Borderless Accreditation in Transnational Higher Education: Rethinking Prestige and Quality Assurance

The emergence of borderless accreditation is inseparable from the broader global governance architecture for transnational higher education. This chapter examines the rise of borderless accreditation as a response to the expansion of transnational higher education and the resulting mismatch between cross-border provision and nationally bounded quality assurance regimes. It conceptualises borderless accreditation as a set of evaluative and recognition practices that travel across jurisdictions through regional arrangements, international accreditors, network-based frameworks, and hybrid systems that combine domestic oversight with external validation. The chapter analyses borderless accreditation through the lenses of legitimacy, trust, and global governance, arguing that accreditation now performs dual functions: safeguarding educational standards and producing portable reputational signals in competitive international markets. It further interrogates how prestige logics, amplified by rankings, branding, and market differentiation, can reshape accreditation priorities, sometimes encouraging compliance behaviours and label accumulation rather than substantive improvement. The chapter concludes by outlining implications for governance design, integrity, transparency, and digitally mediated accreditation futures.