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After teaching posts at Durham and Birmingham City Universities, in 1975 Dr. Watson became a member of the start-up staff team at Buckingham University, where he served for sixteen years as one of the administrative deans, with special responsibility for student recruitment, and as head of the School of Languages and Cultures. There he developed one of the prototypes of the British university international office. In 1991, he joined Northumbria University where he took operational charge of international work, helping the institution to become one of the most internationally active of all UK universities, before moving on to form his own consultancy company.
Dr. Watson has published extensively on areas of international education and is an acknowledged expert on educational qualifications throughout the world. He is a member of the UK NARIC Quality Standards Group and has assisted a number of national governments in the restructuring of their qualifications frameworks.
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He has also chaired major consortia of UK universities operating in Malaysia and Nigeria, being one of the first to do so in both countries.
In the 1970s, he pioneered the now widespread alliances between UK universities and the private HE college sector. He has been involved with the Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC) since its inception in 2007. He serves ASIC as Chief Inspector and as Qualifications Adviser, and is a member of the Accreditation Committee. For several years, he has also chaired the board of trustees of Kensington College of Business.
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Beyond the usual statistical and experiential data on outbound ‘in-sessional’ mobility we consider issues surrounding inbound as well as outbound mobility, and the systems for the mutual recognition of higher education qualifications. We examine the various purposes of mobility from the point of view of the individual student, of governments that fund outbound mobility, and of the countries and institutions that seek to encourage inbound mobility. Types of mobility considered encompass in-sessional mobility, academic progression, and professional mobility. Appropriate recognition is essential for all three types of mobility. This two-way process should ensure that students’ existing qualifications are recognised at an appropriate level, but also their onward placement is of the right standard. The European Higher Education Area is examined as a model, with its informal interface with the US credit system. We explore the global reach of the NARIC-ENIC networks, permitting detailed recognition and comparisons applicable to every country in the world. ‘Otherness’ is to be valued as part of the experience of studying in another country, but there need to be baseline expectations. This does not apply solely to qualifications, but to wider provision underpinning academic delivery, summarised for example in ASIC’s own Internationalisation Index. Accreditation reports, are one source of relevant information for mobile students. So too are relevant data in university ranking descriptions. Finally, we touch on the mobility aspirations of Iranian universities and students, as a platform for discussing practical solutions to problems encountered.
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