CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

(a) joint degrees between different universities, (b) dual degree programmes where both
institutions provide an award, (c) universities establishing branch campuses abroad, (d) colleges
offering both local and foreign qualification, (e) distance and e-learning programmes, and (f)
selling or franchising courses to universities abroad.
These new options open up a universe of different types of relationships that universities may
establish between themselves, where cooperation is very important. International strategies are
diverse and vary, depending on the focus placed either on student mobility or on the
programme and provider mobility. Furthermore, the stage of development of a country will
have an impact on the choice of model. In this respect, Macaranas 21 argues that whilst emerging
economies may prefer the ‘buy’ options, institutions in mature economies need to think of how
their associations add value in overall terms.
Besides all of these possibilities, another element has been incorporated, and it goes beyond the
traditional teaching system, which consists of including research activities as part of the
programmes. In this regard, cooperation for international research is both widening and
deepening, as global issues demand this international approach. Amongst the advantages
derived from cooperation and cross-border projects there are the following: studying problems
in situ; obtaining economies of scale; avoiding costly duplication; providing research students
with an international experience enriching their outlook; combining research beneficiaries and
avoiding problems of free-riding and underfunding; taking advantage from differences in
relative costs in research inputs; gathering the insights from comparative studies; and reducing
technology transfer costs.
Other trends observed in the globalisation of tertiary education in the Asia Pacific in the early
years of the 21 st century have to do with the decreasing role of the state in the education sector.
Although public provision of education at all levels was predominant in the past, privatisation
has caused a dramatic fall in state dominance, particularly for tertiary education and vocational
training. Today’s tendency in educational institutions around the world is to share the
education platform between public and private providers, allowing the student the choice of the
provider that best suits his or her needs (and often financial capabilities). As a result of the
emergence of private education institutions or partially private institutions, the role of
governments shifts from education provider to regulator. Furthermore, the extent of private
contributions is increasing since the sources of funding have also diversified. And the provision
of the remaining public funding is shifting to the consumer (i.e., the student) rather than to the
providers.
The globalisation of education services brings advantages to the training that a global workforce
must receive in order to deal with the demands of the international market. But at the same
time, this wave of globalisation of education implies a strong competition amongst local
providers, whilst setting challenges not just for institutions in this more competitive new
environment but also for governments that must manage more complex programmes and
universities with diverse institutional relationships. The allocation amongst the parties of the
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Macaranas, Federico M. ‘Business Models in Asia-Pacific Transnational Education’, in Findlay and Tierney (eds),
2010.
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