Quality issues in the internationalisation of higher education

Although the quality issue has become a central preoccupation in other doma ins of higher education, current internationalisation policies and practice s in higher education have developed without much concern for quality assur ance. The central thesis of this paper is that we have come to a point in t he development of higher education where internationalisation policies and practices face the limits of their development unless the quality challenge is addressed in all its consequences. The paper first provides an overview of contemporary forms of and recent developments in internationalisation i n higher education. From more or less `traditional' forms such as student a nd teaching staff mobility, internationalisation policies and practices now adays move into activities such as exporting higher education via branch ca mpuses and institutional co-operation, developing transnational university networks and virtual delivery of higher education, and the harmonisation of higher education systems. In these recent developments several issues and challenges arise, which in one kind or another have direct links to the qua lity challenge. The quality of internationalisation policies and practices itself is an important problem, but of more importance are the issues of th e recognition of foreign diplomas and degrees and the recognition of credit s and credit-transfer. This paper takes a critical stance towards for examp le the ECTS, which tries to solve these issues without much concern for qua lity. The way out lies in an integration of internationalisation policies a nd general quality assurance practices at institutional and policy levels.