CAUT has been invited to join the official Canadian delegation to the next UNESCO and OECD meeting aimed at drafting international guidelines on quality assurance in cross-border higher education.

The meeting is the second in a series of initiatives by both parties to hammer out an international agreement on accreditation and quality assurance. The project is in response to the growth in cross-border higher education and the emergence of commercial providers.

In a discussion paper released earlier this year, the OECD stipulated that new quality assurance guidelines should be designed to encourage the expansion of private and for-profit higher education providers.

David Robinson, CAUT's associate executive director of research and advocacy, said CAUT will have a very different message to deliver to the meeting.

"Any guidelines that are developed must be based on educational, not commercial objectives," he said. "There must also be a recognition that you can't have quality without guaranteeing the academic and employment rights of staff."

The UNESCO-OECD drafting meeting will take place Oct. 14-15 in Tokyo, Japan.