Deane E. Neubauer

Higher education regionalization in Asia Pacific: Implications for governance, citizenship and university transformation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the historic ways of reviewing patterns of regional engagement, with special attention to how the emergent concepts of higher education (HE) regionalization stand in relationship to regionalism. Additional implications are spelled out for governance, citizenship and university transformation. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual essay is meant to appear in conjunction with more discrete, case‐oriented examinations of Asia Pacific HE regionalization. Findings – Discussions of regionalism in Asian HE are being replaced by those focused on regionalization; the former is a nation‐state and geographic policy framework whereas the latter tends to refer to emergent empirical relationships. Regionalization itself can be further distinguished in terms of its “older” forms, focused on geographic proximities and exchanges defined and carried out within those proximities. New regionalization is increasingly linked to global circuits of exchange in which the currencies of such exchanges are closely linked to the emergent dynamics of the knowledge society and economy. These dynamics in turn are closely linked to patterns of migration and mobility in HE and the efforts of higher education institutions (HEIs) and regional governments to develop new governance structure structures appropriate for this style of regionalization. These regional dynamics reflect tensions that draw institutions and nations together (centripetal forces) and those that keep them apart (centrifugal forces). These processes are marked by governance dynamics, those of affinity and affiliation, transnational innovation, and redefinitions of the responsibilities and promises of citizenship. Originality/value – Use of these modal concepts can be used to promote and extend a region‐wide discussion and related research relevant to HE transformation within the region.

The Dynamics of Higher Education Development in East Asia

1. Introduction: Four Hypotheses of Higher Education Development John N. Hawkins, Deane E. Neubauer, and Jung Cheol Shin PART I: CULTURAL TRADITION AND HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT 2. Higher Education Development in East Asian Countries Focusing on Cultural Tradition and Economic Systems Jung Cheol Shin 3. Between the East and the West: Challenges for Internationalizing Higher Education in Asia Sheng-Ju Chan 4. East-West? Tradition and the Development of Hybrid Higher Education in Asia John N. Hawkins 5. Situating Higher Education in China: From Universal History to the Research Paradigm Yuan Xun PART II: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT 6. Meeting Point of the East and the West: Globalizing or Localizing Higher Education in East Asia Ka Ho Mok 7. Higher Education Development, Culture, and Economy in Indonesia Fasli Jalal 8. Cultural and Historical Factors Influencing the Development of Higher Education in Thailand Sakarindr Bhumiratana PART III: GLOBALIZATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT 9. The Globalized University as the Next Stage in Higher Education Development Deane E. Neubauer 10. Globalization Practices in Asia-Pacific Universities Molly N. N. Lee 11. Structural Transformation of Japanese Higher Education: Adopting to Meet Challenges Posed by Globalization and Market Economy Reiko Yamada 12 Conclusion: Is There An Asian Hybrid University? John N. Hawkins, Deane E. Neubauer, and Jung Cheol Shin)

Higher education regionalization in Asia Pacific

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the historic ways of reviewing patterns of regional engagement, with special attention to how the emergent concepts of higher education (HE) regionalization stand in relationship to regionalism. Additional implications are spelled out for governance, citizenship and university transformation.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual essay is meant to appear in conjunction with more discrete, case‐oriented examinations of Asia Pacific HE regionalization.Findings – Discussions of regionalism in Asian HE are being replaced by those focused on regionalization; the former is a nation‐state and geographic policy framework whereas the latter tends to refer to emergent empirical relationships. Regionalization itself can be further distinguished in terms of its “older” forms, focused on geographic proximities and exchanges defined and carried out within those proximities. New regionalization is increasingly linked to global circuits of exchange in which...

The Many Faces of Asia Pacific Higher Education in the Era of Massification

Higher education throughout much of the world, and certainly across the diverse Asia Pacific region, has been engaged in one or another aspect of the massification phase (Trow in International Handbook of Higher Education (RSS), 2005) for the past three or four decades. From an outside perspective, it may appear that the general form and dynamics of this massification movement are quite similar, irrespective of local country differences. On closer inspection, however, the process of massification is in fact highly complex and differentiated, taking a variety of shapes and pathways.

Defining and Measuring Capacity in Asia-Pacific Higher Education

The idea of capacity in higher education has a highly intuitive resonance: usually, the more the capacity that an institution has, the better it is presumed to be. Like all such easy generalizations, however, the rule tends to be proved by its exceptions. Alternatively, it is often the case that although capacity may be a necessary condition or precondition for an attendant outcome, it is often not a sufficient condition. In this chapter I examine some aspects of capacity in the higher education context and seek to suggest useful ways in which capacity might be conceived of and measured in relation to desirable outcomes.

Two Decades of Rapid Higher Education Change: Losses and Gains in Equity, Capacity, and Access in Asia-Pacific Higher Education

The foregoing chapters provide a varied view of the interaction between access, equity, and capacity for higher education in the countries selected for emphasis. Within the region demography, economic development, and policy have provided the most important drivers for higher education change, and as they have proceeded along different courses, so have these elements of educational change. All of these factors, as we see in the chapters in this volume, in turn frame and influence what is conceptualized within the selected countries as quality and efforts to achieve it.

Introduction Four Hypotheses of Higher Education Development

How might we “explain” the particular pathways that higher education (HE thereafter) has taken in the Asia Pacific region, especially with respect to its social, economic, and cultural dimensions? This question was the problematic for a seminar organized by the East-West Center and Seoul National University (SNU) and with the cooperation of UNESCO Bangkok held at SNU in May 2012. Twelve scholars from throughout the region addressed this subject over the course of three days. The papers that resulted from this process have been revised and constitute the majority contents of this volume.

Access, Equity, Capacity—Initiating Some Distinctions

As detailed in the preceding chapter, the prevailing norm of access in education arises out of the historical experience with schooling in emergent industrial society wherein the needs of industrial production resulted in irresistible pressures toward universal and compulsory basic education. Over time, and especially during recent development decades, achieving universal education has come to be equated with meeting a necessary requirement for successful economic development. The values embedded in UNESCO’s program of Education for All make clear that gaining education is equated with achieving the status of full citizenship.

Quality and the Public Good: An Inseparable Linkage

Increasing global interdependence is bringing to bear two powerful forces that are changing the nature of higher education throughout the world. This is, perhaps, nowhere more evident than in the Asia-Pacific region where the combination of continued social and economic development is accompanied by emergent varieties of state forms within which higher education is conducted.

Prospects for Higher Education in the Midst of Globalization

The prospects of higher education in the Asian region tend to focus on issues of financing, managing, and ensuring quality of higher education systems especially as higher education expands and diversifies, and the unit costs keep rising. A critical policy question becomes: how can countries continue to finance their higher education systems? This issue becomes even more critical as Asian societies pass through three progressive stages of demographic change as they have over the past 60 years, beginning from rapidly expanding populations to those that peak and then begin to age in the presence of declining birth rates. Higher education responds to these changes, and as we have already witnessed with several countries, moves into a critical change where excess higher education capacity exists in a global context of continued higher education massification. The chapter examines the particular role that quality plays in this process. In addition, the dynamics of globalization seemingly inevitably move higher education into the area of its own internationalization.