Asian Higher Education Research Articles

Institutional Reform Success Indicators in Higher Education

Reformation of higher education (HE) institutions is fundamental in improving and strengthening its academic institutions of HE independence. Moving on now to consider the present academic community must undergo a process of change to improve the teaching, research, management functions, and operations of the institutions, which are incremental in a sustainable manner. In essence, there are many indicators of success that have been identified in studies conducted for other industries. The major trend currently observed is the reformation of the HE institutions in major countries mimicking the for-profit industries to make them more competitive. This paper integrates and advances pertinent factors that enable an effective and successful reformation process from the Asian HE perspective by reviewing relevant reformation literature on the matter. This systematic review has developed three (3) core themes relating to the importance of leadership, policy development and governance, and autonomy, which regards higher institutional practices from within the Asian region reviewed. And to conclude, the internal factor is dominating the indicators for HE reforms success. This finding seeks to offer future research to be extended from established institutions from other developed countries as a comparison when planning and implementing change initiatives at the institutional level.

Measuring what matters? mapping higher education internationalization in the Asia–Pacific

PurposeThis paper sought to understand at one time point what was known and not known about the status and use of indicators of internationalization of higher education in Asia–Pacific. More specifically, we identified and mapped publicly available indicators of international of higher education in the region. We examined the ways by which internationalization has been measured and the indicators used, setting up discussion of what may be missing from internationalization efforts.Design/methodology/approachThe primary questions were: (1) What are the current available sources of data in the Asia–Pacific region? (2) How is internationalization measured in publicly available databases and academic materials in Asia–Pacific? To answer these questions, we carried out a structured search of academic and agency literatures. Review of these literatures led us to develop definitions and a classification system by which indicators were classified and examined.FindingsIndicators clustered almost exclusively around measures of student mobility, neglecting a wide range of other possible measures. The authors discuss the implications for internationalization of higher education in the region and draw on existing critical literature to speculate why this might be the case, and what dimensions of internationalization are likely overlooked with such a limited focus.Originality/valueInternationalization of higher education has gained considerable momentum worldwide in recent years, and higher education in the Asia–Pacific region is arguably the world's most dynamic. Despite such dynamism, no research to our knowledge has mapped the way in which internationalization is measured by actors in the region.

A preliminary survey of Buddhist higher education in Asia: developing typologies and comparing secularities

ABSTRACT Over the course of the last century, a number of Buddhist institutions of higher learning have been established across Asia. These institutions play an important role in many Asian sanghas, but they have received little scholarly attention. This article maps out some of the diverse aspects of these universities, and sketches out different types of institutions of Buddhist higher education. It argues that while Buddhists have long had advanced educational practices, these institutions are different in that they are founded in the context of nation-building and modernizing efforts. As a result they are entangled with projects that might be thought about as both religious and secular.

Of Worms and woodpeckers: governance & corruption in East and Southeast Asian higher education

ABSTRACT The topic of governance is much discussed in the higher education literature. Corruption is less discussed, and mostly in general and cautionary terms. Yet there are important relations between the two. The current article critically examines the literature on governance in higher education and underlines the relationship to forms of corruption in the field. While much literature on corruption in education outlines regulatory practices, or Codes of Practice to limit its reach, the current analysis both reviews types of corruption in higher education, and illustrates them with actual examples from several systems of higher education in East and South East Asia. While corrupt practices in higher education are by no means unique to the region, (indeed examples can be found worldwide, in virtually every system), most rank poorly on conventional measures of transparency. The article advances our understanding of the complex and dynamic relationship between corruption and governance in higher education, in what is arguably the most dynamic world region.

Zhong, Z., Coates, H., & Shi, J. H. (Eds., 2020). Innovations in Asian Higher Education. New York, Routledge, First edition.

Zhong, Z., Coates, H., & Shi, J. H. (Eds., 2020). Innovations in Asian Higher Education. New York, Routledge, First edition.

Organizational responses to the marketization of higher education institutions: a comparative case study of South Korea and Hong Kong

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate the organizational changes in higher education institutions across different regional contexts, with a special focus on the trends towards marketization in South Korea and Hong Kong. The study employs a qualitative case study approach to understand the organizational responses to the marketization from the selected research sites. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews with participants from each case, the study applies cross-case synthesis to evaluate similarities and differences related to organizational changes and management practices at universities in these two contexts in Asia. The findings underscore two principal themes: market influences and trends towards marketization, and organizational and management changes on campuses. The findings suggest that both South Korea and Hong Kong represent excellent cases through which to explore organizational responses to the marketization of higher education institutions and to highlight the reshaping of higher education in Asia.

