International Branch Campus Quality in a Segmented Quality Assurance Environment

Abstract

"This policy paper addresses the question of how well quality assurance systems support the quality of international branch campuses (IBCs) in the United Arab Emirates. There are different systems of quality assurance for IBCs in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Ras Al Khaimah, and a federal system of accreditation that is unevenly utilized across the emirates. Furthermore, the UAE’s 38 IBCs hail from 13 countries, each with its own procedures for regulating branch campus quality1. This complexity results in a segmented quality assurance environment with different quality assurance models applied to the UAE’s branch campuses. This qualitative study is based on interviews with 47 IBC stakeholders conducted in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Ras Al Khaimah from January to April 2012. The paper begins with an overview of the dimensions of quality in higher education and a description of how the UAE’s current quality assurance systems approach quality assurance. The paper then presents the study’s findings on stakeholders’ perceptions of IBC quality assurance in the UAE. Finally, recommendations aimed at improving the alignment between quality assurance and stakeholders’ expectations for IBC quality are presented."

A prospective model for aligning educational quality and student experience in international higher education

“…This is because the prospective approach focuses on eliminating problems before they occur by reflecting on the different student presage factors. In this context, the prospective approach can be considered as the best way to combine the fulfilment of the educational and service quality standards required by TNE exporting countries, with the desired contextualisation which is currently absent in TNE (Bolton and Nie 2010;Farrugia 2012).…”