TNE presents a quality challenge. Here’s how we solve it
There are now over 600,000 trans-national education (TNE students studying for UK qualifications around the world.
The UK government’s International Education Strategy has made it clear that transnational education (TNE) is expected to play an increasingly important role in the future of UK HE.
The sustainability of UK TNE is dependent upon its reputation, and that reputation is founded upon its quality. The pace of expansion, the breadth of international opportunities and global competition, evolving student expectations and economic, technological and industrial developments have resulted in unprecedented challenges to the maintenance of that quality, and made it essential that providers work to promote cultures of continual enhancement.
The quality of TNE
That’s where we come in. In 2021, we at QAA introduced our scheme for the Quality Evaluation and Enhancement of UK Transnational Education (QE-TNE), commissioned by Universities UK and GuildHE, and involving the participation of more than 70 institutions. Last week, following extensive consultation with sector stakeholders, we launched the new iteration of the UK TNE Quality Scheme, revised and refreshed to meet the challenges and opportunities of this fast-changing global education environment.
Commissioned by Universities UK, GuildHE and Independent HE, and supported by University Alliance and MillionPlus, the new iteration opens for renewals and sign-ups in April.
The first five years of the scheme have focused on evaluating and supporting the enhancement of UK TNE provision in more than a dozen countries. We have produced detailed reports on the effective practices developed by – and the challenges faced by – institutional partnerships in those territories, as well as guides to establishing and operating transnational provision in those parts of the world.
Scheme members have been generous in supplying case studies for others to learn from: Queen Margaret University walked us through what it’s like to deliver provision in a language other than English; the University of Sunderland shared their experience of how they supported students at the centre of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka; Cardiff Metropolitan University demonstrated how they set up a new partnership from scratch in Vietnam; and so on.
Our thematic insight reports support scheme members on matters of due diligence and risk assessment in the governance of TNE, maximising the role of the link tutor, ensuring parity of resources and services, how to assure online provision, nurturing student experience and belonging, and establishing and managing of transnational partnerships and branch campuses.
International standards and national systems
UK TNE is seen internationally as a single, unified brand. The International Education Strategy reinforces that perception, even though oversight actually sits across four distinct regulatory systems and provision is shaped by diverse institutional autonomies. As the policy landscapes of the UK’s devolved nations pull in different directions from each other, a single sector-recognised scheme that operates across the four nations of the UK is vital to help to sustain the quality, reputation and viability of UK TNE – because a world of globalised educational and employment opportunities requires a shared and accessible understanding of educational qualifications and academic standards.
Recognition of qualifications ultimately depends on trust in the quality assurance systems behind them. TNE sits at the intersection of multiple systems, cultures and expectations, so maintaining that trust requires quality assurance to act as an enabling mechanism – bringing greater alignment and understanding across these different paradigms.
There are several layers at work. Internal quality assurance comes first: institutions must manage their partnerships effectively. External quality assurance then provides the mechanisms through which TNE provision is reviewed. In the devolved nations of the UK where QAA conducts institutional reviews, TNE is considered as part of this. On top of this, national regulators and quality agencies in host countries have their own requirements, which TNE providers must meet locally. Misalignment between UK and local regulatory expectations is often where the most significant challenges arise; stipulations of credit and learning hours posing challenges for parity, expectations of the number and type of assessments during a course, national expectations of curriculum that don’t map easily onto a UK educational context.
Depending on the country, the expectations of national QA systems often align with international good practice in quality assurance, whether that be the European Standards and Guidelines, or the International Standards and Guidelines. But we also see that countries are increasingly developing specific approaches to the regulation of incoming TNE, meaning that even if standards are aligned, regulatory requirements can still be complex and burdensome. In some cases, QAA supports ministries to develop these approaches in a way that reduces that burden without compromising on oversight.
The strength of these layers lies in how they reinforce one another – enhancing not only confidence in quality and standards, but also the practices that sustain, promote and improve the quality of provision.
The challenge is how these layers can sometimes be misaligned – and in those scenarios, it can be very difficult to find a way forward as no one’s standards trump someone else’s.
The good news is that there are global efforts in the TNE quality assurance policy space to try and create better understanding and alignment. In October 2025, the Council of Europe and UNESCO published a Code of Good Practice in the Provision of Transnational Education, adopted under the Lisbon Recognition Convention. Under the Global Recognition Convention, UNESCO is collaborating with a working group to develop guidance on quality assurance in higher education including instances of cross-border HE. QAA is also a lead partner of an Erasmus-funded project on the robust quality assurance of TNE, mapping legal frameworks and methodologies across the European Higher Education Area. The goal is to develop guidance for QA agencies and national authorities, and to propose policy principles that support coherent, effective quality assurance of TNE.
How to set up and keep going
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to the establishment and operation of TNE. There are, after all, multiple approaches which institutions may take – from the franchising or validation of provision, or the direct delivery of online education, to the creation of local branch campuses, by agreement with national governments and most commonly in partnerships with local providers and other organisations.
Our UK TNE scheme engages with all types of provision, and the insights gained are regularly shared with its participants to support the enhancement of their provision. Over the past five years, common themes have emerged that support high-quality TNE provision.
For a start, it’s crucial that universities seeking to establish provision in new territories ensure that they understand the educational landscapes which they are seeking to enter: that they take into account in their planning the local systems and structures of education, market economics and demographics, admissions processes, fees and grants, and national strategies, policies, regulations and quality assurance processes.
As institutions move from scoping territories towards building in-country relationships, sustainable partnerships must be grounded in shared values, strategic alignment and mutual benefit. They should be underpinned by robust diligence and clear arrangements for governance and the management of provision. Successful partnerships have clear, articulated strategies, regularly reviewed jointly by partners, and maintain a shared understanding of what success looks like, how it will be measured, and how the partnership will evolve over time. Without this shared vision, partnerships can drift, and quality can suffer.
A good strategy must be supported by robust structures. Academic, legal, and financial alignment is essential. Increasingly, we see the risks of siloed working – where TNE is treated as a separate business stream rather than an integrated part of the institution’s core academic mission. The quality teams shouldn’t have to elbow their way into conversations about new partnerships, they should be involved from the beginning. The most successful partnerships are those where TNE is embedded into mainstream processes, ensuring consistency of standards, coherence of oversight, and shared ownership across the institution.
Provision must also be responsive to national economic priorities and employer needs. Engagement with students, graduates, peers, employers, and accrediting bodies is as vital in TNE as it is in domestic provision. The learner experience in transnational provision must remain closely comparable to that of students based in the UK, not only in terms of the quality of classroom activities, but also in relation to learning resources, digital access (a point also stressed by Jisc) and the broad range of academic, careers and welfare support services.
Providers must also recognise that cultural expectations of higher education differ. Approaches to contact time, learner autonomy and modes of delivery may need to be adapted sensitively and inclusively. The challenge is to strike the right balance: respecting local expectations while maintaining parity of experience and protecting academic standards.
As universities increasingly rely on TNE to support their domestic provision, maintaining the consistency of UK TNE’s reputation for quality becomes even more critical. Every provider shares a responsibility for upholding that reputation, ensuring that students receive the highest possible quality of education, wherever and however it is delivered. In a global landscape where trust is hard-won and easily lost, maintaining that collective commitment is essential to the long-term success and sustainability of UK TNE.
