Regulatory Environment For Offshore Education Provision

19. Domestic legislative, regulatory and policy guidelines surrounding offshore education provision by New Zealand education providers are limited. New Zealand's Education Act was introduced in 1989 when export education activities were a lesser part of education activity. While the provisions of the Act can potentially be extended to apply to offshore provision, issues arise in terms of investing and borrowing; employment arrangements; enrolment; quality assurance requirements; copyright, trademark and intellectual property issues; and, teaching and learning.

20. The New Zealand Government is concerned that the reputation of New Zealand qualifications be maintained, regardless of whether they are delivered in New Zealand or overseas. New Zealand providers offering courses leading to approved qualifications overseas as either stand-alone or joint ventures must obtain separate, site-specific accreditation in addition to normal requirements for approval and accreditation for on-shore delivery and assessment.

21. These separate requirements reflect the substance of formal agreements between overseas quality assurance and certification bodies and those in New Zealand, and are modelled on requirements established by the NZVCC's CUAP. CUAP's guidelines apply when:

a. there is a formal agreement between institutions to provide courses taught by an overseas institution (including web-delivered courses) towards a New Zealand programme; and

b. when the overseas contribution constitutes the core of a programme, a major or sub-major, or is more than 0.5 EFTS weighting within the programme.

22. Any MOU must be between institutions, not between individual departments or staff members.

23. Accreditation to offer any NZQA-approved qualification overseas is site-specific. Any New Zealand-based provider operating overseas must provide evidence to the NZQA that the overseas operations:

are covered by the provider's quality management system;

are consistent with the standards of the provider's New Zealand operations;

comply with legal requirements in the particular country; and

are acceptable to the relevant educational authorities in the particular country.

24. The NZQA requires additional information for New Zealand providers offering approved courses leading to qualifications overseas as collaborative, `twinning', franchise or joint venture activities with an overseas provider:

a. a statement on the standing of the overseas provider and evidence that they meet appropriate quality and course management requirements. The requirements must essentially be equivalent to those expected of a New Zealand provider;

b. a formal memorandum of cooperation between the New Zealand provider and the overseas provider. This must include a detailed outline of processes for the management and award of the qualification for students, including the provisions for the management of students and student results should the proposed arrangement cease to operate;

c. details of the quality assurance processes applying to the overseas provider, where appropriate, with respect to the approval, accreditation and monitoring of the particular course under consideration.

25. Courses delivered overseas that lead to the award of New Zealand qualifications are subject to the same monitoring requirements as courses delivered within New Zealand, and the monitoring process may be extended to meet requirements of any relevant overseas accreditation body.

26. In addition, where courses are delivered in conjunction with an overseas provider, the monitoring process must include a formal evaluation of the effectiveness of the collaborative arrangements.

27. The New Zealand Government is also concerned with management of the risks involved in the provision of offshore education. The major reason for this requirement is to ensure that a New Zealand education provider's financial resources and its equity are not subject to undue financial risk and possible loss, thus safeguarding the interests of the provider and its students. The Ministry of Education provides advice to tertiary education providers on effective risk management approaches.[1] Risk in offshore education falls into the following categories:

• strategic risks (is the venture part of an integrated overall distance education or international education strategy?);
• financial risks (does a robust multi-year business case underpin the venture? are financial and non-financial risks monitored, reported and acted upon?);
• operational risks (has due diligence been undertaken on partners and on the different legal framework in the host country? is management distracted from parent entity eg. long CEO absences?); and
• academic risks (are local and New Zealand accreditation issues addressed? are retention and achievement targets/strategies in place? what are the attitudinal and/or cultural differences in teaching and learning offshore?).

28. The Ministry recommends a strategic approach, ensuring offshore education is part of an overall integrated medium-term institution-wide strategy. Links with the local community should be well-developed and robust contingency and extraction plans are required.