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Abstract

In the last few years, internationalization and globalization of higher education has been a well-discussed issue amongst scholars and practitioners in the field of higher education. Communication and information technologies represented by the Internet made the provision of higher education services across national borders possible. In the framework of the WTO/GATS negotiations, four modes of trading services are defined: Cross-border supply, consumption abroad, commercial presence, and presence of natural persons. Applying these four modes to educational services, crossborder supply in educational services refers to international e-learning in which neither the education provider nor the student moves. The consumption abroad refers to traditional study abroad programmes in which students travel abroad. The commercial presence refers to the establishment of branch offices in another country. The presence of natural persons involves educators travelling to another country to supply educational services.

This paper will examine four existing virtual universities that are created by consortia of universities across boarders, namely, ASEAN Virtual Institute of Science and Technology (AVIST), Cardean University, Global University Alliance (GUA), and Universitas 21 Global. They are examined in terms of the sort of institutional arrangements made to offer a degree jointly by multiple institutions, how the issues of accreditation are handled and the services provided to students besides instruction.