The survey has been conducted by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and Freie Universität Berlin in spring 2011. The survey received valid responses from 245 higher education institutions from 28 countries around the world. The majority of respondents were from the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and the United Kingdom.

The main aim of the survey report has been to expand the knowledge and understanding of international joint and double degrees and to address the challenges, opportunities, motivations and impact of developing such programmes.

The report makes a clear distinction between the joint and the double/dual degrees and finds the latter much more common. However, most responses from France indicated joint programmes as mostly offered. 

The majority of the reported joint or double degree programmes are at the master’s level; however, the majority of programmes reported by Australian institutions are at the doctoral level, and the majority of programmes reported by U.S. institutions are at the undergraduate level.

The joint and double degree programmes are becoming more and more popular in higher education as most participating institutions indicated that they plan to develop more programmes at the master’s level. These kinds of programmes are considered as broadening educational offerings, strengthening research collaboration, advancing internationalisation, and raising international visibility/prestige. Notably, increasing revenue was the major motivating factor only for respondents from the USA and the UK. The remarkable fact is that the vast majority of the institutions consider offering the joint and double degrees programmes as part of their internationalisation strategy. However, only 55 percent have a clear institutional policy on programme development and only 45 percent have developed particular methods for the marketing of these programmes.

The survey report indicates securing of adequate funding and sustainability provision as major challenges for the development of the joint and double degree programmes.