INQAAHE Talks on July 7, 2022
Cross-Border Education: Quality Assurance and Recognition Practices, Challenges and Opportunities
July 7, 2022 (Thursday)
11:30 – 13:00 BST (UTC+1)
10:30-12:00 (UTC)
This webinar focuses on cross-border education, also referred to as transnational education (TNE), intended as the provision of study programmes in countries different from the ones in which the degree-awarding body is located. TNE has the inherent potential to widen access to quality international education to students who are not able or willing to travel internationally to pursue their studies.
Over the past 20 years or so the international education community has seen a significant and steady increase in TNE provision, in terms of number of education providers, students, models, and countries and regions involved. However, there are still important challenges to its growth, challenges often related to its recognition and quality assurance.
In this webinar we will be hearing from different quality assurance bodies, with different experience of and approaches to the quality assurance and regulation of cross-border education. Prof. Khairul Mohamed Sahari, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and Dr. Nitesh Sughnani, Director of University Quality Assurance at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) of Dubai will share the perspective of two different receiving locations of TNE. Dr. Abi Coveney, Senior Risk Manager/TNE lead at the Office for Students in England, and Dr. Kushnood Haq, Vice President for Institutional Field Relations at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) in the USA, will share their different experiences and approaches from a sending location perspective.
The conversation and discussion will be informed by the recorded contributions of two sets of stakeholders, TNE providers and qualification recognition bodies. We will hear the different views about challenges and opportunities associated with cross-border education and its growth, with a focus on quality assurance, from Dr. Samantha Young, Director Office of Quality & Policy at Monash University (Australia), Prof. Frank Haddleton, Director of Academic Quality at the University of Hertfordshire (UK), Beka Tavartkiladze, Senior Director, Global Education and Knowledge, Word Education Services (WES), and Mengyu Liu, (former) Director Recognition Department at the Chinese Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE).
The recording of this session is available on INQAAHE’s YouTube channel.
The following speakers joined us in this session:
Dr. Khairul Salleh Mohamed Sahari
Dr. Khairul Salleh Mohamed Sahari is currently the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (Quality Assurance) of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) since May 2019. As the Deputy CEO (Quality Assurance), he is responsible for all quality assurance (QA) activities of the agency which includes policy and standards development, QA assessor development and assignment, accreditation of higher education programmes and providers in the country, equivalency evaluation of foreign qualifications, comparability exercises on QA processes and outcomes, accreditation of prior experiential learning and internal management of the agency. Prior to the current post, he was a professor at Universiti Tenaga Nasional (The Energy University), holding the posts of Assistant Vice Chancellor (Academic), Director of Strategic Planning Centre and senate member of the university, among others. He is also an active assessor for accreditation of engineering programmes under the Board of Engineers Malaysia. Dr. Khairul obtained his Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from Waseda University, Japan in 2000, and his PhD in Engineering from Kanazawa University, Japan in 2006 respectively. He is a senior member of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and is a Professional Engineer registered with the Board of Engineers, Malaysia.
Dr. Nitesh Sughnani
Dr. Nitesh Sughnani is the Director of Higher Education at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). Nitesh, has been with the KHDA since 2008 and is responsible for the licensing, quality assurance and regulation of higher education institutions set up in Dubai’s free zones. This includes quality assurance activities through the University Quality Assurance International Board (UQAIB), and Higher Education Classification (HEC) rating project. Nitesh is on the Board of various international organizations including the Association for Transnational Higher Education (ATHEA) and TNE QB (part of UKNARIC). Nitesh Sughnani has a doctoral degree in higher education management from the University of Bath, UK.
Dr. Abi Coveney
Dr. Abi Coveney is a Senior Risk Manager in the Office for Students’ Compliance and Student Protection directorate. She has held a variety of roles at the Office for Students, covering areas including monitoring and intervention, market entry, and market exit. She previously worked at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, focusing on private higher education providers. Abi’s policy interest is the regulation of transnational education, working to ensure that students studying with an English provider overseas benefit from the same regulatory protections as those studying within the UK.
Dr. Kushnood Haq
Dr. Kushnood Haq joined the MSCHE staff as a Vice President of Institutional Field Relations in 2017. In this role, he serves as a liaison to member institutions, provides training and advice to institutions and volunteers, supports the accreditation decision-making work of the Commission, and leads the organization’s business planning process. Dr. Haq came to MSCHE from Hilbert College in Hamburg, NY, where he was Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Chair of the Professional Studies Division. In that capacity, he was responsible for planning and implementing new academic programs and strategic initiatives for the College. Prior to Hilbert, he was a faculty member and then Vice President for Academic Affairs at D’Youville College in Buffalo, NY. Dr. Haq has extensive teaching, research, and professional experience in the field of business and international business. He earned his Ph.D. in International Trade from the State University of New York at Buffalo, his M.B.A. from St. Bonaventure University (NY), and his B.S. from Canisius College (NY).
The session was chaired by:
Dr. Fabrizio Trifiro
Dr. Fabrizio Trifiro’ is an international expert in quality assurance and international education. He heads Ecctis (formerly UK NARIC) quality benchmark services aimed at supporting the international recognition of qualifications in challenging areas, and leads strategic engagement with key international stakeholders. In this role Fabrizio developed the TNE Quality Benchmark and TVET Quality Review and Accreditation, the only international schemes aimed at improving international understanding and trust of TNE and TVET qualifications respectively, regardless of countries of origin.
Prior to joining NARIC, Fabrizio was with the UK Quality Assurance Agency for over 10 years, where he led on the quality assurance of UK TNE, the international students experience, and cross-border cooperation with international QA bodies and networks.
