- The Parties recognise that education services play an important role in facilitating trade and investment, enhancing growth and prosperity, and deepening mutual understanding and institutional and people-to-people links among the Parties.
- The Parties shall encourage co-operation on education services in areas of mutual interest, as appropriate and in accordance with each Party’s laws and regulations, including in the following areas:
- the development of qualification systems and quality assurance processes;
- the recognition of qualifications;
- digital education, blended learning and other diverse forms of education delivery;
- greater and more accessible student mobility by establishing mechanisms and procedures supporting the recognition and transfer of academic credits; or
- any other area of co-operation in education that may be mutually determined by the Parties.
- Subject to mutual agreement and in accordance with each Party’s laws and regulations, the Parties shall encourage, as appropriate, co-operation between their respective government agencies, educational institutions, organisations and other entities, and the conclusion of arrangements between such bodies to co-operate in the areas referred to in Paragraph 2. This co-operation may be achieved through:
- the development of collaborative training, research and development initiatives, technology transfer and joint ventures between appropriate entities;
- the creation of adult education and lifelong learning opportunities to meet the emerging learning needs of adult learners that can be jointly delivered by educational institutions;
- the implementation of capacity-building programmes, networking and linkages initiatives, and policy-development activities that will facilitate the establishment of transnational higher education (“TNHE”) and TNHE quality assurance to deliver quality programmes by institutions;
- the exchange of teaching staff, administrators, researchers and students by educational institutions;
- academic credit transfer and the recognition of academic and vocational education and training qualifications between educational and training institutions;
- strengthening networks and co-operation for internships in companies or workplaces in a Party that are accessible to the students of other Parties;
- building an ecosystem for the use of open online courses, online and distance learning resources and micro-credentials;
- the development of information sharing mechanisms between national information centres and government entities, including through multilateral and regional fora, as appropriate, to facilitate qualifications recognition; or
- the promotion of exchanges of information on:
- scholarships, awards, fellowships and other study opportunities in each Party;
- education systems and standards, including quality assurance arrangements;
- the recognition of qualifications by multilateral and regional fora; or
- any other form of exchanges of information that may be mutually determined by the relevant Parties.
- Co-operation carried out pursuant to this Annex shall be subject to the availability of funds and resources of the relevant Parties and shall be funded as mutually determined by them.