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Regulating Cross-border Higher Education: A Case Study of the United States

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Abstract

In an increasing number of nations, foreign education providers are becoming part of the educational landscape. This aspect of cross-border higher education raises many questions about how such activities are regulated, particularly the role of the importing and exporting governments. Drawing on a principal-agent framework, this study uses the United States, which is an amalgamation of more than 50 independent regulatory systems, to analyze how governments regulate the importing and exporting of public colleges and universities. The analysis reveals that state regulations primarily focus on issues pertaining to the approval process of expansion, mandating administrative requirements, providing comparable programs, and guarding against unnecessary competition; whereas there is limited focus on quality. Further, states have more extensive regulations for importing activities than exporting activities. These findings can help inform scholars and policymakers interested in multinational cross-border educational activities and the study serves as a prototype for other investigations of cross-border educational regulations.

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Notes

  1. There is a growing literature focusing on public and private institutions engaging in distance learning across state borders (e.g., Goldstein et al., 2006; Mayadas et al., 2009) and other research has started to investigate the movement of institutions across national border (e.g., McBurnie and Zyguris, 2007; Green et al., 2008; Croom, 2010; Lane, 2011; Lane and Kinser, 2011).

  2. To identify such entities, we constructed a database using data provided by the regional accreditation agencies and the US Department of Education PEPS database, which tracks all locations where federal financial aid is provided to students.

  3. North Dakota exempts any ‘Postsecondary educational institutions established, operated, and governed by this or any other state or its political subdivisions …’ from having to obtain authorization from the state in order to operate within its borders. (North Dakota Century Code, http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/56-1999/bill-text/JQOL0400.pdf).

  4. A key aspect of agency research is to understand why agents act in ways not desired by the principal. In the case of government bureaucracies, there are numerous examples of an agency not acting in a way desired by politicians or engaging in activities popularly perceived not to be in the best interest of the state's citizenry. This does not negate the presence of the agency relationship. Quite the opposite, principal agent theory can be used to further understanding of why the agency is acting in the way that it is.

  5. The Commerce Clause of the US Constitution also influences the regulation of interstate commerce, which higher education has been classified (Daghlian v. DeVry U., Inc., 2007). In situations where an institution is headquartered in another state, the importing state can provide conditions that have to be met by the institution in order to operate in the state, but those conditions cannot be excessive such that they are meant to unduly inhibit or prohibit the flow of educational providers from other states into their own.

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Lane, J., Kinser, K. & Knox, D. Regulating Cross-border Higher Education: A Case Study of the United States. High Educ Policy 26, 147–172 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2012.23

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