Abstract

The widespread growth of transnational education has been accompanied by a lack of strategic focus in higher education institutions involved in transnational education, and by debate over quality assurance issues. These issues prompted Swinburne University of Technology to develop a conceptual framework for a Good Practice Model in Transnational Education in 2005, as a project funded by the Australian government Department of Education, Science and Training. The conceptual framework integrates planning and quality assurance in a whole-of-institution approach, and emphasises strategic guidelines and the client perspective, as well as academic and administrative guidelines.

At the systemic level, the model acts as an organising principle for guidelines for transnational education provision, and provides analytical tools to assess how a particular regulatory framework operates, and what ground it covers.

At the institutional level, the function of the model is to:

• transnational education planning and quality assurance from the concept proposal stage;
• provide a map to university transnational education procedures and logistics as a tool for strategic management;
• monitor university compliance on regulatory issues.

The paper puts forward three strategic principles in transnational education planning and quality assurance which underlie the good practice model; complementarity, priority countries, and the key role of a central international office.