The Internationalization of the Academy in East Asia

Abstract

Like in many other countries, especially since the 1990s, the academy in the three major countries in East Asia – China, Japan and South Korea – has made various efforts to internationalize its activities so as to respond positively to challenges from economic globalization, marketization of higher education and increasing worldwide competition in higher education. Over the last decades, much research has been done on the internationalization of the academy from different perspectives focusing on different aspects, countries and regions (Welch, High Educ 34:323–345, 1997; Hoffman, J Stud Int Educ 13:347–364; Huang, J Stud Int Educ 13:143–158, 2009; Huang, The academic profession in East Asia: changes and realities. In: The changing academic profession in Asia: Contexts, realities and trends. RIHE International Seminar Reports, No.17. RIHE, Hiroshima, pp 113–131, 2011). However, except for very few works (Huang, The academic profession in Japan: major characteristics and new changes. In: Reports of changing academic profession project workshop on quality, relevance, and governance in the changing academia: International perspectives, COE Publication Series, vol. 20. RIHE, Hiroshima, pp 195–208, 2006; Huang, Challenges of internationalization of higher education and changes in the academic profession: a perspective from Japan. In: Kogan M, Teichler U (eds) Key challenges to the academic profession. UNESCO Forum on Higher Education Research and Knowledge/International Centre for Higher Education Research, Paris/Kassel, pp 81–98, 2007), there has been little research on the internationalization of the academy in East Asia—in which China, Japan and Korea can be considered as typical examples— from the comparative and empirical perspectives, and there are even fewer accounts of the academic activities engaged by the academy in China, Japan and Korea from an international dimension based on national surveys with a common questionnaire. This chapter will address the following three research issues: (1) What are the distinct characteristics of the internationalization of the academy in China, Japan and Korea? (2) Is the internationalization of the academy in one country higher than another country? (3) What are the implication (s) for policy and institutions from the study of the internationalization of the academy in the three countries?