Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education: A Quality Assurance Perspective

Abstract

In recent years, globalization and internationalization are becoming central issues for higher education worldwide. Globalization has prompted the internationalization of higher education as one of the key new trends in higher education systems. The terms ‘Globalization’ and ‘Internationalization’ are closely intertwined and linked concepts. Whereas globalization is the increasing flow of technology, finance, trade, knowledge, people, values, and ideas across borders internationalization is the process of integrating an international dimension into the teaching, research and services functions of higher education institutions. Forces driving internationalization include: increasing demand for access to higher education; cross-border providers of higher education as a profit-making business; competition to attract the best academic staff and students; international competitiveness to use knowledge for creating knowledge-based economies; the harmonization of higher education to facilitate recognition of academic qualifications; and international cooperation for improving quality of higher education. The internationalization of higher education in its various forms poses major challenges for quality assurance and accreditation. One major impact of internationalization is the pressure created in the development of new mechanisms for recognizing credits and qualifications earned elsewhere. The increase in cross-border student and professional mobility has put the issue of recognition of academic qualifications high on the international agenda. Globalization and internationalization of higher education have made it imperative for quality control measures to be introduced in order to protect students from poor quality education. In the context of growing globalization, there is an urgent need for international initiatives to review the quality assurance mechanisms of higher education provision. There is also a growing agreement on the viewpoint that globalization in higher education urgently asks for a transnational approach to quality assurance and accreditation. This paper examines various literatures regarding globalization and internationalization implications to quality assurance in higher education. It first introduces briefly the concept of globalization and internationalization. Then it discusses some aspects of globalization that include the growing importance of the knowledge economy; trade in education services and private higher education; rapid expansion of distance education and quality concerns; cross-border higher education and quality assurance issues; and the need for recognition of qualifications, and international approach to quality assurance mechanisms and accreditation. Finally, the paper makes some recommendations that might be useful to the Ethiopian context.