What Is `Offshore Education'? What Are Joint Venture Schools?

5. `Offshore education' is a component of `export education'.[1] There are a variety of ways in which export education can be defined. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), APEC and other international bodies use the following four classifications:

a. Consumption abroad, in which the student moves to the country of the supplier to receive education (eg. an international student studying in New Zealand);

b. Cross-border supply, in which an educational service is provided across borders but without the movement internationally of either student or teacher (eg. an international student enrolled in a `correspondence' or distance course through a New Zealand provider, but studying from their home country);

c. Commercial presence, in which the provider establishes a presence in the country in which the student resides, for example through a twinning programme or establishment of an offshore campus; and

d. Presence of natural persons, in which the educator moves to the country of residence of the student to provide the service.

6. In practical application, these types of services are often combined. For example, elements of both `commercial presence' and some `consumption abroad' combine to produce `twinning programmes' or `joint ventures', where education providers jointly provide courses leading to a qualification from one or other of the institutions. There may also be an element of provision via distance education (eg. over the internet or by traditional `correspondence' learning), and staff from the provider country may travel to the student's country to deliver or assure quality in some of the course.

7. Twinning programmes and joint ventures do not necessarily involve direct capital investment on the part of both partners. In most instances in the case of New Zealand education providers, direct capital contribution is made by the partner institution in the host economy, while the New Zealand provider may contribute knowledge, expertise, curriculum, teaching staff, accreditation or a combination of these.