Whatever happened to the promise of online learning?
The state of global online higher education

In 2017/18, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education paid particular attention to online learning and blended learning, conducting a series of country case studies which culminated with this comprehensive report.

The stimulus for OBHE’s case study series was the tension between the scope, diversity and relative maturity of online higher education around the world, and the near absence of studies assessing the significance of online higher education on a global or cross-border level.

Case studies were published on: China (forthcoming), Egypt, England, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sub-Saharan Africa, United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America. Among the countries looked at, five categories emerge:

• Distance, Not Online. Large distance learning sector with little or no use of online learning beyond some MOOC enthusiasm (e.g. Egypt, India)
• Marginal. Strong growth in campus enrolment, with some online elements. Most distance learning is blended with in-person study centres (e.g. Saudi Arabia, UAE)
• Blurred Growth. A poorly defined combination of informal, distance and online learning enrolment continues to out-perform the overall market (e.g. Mexico, Spain)
• Clear Growth. A clear online distance learning sector continues to out-perform the overall market (e.g. United States)
• Peaked/Decline. Online enrolment growth has been at the expense of the national distance university. Online enrolment is peaking or is in decline (e.g. England, South Korea)

This report offers lessons from the twelve case studies and stands back to draw some conclusions about the significance and direction of online higher education globally.

To gain access to our report and case studies, which are exclusive to OBHE subscribers, become a member. A summary of report findings is available to all.

15 August 2018

Tertiary Edge: Employment rates and earnings premiums of Germany’s university graduates

Rachael Merola, Senior Researcher, OBHE

Germany has been a dynamic and powerful force in higher education in recent years. It eliminated tuition fees at public universities in 2014, has 44 universities in the world’s top university rankings, and enrolls 15% of all tertiary students in the EU. This article explores the growth of Germany’s tertiary education, looking at data on attainment, employment rates and earnings premiums.  

Full article available for members.

7 August 2018

Counting Everything (except outcomes)- Looking for data on student success in Kenya

Richard Garrett, Director, OBHE

Mature higher education systems struggle with student success data- what to collect, what to report, how to meet the needs of different stakeholders- so what do less developed systems do? 

Full article available for members.

20 July 2018 

Usual and Unusual. Looking for data on student success in Singapore

Richard Garrett, Director, OBHE

As part of OBHE’s 2018 focus on student success and outcomes, we are working a number of country case studies. The goal is to summarize how specific countries define and report student success. Our series selects countries from various global rankings of national higher education systems, such as QS and Universitas 21. Diversity by region and size informed our selection.

Our series kicks off with Singapore, ranked ninth best higher education system in the world in 2018 by Universitas 21. The U21 ranking includes a number of “output” measures, but only two concern student outcomes:

1)      Percentage of the population aged 25–64 with a tertiary qualification
2)      Unemployment rates among tertiary educated aged 25–64 years compared with unemployment rates for those with only upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education

The first metric is about graduate quantity in relative terms, while the second uses employment as a proxy for quality. Together, these two metrics account for only 6% of U21’s scoring model.

Inevitably, such rankings rely on data available across multiple countries, which aids comparability but obscures national data differences. The question OBHE wants to ask is what else can we learn about student success in Singapore? The two student success metrics employed by U21 both span forty-year periods, and therefore say very little about any recent innovation around student success definitions, data or reporting.

Singapore covers the basics when it comes to student success and outcomes data- number of graduates and recent graduate employment. The country has also pioneered reporting of TNE student outcomes. 

Full article available for members.

27 June 2018

What do we know about the outcomes of EMI courses in higher education?

Carolyn Walker, OBHE Associate; Consultant in International HE; Former Academic Director at INTO

According to Dr Denise Abreu e Lima (President of Languages without Borders, Brazil), speaking at the British Council’s recent Going Global 2018 conference in Malaysia, “Language is the structure of internationalisation. If a university wants to internationalise they need to invest in language and a language policy”. For many higher education institutions worldwide, recognition of this fact has helped to drive a growing global trend: the teaching of courses through the medium of English, otherwise known as ‘English Medium Instruction’ (EMI) or alternatively ‘English Taught Programmes’ (ETPs). This relatively recent development has been described as a “galloping phenomenon” which is “pandemic in proportion” and “the single most significant current trend in internationalizing higher education”.

Full article available for members.

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