SEAMEO RETRAC, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 20 June 2013 Regulating quality in transnational higher education: How important is intercultural context? P ETER M C D OWELL C HARLES D ARWIN U NIVERSITY

Peter McDowell | 20 June 2013 | Slide 2 Multiple, divergent perspectives (contestation) Aim: transnational higher education as trade Aim: transnational higher education as internationalisation Claim: QA is needed to avoid negative outcomes Claim: QA is infeasible without partnerships Result: overlapping bilateral arrangements In the quality assurance literature

Peter McDowell | 20 June 2013 | Slide 3 A notable lack of critical perspectives QA (regulation) often seen as benign Are international guidelines really necessary? The UNESCO guidelines allow own undermining QA within intercultural contexts is unpredictable Audit culture encourages non-critical acceptance of norms and standards Critical perspectives in the literature

Peter McDowell | 20 June 2013 | Slide 4 Plenty of reflexivity and theoretical dialogue From communicative to intercultural competence Earlier: referencing against a target culture Superseded by an emergent, pluri-cultural ideal Manifold contextualised interactions Ongoing negotiation of real and imagined worlds Metaphor of the ‘third place’ Intercultural communication

Peter McDowell | 20 June 2013 | Slide 5 Bilateralism mimics target culture referencing International guidelines ‘defining’ competency Both of these goals have been superseded in the theory of intercultural communication Currently a ‘third place’ exists at the margins Bilateralism limits the openness, dynamism, and virtuality needed for the acquisition of intercultural competence (cultural context is vital) Revisiting quality assurance

Peter McDowell | 20 June 2013 | Slide 6 Sociology: problematic concept of ‘nation’ Geography: ‘nation’ connected to the imaginary Geography: spatiality, territoriality are persistent Politics, ethics: cosmopolitanism, citizenry Education: entrenched institutions, pedagogies International relations: status of English Various responses to the effects of globalisation Alternative perspectives

Peter McDowell | 20 June 2013 | Slide 7 The various, relevant disciplines tend to support one another conceptually, foundationally Disciplines overflowing their own boundaries Expanding views on transcultural practices Identity formation within educational settings Disciplinary transitions, transformations QA (regulation) is intercultural semiosis Transdisciplinarity

Peter McDowell | 20 June 2013 | Slide 8 Citation (full paper): McDowell, P. (2013, June). Regulating quality in transnational higher education: How important is intercultural context? Proceedings of the International Conference on Impacts of Globalization on Quality in Higher Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Contact: Thank you