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A Framework for Quality Assurance in Globalization of Higher Education: A View Toward the Future

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Abstract

In this paper we theorize a framework for discussing quality assurance of globalized models of education used internationally. The philosophical assumption that homogeneity of perspectives achieves objectivity in practice is argued against using the examples of (a) Brain drain, and (b) Profit over quality. We present a coherent real world scenario for the abstract ideas on inequities in Sriraman and Adrian (Interchange Q Rev Educ 39(1):119–130, 2008) with a meta-analytical support of the literature.

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Notes

  1. Globalization in this article is defined to encompass the corporate globalization as well as globalization from bottom up due to the spread of information technology in the noosphere (Sriraman and Adrian 2008). For a more subtle treatment of the semantics of synonyms such as globalization and internationalizations, please refer to Sumner’s (2008) expose in Interchange.

  2. The World Bank seems to adopt contradictory stances with regards to viable bases for the governance of higher education. In an earlier report titled The Financing and Management of Higher Education, they urged “a more radical change, or restructuring…which means altering who the faculty are, how they behave, the way they are organized, and the way they work and are compensated” (Johnson et al. 1998, p. 22).

  3. Global higher education systems are plagued with both opportunities and disadvantages for the students they target as a function of the tier. Public 4 year and 2 year colleges in addition to some private 4-year colleges recruit students that are unable to attend tier 1 or elite institutions, and many of these students come from socio-economic backgrounds that reflect the economic stratification in their own countries (Arum et al. 2012).

  4. Hostetler’s accounts have been interpreted to mean a perpetuation of the status-quo of neo-classical economics. Contrary to this interpretation being one in which each individual seeking to maximize their desires within the existing monetary devices in place, it places the onus of existential responsibilities on institutions to check marketization.

  5. Caveat Emptor: The Shanghai ranking system is viewed as problematic by academic researchers in the Nordic countries. The most troubling development foreseen for the Nordic community of researchers is increased pressure from their institutions to publish in ISI listed journals for the sake of furthering their institutions ranking within arbitrary schemes such as the Shanghai World Ranking of Universities, or for the sake of procuring extra-mural funding from external bodies that value citation counts. (Sriraman 2012).

    The corporatization of universities in the Nordic world by borrowing or mimicking trends seen “across the (Atlantic) pond” does not bode well for scholarship or the basic purpose of academia. The Nordic world of mathematics education research is currently in a position where it can impose the “scale” of its own choosing. Only time will tell if the Nordic countries sustain their spirit of co-operation with one another, and the sharing of resources or whether they also succumb to the whims and vicissitudes of the competitive market economy (Sriraman 2012).

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dwight Irvin for his valuable input in the previous version of this manuscript, and the anonymous editorial panel for their insightful commentaries to improve the end product.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Jennifer Job

  2. The University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Bharath Sriraman

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  1. Jennifer Job
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  2. Bharath Sriraman
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Correspondence to Bharath Sriraman.

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Job, J., Sriraman, B. A Framework for Quality Assurance in Globalization of Higher Education: A View Toward the Future. Interchange 43, 75–93 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-013-9186-y

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