“Shared Space” in Global Higher Education: A Southeast Asian Perspective

Abstract

The global higher education system can be conceptualized as a model comprising three components—the developed, the emerging, and the developing higher education systems—with overlapping area of exchanges and interactions, which can be termed as “shared space” for the purpose of collaboration and cooperation. This term or concept of shared space is different from the “common higher education area” in the European context or Southeast Asia’s “common higher education space” as proposed by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development (SEAMEO-RIHED) in Bangkok. The common area or common space in the European Union (EU) and Southeast Asian contexts respectively is more geographical or rather geopolitical in nature. The shared space framework as proposed in this chapter (borrowed from sociologist Milton Santos 1975), builds upon functional relationships and networks, and thus would be nonphysical or nonspatial in character. Within this shared space we will notice that “circuits of exchange” (Sassen 2004) between the three components noted earlier are in terms of migration of ideas and persons. These circuits of exchanges within the shared space have important implications for the development of higher education institutions involved.