The rise in initiatives aimed at promoting the internationalisation and globalisation of higher education, in particular the growth of distance education institutions with international reach and the number of their graduates, has underlined the need to establish robust frameworks for quality assurance (QA) and the recognition of qualifications. Quality assurance issues have become more important with the increased mobility of students and academic staff, as well as higher education providers resulting from the globalisation of higher education.

Quality assurance in e-learning is of growing interest to policy makers as e-learning has become one of the main vehicles for cross-border higher education (M-2009 Statement on Quality Assurance in e-learning and distance education.)