Guest editorial: New opportunities and challenges for the future cooperation and trust building of global higher education

Citation

Hotta, T. (2024), "Guest editorial: New opportunities and challenges for the future cooperation and trust building of global higher education", Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICE-05-2024-059

This special issue, “New Opportunities and Challenges for the Future Cooperation and Trust Building of Global Higher Education,” features contributions from eight internationally renowned scholars. All articles explore the potential for developing international trust and cooperation in global higher education. Four articles focus on regional development, while the remaining four examine various aspects of global higher education. This issue aims to provide an understandable and valuable resource for the millions of stakeholders involved in developing the future of regional, national and institutional higher education.

“The Journal of International Cooperation in Education” (hereafter referred to as JICE) stands out as a unique open-access journal, freely accessible to all contributors and readers, while upholding rigorous external review processes and academic standards. This accessibility enables a broad global readership to engage in discussions led by distinguished researchers on international cooperation in education. This unique offer became possible due to the Center for International Cooperation in Education (CICE) at Hiroshima University in Japan, which has generously funded the publication costs. CICE is a research institute dedicated to advancing international educational cooperation. Publishing JICE is one of its major activities to advance education development, especially in economically less-developed nations and regions.

Recent global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, international political disputes and rapid technological innovation, have introduced unprecedented uncertainty to the global landscape. Consequently, the future direction of global higher education development has become increasingly unpredictable. Before the pandemic, global higher education witnessed a steady rise in international student mobility, the emergence of joint study programs, enhanced transparency and compatibility in educational systems regionally and advancements in quality assurance.

Notably, the significant reform of European higher education known as the “Bologna Process” exemplified the globalization of higher education pre-pandemic, driven by enhanced cooperation and trust-building among European governments and higher education institutions. After the “Bologna Process,” similar endeavors to foster cooperation and coordination have been undertaken in Asia and other regions, aiming to facilitate student exchanges, joint degree programs and the establishment of aligned frameworks for educational systems within their respective regions. However, these reforms remain incomplete and necessitate further growth to achieve a truly trusted and cooperative global higher education system.

One major challenge facing global higher education is the substantial disparities in educational systems, encompassing academic calendars, credit systems, program content and quality, teaching methodologies and methods of assessing academic performance. These differences often act as significant barriers to international cooperation and exchanges among educational institutions across different countries. To address this challenge, UNESCO has advocated for regional and global agreements on the recognition of qualifications in higher education since the 1980s, promoting the mutual recognition of diverse educational qualifications worldwide.

UNESCO's regional and global conventions since the 1980s have played a vital role in fostering mutual understanding and cooperation concerning the recognition of various educational qualifications among global higher education institutions. This includes recent developments in recognizing non-traditional education modalities, such as micro-credential coursework and online education, which present both opportunities and challenges for advancing global higher education. Therefore, in this special issue, we aim to compile the opinions of various experts on the theme “How can we build mutual trust and cooperation in global higher education in the future?”

The first set of four articles focuses on developing regional cooperation and mutual trust in higher education in each region, i.e. Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Hans de Wit and Lizhou Wang provide an overview of Europe's journey towards mutual trust and cooperation, spanning from the establishment of the EU to the Bologna Process, the Lisbon Strategy and subsequently the “European Universities Initiatives” spanning over 70 years. Their article separates the European stages of such development into 7 periods. In the end, the article recommends nine specific points for other regional developments of higher education in the future.

Danilo Romeu Streck et al. delve into the development of mutual trust and cooperation in the Latin American region. They commence with an overview of regional cooperative development from economic, political and cultural perspectives, highlighting the absence of a strong unity among Latin American regions due to differing colonial experiences. The article then explores recent developments in regional alignment and cooperative initiatives in higher education, concluding with insights from experts representing various Latin American nations.

James Otieno Jowi discusses the initiatives to build regional cooperation and trust, particularly focusing on Africa. The article underscores the youthfulness of most African universities compared to their counterparts in developed regions, emphasizing the challenges African higher education institutions and governments face in catering to a rapidly growing number of university students. Jowi advocates for international and regional partnerships to collectively enhance the capacity of higher education for African students.