Imagining ‘Asian’ higher education: visual campus gaze and global university rankings (GURs) websites

ABSTRACT Amid debates about global university rankings (GURs), very few have closely examined how GURs’ media outlets construct meanings of higher education (HE) in their visual representations. We critically examine 135 publicly available visual media (photographs) in the Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) websites to uncover the rankers’ ‘Asian visual gaze’ to extend our understandings of GURs and the significance of Asian universities within global discourse. Drawing on Arjun Appadurai’s ‘imaginary,’ Stuart Hall’s heuristics of representation, and attending to photographic techniques, we posit that THE and QS GUR imagery constructs a ‘social imaginary’ of Asian HE simultaneously as a: 1) technological frontier, 2) site of educational prestige, and 3) environmental and cultural paradise. We argue that these constructed visual imaginaries of Asian HE serve as sites for social consumption, reproduce particular imagined communities and imagined selves, and serve as scripts for action, in an era of platform capitalism.

A Cautionary Tale for Psychology and Higher Education in Asia: Following Western Practices of Incentivising Scholarship May Have Negative Outcomes

Cases of scientific fraud and research misconduct in general have escalated in Western higher education over the last 20 years. These practices include forgery, distortion of facts and plagiarism, the outright faking of research results and thriving black markets for positive peer reviews and ghost-written papers. More recently, the same abuses have found their way into Asian higher education with some high profile and widely covered cases in India, South Korea, China and Japan. Reports of misconduct are now reaching alarming proportions in Asia, and the negative consequences for individuals, institutions, governments and society at large are incalculable. The incentives for academic scientists in Asia are approaching and even surpassing those ordinarily seen in the West. Cash payments for publishing articles in high impact journals can double or even triple yearly salaries in some cases. Combining this environment with the simultaneous pressure to obtain oftentimes scarce funding for research has produced a culture of unethical behaviour worldwide. This article assesses three important issues regarding scientific fraud and research misconduct: distorted incentives for research and overreliance upon metrics, damage to the integrity of higher education and public trust and improving research environments so as to deter unethical behaviour. This is especially crucial for emerging Asian countries, in particular Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose scientific infrastructure is less developed, but nonetheless has the potential to become a major player in the development of psychology as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research and training.

Singapore international education hub and its dilemmas: the challenges and makings for cosmopolitan learning

ABSTRACT Higher education in Asia is massifying at an exceptional pace and scale. In this paper, I ask how practices and discourses which inform the internationalization of Singapore’s higher education can provide opportunities for developing cosmopolitan learning that it claims to provide. Cosmopolitan learning is closely related to cross-border student mobility and plays an important role in shaping the international students’ identities, aspirations and worldviews. Based on a recent study in Singapore of a group of international students from various parts of Asia and Europe, this paper attempts to bring the theoretical and grounded realities of cosmopolitan learning in an Asian context into the fore. The aim of the paper is to provide a useful frame for rethinking the purpose of international education for cosmopolitan learning in an increasingly interconnected world that is strewn with ambivalence, and what that means in the context of Singapore as an erudite nation-state critical to building Asian education hub aspirations.

Influence of Attitudinal belief on e-learning behavior Among Academics in State Universities of Sri Lanka

The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of attitudinal belief of “Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior” (DTPB) on actual e-learning behavior among university academics in Sri Lanka. The study applied a quantitative method by using questionnaire to collect data among university academics. Explorative and Confirmatory Factor analysis was used to examine the reliability and validity. And this study carried out Structural Equation Modeling to assess model fit and through path analysis, the association between variables was investigated. The study resulted that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, compatibility, attitude, behavioural intentions and actual behaviour met the indices for model fit. The findings showed perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use associated with attitude while compatibility is not. Attitude significantly and positively associated with behavioural intention. While behavioural intention positively associated with the actual usage this mediates the relationship between attitude and actual behaviour. The e-learning usage of academicians will help to enhance the quality of higher education system in Sri Lanka as well as to magnify the number of university intake as the country seeks to achieve its vision to be “the knowledge hub in the region and a leader in higher education in Asia by 2020”. Though the e-learning adoption studies are growing trend of education and system researchers as evidenced by extant literature, studies on attitude and intention of academicians especially in an emerging economy like Sri Lanka is still lacking. This study attempts to establish the attitudinal factors that contributes actual e-learning behavior of academicians.

