UNESCO sets guidelines to protect quality of higher education for foreigners

Faced with the exponential growth of higher education, from traditional universities to virtual organizations specializing in e-learning, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is co-sponsoring a set of guidelines to protect students studying abroad from low-quality services.

“Quality is an issue,” UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Peter Smith said of the guidelines drawn up in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of 30 industrialized countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy.

“The Organization (UNESCO) has long encouraged the internationalization of education and the involvement of a range of partners, but we must also protect students from inadequate learning resources, low-quality provisions, degree mills and bogus institutions,” he added.

The Guidelines spell out the responsibility of foreign providers to deliver programmes of comparable quality to their domestic provision, encourage the establishment of a comprehensive system of quality assurance and accreditation and emphasize the need for increased transparency on quality, which will allow students to make informed decisions and facilitate recognition of qualifications.

They bring together various stakeholders and stress the need for collaboration and invite student bodies to get involved as active partners of quality provision.

This is the first time that UNESCO and the OECD have collaborated in developing guidelines in this way. Although not binding, their endorsement by two international organizations grouping 191 countries gives them significant force.

The two will continue working together to implement the Guidelines. UNESCO will take the lead in capacity-building such as aiding governments in developing regulatory frameworks, organizing regional and sub-regional workshops, and developing toolkits and other training materials. And the two will together develop an international portal listing all recognised higher education institutions/providers.

An estimated 2 million foreign students are studying in OECD nations, 61 per cent of them from outside the OECD. According to UNESCO statistics, out of every 10 tertiary students studying abroad, five are Asians, three are Europeans and one is African. Half of all foreign study takes place in Europe and one-quarter in the United States.

The range of providers has also dramatically evolved from traditional universities to e-learning, and from private companies and international corporations to partnerships between private and public groups. According to the OECD, the higher education market in its member states is conservatively worth some $40 billion annually.