Cross-border tertiary education refers to the movement of people, programmes, providers, curricula, projects, research and services in tertiary or higher) education across national jurisdictional borders. Cross-border education is a subset of educational internationalisation and can be part of development cooperation projects, academic exchange programmes and commercial initiatives. The focus of this volume is on the mobility of students, programmes and providers/institutions.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general introduction to the different types, forms, modes, rationales and providers of cross-border education. This will facilitate the discussion in the following chapters of cross-border education as a national capacity-building tool.

While several OECD countries compete to attract foreign students, some pioneering emerging economies show that an innovative strategy for the import of cross-border education can form a part of a national capacitybuilding strategy. Could this be a suitable model for developing countries to build capacity in tertiary education, and more generally, to accelerate economic development? This chapter argues that this is the case.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine quality assurance as an important part of a capacity-building strategy. It looks at the issue of quality assurance in tertiary education with particular attention to the concerns of developing countries, where resources and competencies are often more limited.

This chapter explores opportunities and challenges of developing capacity in higher education through enhanced trade and investment, and in the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It shows that while many of the policies needed to manage liberalisation of tertiary education services are not shaped by the GATS, the Agreement can affect the regulatory conduct of governments in some areas of tertiary education. If appropriately designed, bound liberalisation under the GATS can contribute to the advancement of national objectives by improving investor’s confidence when countries decide to allow private sector participation in higher education.

The Guidelines aim to support and encourage international cooperation and enhance the understanding of the importance of quality provision in cross-border higher education.2 The purposes of the Guidelines are to protect students and other stakeholders from low-quality provision and disreputable providers3 as well as to encourage the development of quality cross-border higher education that meets human, social, economic and cultural needs.