guidelines: · ‘Students/learners protection’ from the risks of misinformation, low-quality provision and qualifications of limited validity. · Qualifications should be readable and transparent in order to increase their international validity and portability. Reliable and user-friendly information sources should facilitate this. · Recognition procedures should be transparent, coherent, fair and reliable and impose as little burden as possible to mobile professionals. · National quality assurance and accreditation agencies need to intensify their international cooperation in order to increase mutual understanding. Final Version of the Guidelines -Final Version of the 'Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education' -Version finale des 'Lignes directrices pour un enseignement supérieur transfrontalier de qualité' Public Consultation on the draft text of the Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education UNESCO together with the OECD has been working on developing the Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education. Three drafting meetings of the Guidelines took place. The first drafting meeting was held on 5-6 April 2004 at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris. The second drafting meeting took place on 14-15 October 2005 at Tokyo University, Tokyo. The third and final drafting meeting took place on 17-18 January 2005 at the OECD Headquarters, Paris. All UNESCO and OECD Member countries as well as stakeholders including higher education institutions, student associations, quality assurance and accreditation agencies, recognition agencies, academic staff associations, professional bodies, private sector and other international organisations were invited to take part in the process. Draft Texts of 15 February 2005: -Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education -Lignes directrices pour un enseignement supérieur transfrontalier de qualité -Results of the public consultation 15 February to 15 March 2005 Following this process, public comments to make the final text more relevant to the needs and concerns of all stakeholders of higher education were invited. Furthermore, participants of the working meeting as well as UNESCO and the OECD member countries were also asked to comment. This consultation took place between 16 February-15 March 2005. The text was revised taking into account comments received. This revised draft was discussed among the OECD member countries at the CERI Governing Board and the Education Committee the beginning of April 2005. This document is also being submitted for decision on next steps to the 171st session of the UNESCO Executive Board. Draft Texts of 17 March 2005: -Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education -Lignes directrices pour un enseignement superieur transfrontalier de qualité

 

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