Standardized proficiency tests in a campus-wide English curriculum: a washback study

Washback refers to the influence of tests on learning and teaching. To date, a number of studies have revealed that tests affect teaching content, course design, and classroom practices. However, in Asian higher education contexts, little research has examined the washback of proficiency tests on English learning in comparison with the efforts on teaching. Thus, the current study bridged this research gap by exploring the washback effects of a proficiency test on student learning in a campus-wide English curriculum, uncovering relationships between washback and learner characteristics such as major, gender, and proficiency level. A total of 694 students from engineering-, business-, and foreign language-related disciplines at a national university in Taiwan were surveyed. The results revealed washback effects on such aspects as personal image, learning motivation, emotion, and future job opportunities were especially salient. In addition, the relationship between washback and proficiency level was found to be statistically significant. However, male and female students did not differ statistically in washback nor was there a statistically significant difference in washback among different majors. With detailed information and consideration of different aspects of washback, stakeholders, including instructors, school administrators, and language policymakers, can make informed decisions when formulating language-related policies.

Ethical Living and Work Self Efficacy Beliefs of Academicians of Higher Education in ASIA: A Key Determinant of One's Belief in One's Ability to Achieve the Desired Result in a Precise State of Affairs

Ethical academicians are perfectly virtuous. They always strive for greater virtue and follow strictly the moral stands of their profession. The ethical living and self-efficacy are important to them because of being fair and honest in their academics. Determinants of ethics include knowledge, values, attitude and intention. The domain-specific framework developed by Verbeke et al. (2004) has been considered as fundamental for identifying the dimensionality of work Self-efficacy and ethical challenges of academicians. A comprehensive literature review is undertaken regarding the concept of work Self-efficacy to assess workers' confidence and their ethical living in the workplace. This article examines theoretically and analytically the antecedent processes and information cues involved in the formation of work self-efficacy. Theoretical and numerical analysis of the key determinants of work self-efficacy increases the understanding of moral values, truthful fair and honest. Factors which decisively affect ethical living were identified from literature collected from the academicians who are working in the Five Regions of Asia - Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan) East Asia (China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau) South Asia (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives) through Google classroom. Methods of Statistical Analysis of self-efficacy data are descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Kolmogorov-Smirvnos normality test and Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance and Principal Component Analysis. Positive, mastery experiences give academicians a sense of accomplishment when they have faced a challenge ethically. Positive Zeal during Academic interaction, vicarious experiences that occur when academician see others succeed and feel an increased sense of their own ability to succeed. Sincere & deeper self, mingling with students, Social persuasion increase a teacher’s sense of confidence and ability to succeed. A proper plan of action has drawn special attention, and inferences pertaining to future research are discussed at the end of the critique.

Service-Learning in Asia

Although SL is primarily a western learning concept, it is widely used as a pedagogy among education and community sectors in Asia, especially after the academic conference on ‘Service-Learning in Asia: Creating networks and curriculum in higher education’ held in 2002 at the International Christian University (ICU) in Japan as this became an interconnection with other Asian HEIs (Xing & Ma, 2010). In 2004, ICU set up the Service-Learning Asia Network (SLAN) with support from the Japanese Government and the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (Ma, Chan, Chen and Fong, 2018). In 2004, LU received one million dollars (HKD) funding support from Kwan Fong Charitable Organization to start a Service-Learning and Research Scheme (SLRS) and then in 2006, received another ten million dollars (HKD) to set up the first Office of Service-Learning (OSL) in Hong Kong. With the aim of constructing a model for academy-student-community partnership, LU has made an attempt to truly put the inspirational slogan “Serving to Learn and Learning to Serve” into practice. With commitment from a dedicated SL team and support from local and regional partners, LU started taking the lead of SL development in both Hong Kong and Asia. LU even organized the first Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning (APRCSL) in 2007 and served as the secretariat for SLAN after the revitalization.

THE EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM OF CABARET PROJECT (WP7)

The CABARET (Capacity Building in Asia for Resilience EducaTion) Project is funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ program, to foster regional cooperation for more effective multihazard early warnings and increased disaster resilience among coastal communities. The goal of the Project is to strengthen the evidence-base in support of the implementation of the new framework. The participants constructed of a consortium of 14 European and Asian higher education institutions from nine countries - four from Europe and five from Asia. The Project covers three years period and intend many meetings among participants for data and knowledge exchange. The MGU (Mining and Geology University, Sofia, Bulgaria) and MNU (Maldives National University, Male, Maldives) participations are active as co-chairs of the WP7 – “Learning and teaching tools methodologies and approaches to the MHEW (Multihazards Early Warning Systems)” and sustainable development of the resilience. The progress and achievements of the WP7 co-chaired by MGU and MNU are presented and the developments of MOOC’s (Major Online Open Courses) are under discussion. The new concept about the Educational Platform targeted to the wider audience is proposed. In conclusion several topics are underlined:  The international bilateral cooperation between MGU and MNU is established in the frame of the co-chairmanship of the WP7 – CABARET Project.  Project is displayed including educational platform development and MOOC’s skeleton and schedule.  First results of MOOC’s are available. Educational platform includes curriculum of Philippines for De La Sale University (DLSU) and Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU).  New concept for further development of the structure of the Educational Platform of the CABARET Projects is proposed. Intended international cooperation among participants of the Project is an essential topic for the coastal resilience educational platform development. Keywords: Educational Platform, new concept, hazards, warnings.