Naoki Umemiya et al. present the findings of a student survey conducted among returnees from the regionally integrated student mobility program known as the “Asian International Mobility for Students (AIMS) Programme.” The article elaborates on how AIMS Programme graduates evaluate the quality of this trans-Asian student mobility initiative, which is managed by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Centre for Higher Education for Development (SEAMEO-RIHED) and involves over 80 participating universities across Southeast Asian nations, South Korea and Japan. This unique article offers insights into students' perspectives on their experiences within this cross-national educational program.

The AIMS Programme is a notable example of efforts by Asian nations and higher education institutions to foster trust and cooperation in education across Asia, particularly within ASEAN nations, China, South Korea and Japan. These nations have grappled with harmonizing their higher education systems since the 1980s, developing various types of student mobility programs, including University Mobility in Asia and Pacific (UMAP), ASEAN University Network (AUN), Collective Action for the Mobility Program of University Students (Campus Asia) and the AIMS Programme.

Additionally, these nations have endeavored to enhance mutual quality assurance activities and advance aligned educational frameworks, especially concerning regional credit transfer. At the Fourth ASEAN Plus Three Education Ministers Meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on November 1, 2018, these 13 Asian nations approved the concept of Asian Academic Credits (AACs) as a referential tool as part of the “ASEAN Plus Three Guidelines on Transcripts and Supplemental Documents for Academic Records of Exchange Students,” facilitating one-on-one credit transfers among Asian universities (Hotta, 2020).

Moving on to the second group of four articles, experts examine future opportunities and challenges in building mutual trust and cooperative relationships among global higher education institutions from various perspectives. Robert Wagenaar focuses on measuring learning outcomes based on standards of generic and subject-specific competencies. The article provides an overview of how these standards were developed under the “Tuning Educational Structures in Europe” (TUNING) project and subsequently expanded into the “Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes” (AHELO) project involving non-EU countries. Moreover, Wagenaar introduces the new “Measuring and Comparing Achievements of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Europe” (CALOHEE) project and examines whether the developments made by European nations and higher education institutions during and after the Bologna Process adequately demonstrate the quality and relevance of learning in light of present-day societal challenges and the transformative effects of information technology on everyday life.

Angela Yung Chi Hou et al. offer a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of the quality assurance (QA) field over the past two decades, particularly in Asian higher education. Their discussion covers how QA agencies and global discussions have adapted to fulfill their mission and establish QA systems and rules in global higher education. Despite this, QA agencies encounter significant challenges due to diverse national and institutional reactions toward their activities. The article particularly focuses on the establishment of “International Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education” (ISGs) by the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) in 2022, which are poised to introduce a novel methodology for addressing future challenges in academic quality.

Jane Knight discusses the significance of supra-national regional universities as exemplars of advanced regional university cooperation founded on mutual trust. Knight argues that the “FOPA” framework, representing functional, organizational and political approaches, is crucial for success in these highly integrated higher education institutions. The article introduces the University of West Indies, the Arab Open University and the Pan-African University as examples of supra-national regional universities worldwide, exploring the relationships between regionalization and internationalization of higher education.

Shingo Ashizawa et al. discuss the current situations and future challenges of developing micro-credentials (hereafter MCs) internationally. This newly developed short period of educational coursework was initially designed for re-training and re-skilling workers but has since spread to many educational institutions. The article focuses particularly on the cases of Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia as leading models in Asia and the Pacific region, where governments and QA agencies have actively recognized the utilization of MCs. Ashizawa et al. emphasize the importance of international cooperation and joint work to develop the system of recognizing MCs as a part of regular higher education.

All eight articles assert that building trust and cooperative relationships among stakeholders is crucial for developing future global higher education. However, such development also requires time, strong commitment and a clear direction for all stakeholders to work together. Suppose we have the time and strong commitment of all stakeholders; the hardest challenge will be how to establish a clear direction. Returning to the beginning of this note, one major obstacle will be “diversity.” Global higher education exhibits highly diversified systems, implementation methods and standards of measurement. We have already experienced that the alignment process of such diversified higher education worldwide takes a long period of time. At the final stage, we may be unable to establish a “single” direction. However, the single direction can be specific to a broader definition of future direction. UNESCO regional conventions and a recent global convention emphasize the importance of friendly acceptance of small differences. A sense of inclusiveness must be encouraged by all stakeholders to accomplish future cooperation and trust-building in global higher education.