The increasing internationalisation of higher education is one of the most significant trends in higher education in the past decades. International student mobility has more than doubled between 2000 and 2013 – and nearly quadrupled since 1990. Cross-border higher education also increasingly takes different forms, with more and more students choosing to enrol in a foreign tertiary education institution or programme in their home country.

The Recommendation of the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) concerning Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education and of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Secretariat (hereafter the Recommendation) was developed to support and encourage international co-operation and enhance the understanding of the importance of quality provision in cross-border higher education. The purpose of the Recommendation is to protect students and other stakeholders from low-quality provision and disreputable providers (that is, degree and accreditation mills) as well as to encourage the development of quality cross-border higher education that meets human, social, economic and cultural needs. Cross-border higher education refers to the international mobility of students, faculty, programmes and institutions. The Recommendation was adopted by the OECD Council on 2 December 2005. OECD and UNESCO members are expected to implement it as appropriate in their national context.

This chapter gives an overview of the main findings of a survey monitoring the extent to which countries’ practices are aligned with the UNESCO/OECD Recommendation concerning Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education. After introducing the purpose and rationale of the Recommendation, the chapter presents the methodology and general conclusions of the report.

This chapter analyses the compliance to the Recommendation by stakeholder. Information was gathered for four of the six stakeholders addressed by the guidelines of the Recommendation: governments, quality assurance agencies, tertiary education institutions and student bodies. The findings show that government practices align the most with the guidelines, followed by tertiary education institutions and quality assurance agencies. Information concerning student bodies remains limited, where these student bodies exist.

This chapter looks at the implementation of the Recommendation from another perspective. The guidelines’ objectives were grouped in six headings to see which ones were best met by current country practices. A same objective, for example collaboration, can indeed be common to all stakeholder guidelines. Among the different broad objectives promoted by the guidelines, countries’ practices are aligned the most with the explicit inclusion of cross-border higher education in countries’ regulatory framework and the transparency in procedures for foreign providers willing to operate in their country.

This concluding chapter analyses the progress of implementation of the Recommendation since 2014, and between 2010 and 2014, showing that practices have become more aligned with the guidelines over the past decade. It then argues that, in spite of new trends in cross-border higher education since the adoption of the Recommendation, the Recommendation remains relevant and countries should continue their efforts to comply with the good practices it highlights.