Simon Marginson
Professor and Director
Monash Centre for Research in International Education, Monash
University
The Enterprise University Goes Global:
Cross-border Traffic in Higher Education and Some of the
Implications for Governance
The paper reflects on the fast-changing global setting and some
implications for governance. The global higher education
environment is typified by cross-border flows of students and
staff, increasing in volume; evolving arrangements for
international recognition and quality assurance, including early
discussions about a global regulatory framework; expanding
commercial markets in international education, including on-line
forms of delivery; a vast expansion of cross-border
communications; the growing role of inter-institutional networks
and alliances, including global consortia, that cross national
borders and systems of accreditation and regulation, etc. Higher
education in the English-speaking countries is very active
internationally. Governance in the United States and the other
English-speaking countries will not remain immune from changes of
this magnitude. In the European Union, in the creation of a common
higher education space, some of these issues are already
transforming local and national regulatory traditions. The Council
for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is now monitoring the
international dimension carefully. A key longer-term question is
the possible shape of the global regulatory framework, which can
be understood not simply as a framework for trade but as a global
public good with the potential to facilitate the worldwide
development of higher education. A global regulatory framework
invokes the now familiar global tension between on the one hand
standardization/ homogenization, and on the other hand
facilitation of richer lines of exchange. Present arrangements,
developed in an era in which the nation-state was the fundamental
horizon of governance, vary greatly between countries and regions.
Governance is government-dominated in some countries, while
institutionally controlled in others. In some countries the main
governmental player is the national government; in others state or
provincial governments prevail. Traditions in shared governance
and scholarly input also vary. Clearly, while the national and
local/ institutional dimensions will remain important, the
significance of the global will grow, and the pressure for
cross-country coordination and standardization will increase.
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