The single best book on higher education as a global phenomenon. Over the past half-century, globalization has had a profound impact on postsecondary education. The twin forces of mass higher education and the global knowledge economy have driven an unprecedented transformation. These fundamental changes have pulled in opposite directions: one pushes for wider access and accompanying challenges of quality, the other toward exclusive, “world class” research-oriented universities. In Global Perspectives on Higher Education, renowned higher education scholar Philip G. Altbach offers a wide-ranging perspective on the implications of these key forces and explores how they influence academe everywhere. Altbach begins with a discussion of the global trends that increasingly affect higher education, including the implications of mass enrollments, the logic of mass higher education systems around the world, and specific challenges facing Brazil, Russia, India, and China. He considers the numerous implications of globalization, including the worldwide use of the English language, university cross-border initiatives, the role of research universities in developing countries, the impact of the West on Asian universities, and the expansion of private higher education. Provocative and wide-ranging, Global Perspectives on Higher Education considers how the international exchange of ideas, students, and scholars has fundamentally altered higher education.

Today’s academic revolution is unprecedented. Mass higher education has become a worldwide phenomenon, with enrollments growing from 100 million to 150 million in just a decade. The implications of massification are immense—greatly increased participation for a more diverse population including women and many traditionally underrepresented socio-economic groups; the rise of private higher education; diversification of academic institutions and systems; and an overall weakening of academic standards at non-elite institutions in many countries. At the same time, higher education is recognized as a key driver of the new knowledge economy. Because of this research universities, at the top of academic systems, have become central institutions in contemporary society. Trends in Global Higher Education analyses these and other key forces shaping higher education today. Using up-to-date UNESCO statistics, trends defining higher education are placed in a comparative and international framework. Patterns of globalization, the flow of students and scholars across borders, the impact of information technology, and other key forces are critically assessed. This book is a key resource for understanding the present and future of global higher education.

This book examines current trends in global student mobility patterns in several key host and destination countries, including the United States, China, India, South Africa, Mexico, Australia, and Germany, among others, and will explore the national and global-level factors that contribute to these trends.

Introduction: The background for and the ambitions of the current book -- PART 1. The Global Study. External quality assurance: The landscape, the players and developmental trends -- Quality assurance: Legitimacy, efficiency and control issues -- External quality assurance: Comparative reflections -- Institutional quality management: Comparative reflections -- PART 2. Regional Studies. QA in higher education in Africa: A synoptic view -- The Arab States: Quality assurance trends in higher education -- Internal and external quality assurance of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region -- Eastern Europe: Quality assurance trends and challenges -- Latin America and the Caribbean: Quality assurance trends and challenges -- Northern America: Quality assurance trends and challenges -- Western Europe: Quality assurance trends and challenges.

This open access Springer Brief provides a systematic analysis of current trends and requirements in the areas of knowledge and competence in the context of the project “(A) Higher Education Digital (AHEAD)—International Horizon Scanning / Trend Analysis on Digital Higher Education.” It examines the latest developments in learning theory, didactics, and digital-education technology in connection with an increasingly digitized higher education landscape. In turn, this analysis forms the basis for envisioning higher education in 2030. Here, four learning pathways are developed to provide a glimpse of higher education in 2030: Tamagotchi, a closed ecosystem that is built around individual students who enter the university soon after secondary education; Jenga, in which universities offer a solid foundation of knowledge to build on in later phases; Lego, where the course of study is not a monolithic unit, but consists of individually combined modules of different sizes; and Transformer, where students have already acquired their own professional identities and life experiences, which they integrate into their studies. In addition, innovative practice cases are presented to illustrate each learning path.

While the international mobility of students is a well-established feature of higher education, the international mobility of institutions and courses on a large scale is a more novel phenomenon. Transnational education is at the leading-edge of the most fundamental changes taking place in higher education today. Topics discussed in this new volume include: the extent and form of offshore activity the pedagogical and cultural controversies that have plagued transnational education the challenges it presents to governments, educators and HE managers how governments are developing forms of regulation to integrate cross-border programs and branch-campuses into their strategic planning for the sector the new opportunities for students and institutions. Transnational Education presents a global perspective on the development of international online education, partner-supported transnational programs and international branch campuses. It provides a comprehensive and analytical account of the active role some universities are playing on the international stage and offers valuable guidance on future trends in the sector.