Investments in higher education (HE) to promote competitiveness and economic growth have spurred HE leaders to seek ways of effectively utilizing the available resources to raise quality and efficiency in HE. One widely advocated strategy to accomplish this is through greater regional cooperation and cross-border collaboration among HE institutions. Such collaborations may include student and faculty exchanges, dual and joint degree programs, twinning between pairs of universities, and the formation of university networks. This publication provides operational recommendations for supporting governments and universities in the region in pursuing regional cooperation and cross-border collaboration in HE development.

Higher education (HE) is seen to have an ever more important role in human resource development and the movement of people, students, and the workforce in the region. The Asian Development Bank's developing member countries are increasing investment in HE to support social and economic development and growth. This publication discusses the issues and strategies for HE in Asia and why there is a need to invest in this subsector. It provides an overview on how governments, together with HE institutions and stakeholders, can improve HE through adequate policies and regulations, and how they can position their economies for further development.

This book examines issues that have emerged as higher education systems and individual institutions across East Asia confront and adapt to the changing economic, social, and educational environments in which they now operate. The book’s focus is on how higher education systems learn from each other and on the ways in which they collaborate to address new challenges. The sub-theme that runs through this volume concerns the changing nature of cross-border sharing. In particular, the provision of technical assistance by more industrialized countries to lower and middle income countries has given way to collaborations that place the latter’s participating institutions on a more equal footing.

"Cross-border Partnerships in Higher Education is a welcome addition to the academic literature on the scope and impact of international partnerships in a very dynamic higher education market. Robin Sakamoto and David Chapman should be congratulated for this excellent contribution that can guide higher education institutions all over the world in thinking more strategically and achieving better results as they engage in cross-border partnerships."--Jamil Salmi, Tertiary Education Coordinator, The World Bank, Washington, DC.

Asia is rapidly developing a wide variety of regional organizations and interactive patterns, reflecting in large part its increasing role in the global economic and political engagements. Higher Education constitutes a distinct sphere of activity within this overall pattern of regionalization.

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.

This book discusses higher education research as a field of study in Asia. It traces the evolution of research in the field of higher education in several Asian countries, and shares ideas about the evolving higher education research communities in Asia. It also identifies common and dissimilar challenges across national communities, providing researchers and policymakers essential new insights into the relevance of a greater regional articulation of national higher education research communities, and their further integration into and contribution to the international higher education research community as a whole.

Set against the backdrop of increasing economic interdependence in East Asia, the idea of regional integration is now being discussed as a long-term political process in the region. As in the field of the international economy, de facto integration and interdependence exist with respect to the internationalization of the higher education system in East Asia. Based on the results of a comprehensive Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI) survey of 300 leading higher education institutions active in cross-border higher education, located in ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member Southeast Asian countries and three Northeast Asian countries (China, Japan, and Korea), this paper examines universities perceptions of the degree of cross-border activities, the significance of their expected outcomes, and their regional preferences for partners. The objective is to envision a direction for a future regional higher education framework in East Asia and to consider the policy implications of the internationalization of higher education in East Asia in the context of regionalization. The findings related to the degree of cross-border activities suggest a current perception that there is more prominent in conventional than in innovative activities, but that innovation will rise considerably in the future. With respect to the significance of expected outcomes,academic and political expected outcome are perceived to be more significant than economic expected outcome, which are nevertheless expected to be more significant in the future. Finally, in terms of their preferred regions of partners, universities in East Asia overall place a high priority on building partnerships within their own region. Yet, among Northeast Asian universities, North America is perceived as the most active partner. (Contains 3 figures, 21 tables, and 13 footnotes.) [This paper was prepared as part of a Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI) research project titled, "Cross-border Higher Education for Regional Integration and the Labor Market in East Asia."].

Private higher education (HE) growth in Asia has been much more rapid than in other parts of the world. This has led to a reduction in the burden on governments to finance HE with public funds; and diversification of the mission, scope, and role of private HE institutions in offering an alternative to public HE. While several Asian universities are highly ranked globally, Asia is also home to numerous private colleges of poor quality. This publication provides a timely analysis of policies governing private HE and presents operational recommendations for development partners in their support to this field in developing countries of Asia and the Pacific.