This thesis investigates the nature of the mutual understanding of quality
assurance between two importing countries and Australia, as an exporter, of
transnational higher education. During the first decade of the 21st Century,
transnational education became a significant export for Australia as its
universities used transnational higher education as an important alternative source
of funding. While there has been much interest in promoting the quality of
transnational higher education, there has been little research that investigates the
nature of understanding of transnational quality assurance in higher education
from the perspectives of the less developed importing nations and institutions.
This thesis focuses on quality assurance of transnational higher education from
the perspectives of the importing nations of Singapore and Malaysia and the
exporting nation of Australia. Two new conceptual models are developed. The
first model presents a guide for the study of relationships between different
stakeholder groups in transnational quality assurance. The second model uses the
concepts of policy management and implementation within an organisation to
examine quality assurance of transnational education from both macro and micro
perspectives. The macro-level perspective highlights the different systems and
policies at a national level. At the micro-level, this study examines the
conceptions and experiences of staff members from two Australian universities,
two private higher education providers in Singapore and two private college-universities in Malaysia.
This thesis uses in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 43 staff who work in
offshore education. Located within a qualitative methodology, the primary data
collected and analysed is supported by an examination of secondary data such as
policy documents. The findings demonstrate that, at an institutional level, the
importers and exporters share a common understanding of quality assurance. This
understanding relates to a desire for comparability in standards between offshore
degrees and those on home campuses of the exporting universities. Furthermore,
exporting universities are believed to be accountable for academic quality.