Good and bad practices in rubrics: the perspectives of students and educators

A rubric is both an assessment and an evaluation tool that is widely adopted in education. However, little is known about good and bad practices in rubrics by either students or educators in nursing education, as well as in Asian higher education in general. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the views of students and educators on good and bad practices in rubrics. A total of 82 participants, 78 nursing students and 4 educators, were involved in the study. Fourteen focus group interviews were conducted (13 interviews for students and 1 for educators), and six themes discerned. Good practices were categorised into: (1) standardisation of evaluation method, (2) objectiveness of evaluation, (3) guidelines for students’ work, and (4) transparency of evaluation. Bad practices in rubrics were: (5) vague descriptions in marking rubrics, and (6) failure to provide the ranges of marks for each grade. To conclude, good rubrics can ensure fair and consistent marking and lead to more objective assessments of student performance, thus promoting academic standards. This study can provide educators with insights into how to develop good rubrics and avoid bad ones.

Library User Education as a Window to Understand Inquiry-Based Learning in the Context of Higher Education in Asia: A Comparative Study between Peking University and the University of Tsukuba

This study is based on the belief of that enquiry-based learning should be made an integral part of any student’s learning, especially at university level. To find out the students’ perceptions towards library user education, 426 questionnaire surveys have been collected from the Peking University (PKU), China and the University of Tsukuba (UT), Japan. The results of this study indicate that compared with UT, PKU students on the whole expressed higher ratings in many areas towards the user education programs provided by their respective library, and they also had a more positive view about the professional competence of the user education (reference services) librarians. The researchers believed that the different perceptions found between the PKU and UT groups were a direct result of the distinctive learning practices and curricular requirements exercised between the two universities. There are not many articles that explore the relation between enquiry-based learning and the library user education in Asia. The findings of this study are useful for identifying the different learning modes amongst these two groups of students, as well as other barriers that were preventing the library user education programs to be integrated into Inquiring-based learning, and the university’s core curriculum as a whole.

Evaluating the flipped classroom approach in Asian higher education: Perspectives from students and teachers

AbstractThe flipped classroom approach has been gaining substantial momentum and is well received in Asia. Using a qualitative approach, this study examined how the flipped classroom approach affec...

Teaching innovations in Asian higher education: perspectives of educators

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the teaching innovations that have been implemented in higher education institutions in Asia and the perspectives of educators on them. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 educators who were affiliated with 23 higher education institutions in ten Asian countries/regions. The interviews covered information about the teaching innovations of the participants’ institutions, the characteristics of the innovative practices and the participants’ views on them. The relationships between the characteristics of institutions and their teaching innovations were also examined. Findings The results showed that the teaching innovations included two main categories, namely, those which involved the use of advanced technologies and those which did not. The innovations that involved the use of advanced technologies were mainly from larger institutions, while the other category was mainly from smaller ones and had been practised for less than 1.5 years. Differences were also identified between the two categories in terms of the aims and importance of innovations, innovative features, the evaluation of innovations and improvements needed for them. Originality/value The results highlighted that technology is only one of the many aspects of teaching innovations, which is different from the view prevailing in the literature. They also suggested that differences in the scale of institutions (in terms of number of students) possibly influences the kind of teaching innovations adopted.

Open and Distance eLearning in Asia: Country Initiatives and Institutional Cooperation for the Transformation of Higher Education in the Region

This paper is an attempt to describe the situation of higher education in Asia including the challenges it faced as well as the open and distance elearning initiatives by different countries and universities. Data gathering was done through review of online documents and websites as well as documentation of the different initiatives especially by the member institutions of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU). Descriptions of open education practices on MOOCs, OERs, and open access publications were presented and their potential to transform higher education in the region was discussed. Challenges encountered in the implementation of ODeL programs were articulated as well as some suggestions on how to address them.

National internationalisation of higher education policy in Singapore and Japan: context and competition

This cross-case analysis explores national level internationalisation of higher education (IoHE) policies in Singapore and Japan. Through comparison of the state level internationalisation strategies, this paper aims to highlight how each country’s unique policy environment impacts their approach to IoHE. The analysis suggests that despite the differing national circumstances and ultimate approaches to internationalisation, both states use it primarily as a means to stay competitive in the twenty-first century global knowledge-based economy. This suggests that while IoHE does build bridges between nations, institutions, and individuals within and between regions, within these cases it is being driven by nationally-centred rationales. While some criticize a competition orientation in IoHE, even with such rationales it may still serve to drive greater collaboration and integration among East Asian higher education systems.