Can continuing university education be "internationalised"? Factors conditioning success and constraints on the export of continuing education programmes from German, Austrian and Swiss schools of higher learning
In the context of a general expansion of the university sector through an ongoing differentiation and new regulatory models, the international orientation has become a key differentiating factor and quality aspect. This article shows that possibilities for greater internationalisation of continuing education at schools of higher learning depend on the type of programmes, the organisational context and structural factors in the labour market. Moreover, GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) is contributing to a general opening up of the market for foreign and private providers, thus posing a challenge to public providers. This far it has not been possible to forecast, however, whether GATS will lead to any lasting changes in the sector of continuing university education or not.