Agenda 2030 for sustainable development focuses attention on lifelong learning opportunities for all. The new targets expand on their predecessors, the Millennial Development Goals, by both widening and deepening the scope of system-wide quality education systems.Whilst the Millennial Development Goals focused attention on universal primary attainment, the Sustainable Development Goals introduce tertiary education into the global development agenda.

In this chapter, the authors explore various types of cross‐border higher education, considering equity and quality issues within these developments. With a particular focus on international branch campuses, the authors discuss the ways in which global competition for knowledge and economic development interact with tensions at the local level.

By examining the different methods and processes by which national data gathering agencies compile and submit their findings to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the authors (1) assess the methodological challenges of accurately reporting tertiary completion and graduation rates cross-nationally; (2) to examine the incongruence of existing internationally comparative data on tertiary completion, particularly within the OECD; and (3) to offer policy recommendations for increasing the congruence and comparability of U.S. higher education data with that of other OECD countries (and the rest of the world).The American system of higher education contrasts radically with the modes of organization prevalent in most developed as well as developing countries. Seen from the vantage point of European and English modes of academic organization alone, the American system stands as a special case not only by virtue of its huge size, but also its dispersion of control, variety of institutional forms, and a host of [other] characteristics.

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