Improving the quality of offshore student experience: findings of a decade in three Australian universities

The last 10 years has witnessed growth in the enrolment of international students in Australian Universities. The growth of international students have been experienced in both onshore and offshore component. The number of offshore programs and partnerships has also increased with some universities opening offshore campuses. The offshore component of all Australian universities have been under scrutiny by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) since 2002. A large number of universities have closed various offshore programs and partnerships after AUQA cycle one audits due to poor management and quality assurance of offshore operations. The large number of recommendations in public audit reports and negative media stories related to offshore operations have been heralded in almost all University audit reports. The vulnerability of quality assurance and the risk associated with the quality and standard of offshore education have been such that in 2006 the Australian government included internationalisation as a default theme in cycle two audits of almost all universities. Such a decision was made to protect the image and branding of Australian higher education and to improve the quality assurance of international education. While the findings of various audit reports related to offshore education are known, there is limited research on student experience and satisfaction explicitly with offshore students. This paper outlines the findings of offshore student experience and satisfaction in three Australian Universities. The findings from the three studies with offshore students suggest that student experience, satisfaction and issues raised by offshore students are common in all three Universities. The paper also draws on the analysis of recurring themes related to offshore education based on AUQA cycle one and two audits of Australian universities.