ABSTRACT
Olcott (2009) observes that most cross-border higher education is delivered face-to-face through branch campuses or partnerships with universities in the host countries. However, a political and economic environment that favours global trade in products and services and the opportunities provided by the Internet are leading to a growth in cross-border higher education delivered wholly or partly online. A 2002 Observatory on Borderless Higher Education survey in Commonwealth countries revealed that 11% of all international students were studying online at a distance (OBHE, 2002). However, it was noted that these figures were skewed by a few major providers. For example, about 30,000 or 14% of Open University students were outside the United Kingdom, while another 10,000 were studying through partnerships with other UK or overseas institutions. At the majority of institutions, the proportion of international students studying at a distance online was 3–4%. A year later, Pohl (2003) reported that 60,000 of the University of Phoenix’s (UoP) 140,000 students were studying online but only 4000 or again just over 3% of these were overseas, mostly US military personnel or other American citizens.
