QAA in Kuala Lumpur

Eduardo Ramos, QAA's Director of International & Professional Services, participated in the British Council's East Asia Education Week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 26-28 February.

With over 260 delegates from the UK and a number of East Asian countries, the week focused on international student mobility, transnational education (TNE) and strategic engagement. Delegates also included the CEO of QAA's counterpart, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency, Mohammad Shatar Sabran.

Eduardo chaired a panel session on academic engagement, with the participation of Dr Julia Wang from Liverpool John Moores University, Professor Paul Van Gardingen from Bangor University, Professor William Lee from HKU SPACE,  Professor Mike Shipston from the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Rick Bennett from the recently IQR-accredited British University Vietnam (BUV).

The session saw strong engagement from its participants, and Professor Bennett highlighted how QAA’s accreditation had helped them stand out and signal BUV as an attractive option for staff recruitment. 

East Asia hosts up to 35% of all UK TNE students and has grown in absolute terms year on year. The proportion of students in overseas campuses is larger than in the rest of the world and there's an appetite for increases in quality to attract more international students to the country.

The British Council’s digital publication Learning and reflections from the past 25 years was launched during the Education Week. QAA's team contributed two chapters to this publication, on enhancing quality and standards collaboratively in Vietnam and the Philippines.

QAA in undertaking International Quality Reviews (IQR) of institutions in several East Asian countries, and is advising government authorities in Vietnam, the Philippines and Macao, among other territories, on strategies to enhance quality and improve the operating environment for transnational education partnerships.

QAA would like to thank the teams at British Council Malaysia and the UK High Commission in Malaysia for their support in preparing this week-long engagement.