International Students at Indian Universities

Issues and Implications The national-level issues related to registration and licensing of cross-border providers, quality assurance, accreditation and recognition of qualifications affect individual providers and, especially, higher education institutions. The quality of academic programs starts with the provider delivering the program. Most higher education institutions employ adequate quality assurance procedures for domestic delivery but not necessarily for all the aspects of cross-border delivery. Working cross-culturally in a foreign regulatory environment and, potentially, with a partner can raise new issues—including academic entry requirements, student examination and assessment procedures, workload, delivery modes, adaptation of the curriculum, quality assurance of teaching, academic and sociocultural support for students, title and level of award, and others. Quality issues also need to be balanced with the financial investment and return to the source provider. Intellectual property ownership, choice of partners, division of responsibilities, academic and business risk assessments, and internal and external approval processes constitute only some of the issues the higher education institutions need to resolve. The growth in the volume, scope, and dimensions of crossborder education may provide increased access and promote innovation and responsiveness of higher education, but these developments also bring new challenges and unexpected consequences. The current realities include the fact that unrecognized and rogue cross-border providers are active, that much