Stamenka Uvalić-Trumbić

Breaking Higher Education's Iron Triangle: Access, Cost, and Quality.

Expansion is now the defining trend in the worldwide development of higher education. Some predict that by 2020, 40 percent of the global workforce will be knowledge workers with a need for tertiary qualifications. So the World Bank, which made basic education its priority in the 1980s and 1990s, is now urging countries that have not yet done so to develop their higher education systems. And indeed, most claim that they want to join the knowledge society by following the example of developed countries, where age participation rates (APRs) in higher education of 40 to 50 percent are now perceived as necessary for sustained and sustainable development.

From Innocence to Experience: The Politics and Projects of Cross-Border Higher Education

Many developing countries are struggling to increase access to higher education (HE) since their age participation rates (APRs) are well below the level that the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) consider necessary for sustained national development. New providers are proliferating and more HE now occurs across national borders. Today programs and institutions cross borders as well as students and the range of cross-border higher education (CBHE) include branch campuses of reputable institutions, foreign open universities, for-profit providers, IT companies delivering certificate programs, and corporate universities. CBHE entered the political arena when the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) declared HE tradable in 1995. The debate triggered by this declaration continues today. This chapter examines the politics and projects of CBHE by examining global trends and then looking at the challenges posed by private providers, open & distance learning (ODL) and eLearning, quality assurance, and degree mills.