Globalization has had a well-documented impact on higher education (e.g. Giddens, 1990; Ginkle, 2003; Altbach and Knight, 2007). The attendant massive expansion of higher education both globally and at national level has brought with it increasing concerns regarding quality. One context within which such concerns are evident is that of Transnational Higher Education (TNHE). TNHE, also known as cross-border education, mainly refers to education that is provided to students residing in a country other than the one where the awarding institution is located (UNESCO/Council of Europe, 2001). TNHE takes various forms and serves multiple objectives but the multidimensional phenomenon can be described as an example of Policy Borrowing (Phillips and Ochs, 2003). Oman is a country whose modern educational system was established very recently (1970) and is still expanding rapidly. As elsewhere in the ‘developing world’, the Omani government has met the increasing demand for higher education in large part by encouraging private higher education provision. However, this has been associated with an increasing desire to build capacity and assure quality of provision. In response, the Omani Ministry of Higher Education turned to TNHE for solutions: private sector providers in Oman have been required to enter academic partnerships with internationally recognized universities. In this research, I investigate the rationales, approaches and perceptions of this process from a receiver country perspective and address the implications. Most published research on TNHE focuses on providers’ perspectives and activities, and the impact of TNHE has only been studied in a small number of generally sizeable countries. However, the Gulf States, especially Oman, have not received the same attention, mainly due to the fact that TNHE is a recent phenomenon in this part of the world. Research to date in Oman thus remains very limited (Ameen, Chapman and Al Barawani, 2010; Al Barawani, Ameen and Chapman, 2011).

Globalization has had a well-documented impact on higher education (e.g. Giddens, 1990; Ginkle, 2003; Altbach and Knight, 2007). The attendant massive expansion of higher education both globally and at national level has brought with it increasing concerns regarding quality. One context within whi...