This survey provides unprecedented scope and detail of analysis on higher education in the Asia-Pacific region. In this era of global integration, convergence and comparison, the balance of power in worldwide higher education is shifting. In less than two decades the Asia-Pacific region has come to possess the largest and fastest growing higher education sector on Earth. The countries of East and Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific together enrol 50 million tertiary students, compared to 14 million in 1991, and will soon conduct a third of all research and development. In China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore, 'world-class' universities are emerging at breakneck pace, fostered by modernizing governments that see knowledge and skills as key to a future shaped equally by East and West, and supported by families deeply committed to education.
But not all Asia-Pacific countries are on this path, not all reforms are effective, and there are marked differences between nations in levels of resources, educational participation, research, state controls and academic freedom. Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific: Strategic responses to globalization provides an authoritative survey of tertiary education in this diverse and dynamic region. Its 23 chapters, written by authors from a dozen different countries, focus successively on the Asia-Pacific as a whole, the strategies of individual universities, and national policies and strategies in response to the global challenge.
"No previous book has made such a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the issues concerning the higher education in Asia-Pacific in the era of globalization - and with so many prominent authors in the region, from such diversified backgrounds."
Professor Futao Huang, Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan
"This book is a thoughtful analysis of a critical topic. The editors are as well versed as anyone on the issues and they have assembled a superb group of authors to analyze the challenges that confront countries and universities in the age of globalization."
William G. Tierney, University Professor & Wilbur Kieffer Professor of Higher Education, Director Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
"This book offers a comprehensive and very timely analysis of the dynamics of the Asia-Pacific higher education region in the age of globalization. Contributors to the book discuss the potentials and limits of national and institutional strategies for higher education within the wider economic, social and political context. The book is key to understanding the old and new powers in the Asia-Pacific and makes a major contribution in identifying the factors of success in higher education."
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Enders, Director, Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), School of Management and Governance, University of Twente, The Netherlands
"A comprehensive volume filled with thoughtful analysis; an insightful contribution to research on higher education in the Asia-Pacific."
Glen A. Jones, Ontario Research Chair in Postsecondary Education Policy and Measurement, University of Toronto
