August 2012
Regional Globalism and International
Higher Education in Asia
By Yenbo Wu
Student Mobility Across
Asian Borders
Worldwide, 52 percent of international students
come from Asia.4 The top sending countries are
China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and
Vietnam. Meanwhile, student mobility within Asia—
particularly within East and Southeast Asia—has
been equally, if not more, robust. The traditional
“sending countries” of China, South Korea, and
Japan now attract mainly students from other Asian
countries to study in their own.5
This trend is going to accelerate, with ambitious
plans for growth from both Asian governments and
institutions. According to the Vision 2020 report
from the United Kingdom, Asia is set to account for
70 percent of the global demand for international
higher education by 2025.
Increase in Intra-Asia Collaboration
This international education development is not
limited to student mobility—Asia is making strides in
other areas as well. The top five countries in terms of
growth in research and development spending from
1996-2007 were China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore,
and Taiwan.6 Well-developed higher education systems in Asia are learning from each other in building
world-class research universities, and following each
other in attracting talent from outside their borders.
One prominent area of intra-Asia development is
the creation of education hubs and education cities.
These cities and hubs provide opportunities for intraregional collaboration and competition for talents and
resources, as well as the market share of globally and
regionally mobile students. The Global Schoolhouse
in Singapore, for example, plans to recruit 150,000
international students from Asia and beyond by 2015.7
In Malaysia, several institutions are working together
to promote the country as a major regional hub of
higher education with the Kuala Lumpur Education
City project. Educational promotion offices supported
by the Malaysian government have also been estab-
i 1 i
© 2012 NAFSA: Association of International Educators
Higher education globalization has been growing with
galloping speed. Over the last decade, the number
of college students worldwide studying outside their
borders jumped from 0.8 million in 1975 to 2 million
in 2001, reaching close to 3.7 million in 2009.1 It is
expected to triple to roughly 8 million by 2025.2 The
percentage of young people enrolled in higher education institutions increased from 19 percent in 2000 to
27 percent in 2007.3 Overseas branch campuses are
approaching the 200 mark, and many countries have
established educational “hubs” or “cities.” Dual and
double degree programs have grown, starting mostly
from European countries, and twinning/transfer
articulation programs have a long tradition of success
in several Asian countries. With increased competition in global higher education, the global movement
of talent has never been so active, and the directions
of “brain” flow never so diverse. And Asia is at the
forefront of many of these developments.
Regional Globalism and International Higher Education in Asia
lished in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the United
Arab Emirates.
for international students, sensitivity toward external perceptions of their institutions, and flexibility in
counting time abroad toward degree requirements.10
These moves allow higher education institutions in
several countries to learn from and compete with
each other—enhancing the academic reputation of
many of these institutions, and making them more
attractive to students from the region.
What Propelled Intra-Asian
­Regionalization Trends?
There are multiple factors behind Asia’s dramatic rise
in international education activities, and its attractiveness for intra-regional collaborations. Geographical
proximity, historical links between countries, and
cultural aspirations all might be reasons.8 The strongest force should be Asia’s economic vigor and vitality. Asia is in the middle of historic transformation,
particularly in economic development. If the region
continues to follow its current trajectory, its per capita
income could rise six-fold by 2050, to reach European
levels today. By nearly doubling its share of global
gross domestic product (GDP) to 52 percent by 2050,
Asia would regain the dominant economic position
held some 300 years ago, before the Industrial Revolution. Economically, regional cooperation is critical
for Asia’s march toward prosperity.
Cost consideration also plays a role in intra-regional
cooperation.11 Most Asian students are from developing countries; thus, it’s more economical to study
across borders in a regional country that costs much
less in tuition and fees than to cross the ocean for the
same degree. Even with the sole purpose of receiving an education in an English-speaking environment,
many Asian students go to Singapore and Malaysia,
because the cost in these two destinations is lower
than in major English-speaking destinations.12
Meanwhile, the era of glory in the higher education
boom may be over in several countries which have a
decreasing number of students. Asia’s most prosperous economies— Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and
Taiwan—have some of the lowest birth rates in the
world. While still major senders of students across the
borders, several Asian countries have an urgent need
to attract students to sustain their own enterprises
and to import labor for economic sustainability. That
mobility will largely be from within the region.
The Impact of Intra-Asian Regional
Globalism on the U.S. and World
Anything happening in Asia in international education should have noticeable impact on the global
i 2 i
© 2012 NAFSA: Association of International Educators
Improved quality and standards in education have
also helped retain Asian students. Quality assurance
and accreditation procedures have been the subject
of regional discussions. Government policies making
education a priority not only leads to the creation
of targets to increase participation in higher education, but also to government reforms in many East
and Southeast Asian nations, focused on improving
education delivery and outcomes. With initiatives
such as the Joint Quality Assurance Capacity Building Project for ASEAN countries,9 which focused
on quality assurance of Southeast Asian institutions and created a National Quality Framework
(NQF) in several Asian countries, the “Study Korea
Project,” formed by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, to create key policy
tasks aimed at improving infrastructure for foreign
students and establish effective administration and
support systems, and the fact that several Chinese
institutions are beginning to count semester or year
abroad programs toward total schooling for degrees—the trends highlighted by OECD are clear: Institutions of higher education in Asian countries are
now more willing to raise their standards regarding
teaching quality, student diversity, support services
Asia’s diverse demographic picture contributes to
the increase of cross-border mobility and collaboration in many unique ways. Higher education industries of India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia,
Vietnam, and Malaysia are set to reap a “demographic dividend” for at least two more decades,
with their huge population of young people. The demand simply cannot be met by their own in-country
educational enterprises; higher education industries
will see a surge in going global for both export demand, and import infrastructure.
Regional Globalism and International Higher Education in Asia
The United States has been a leading destination for
students from Asia for a long time. Dominance of
the Western model of higher education and English
as the lingua franca of academic interactions will no
doubt remain strong for a long time to come. However, globalization at the regional level in Asia has
been a growing force and trend, presenting itself
as a competing force for highly reputable Western
higher education establishments. With other Asian
countries fast-growing their courses and degree
programs taught entirely in English (which has been
taking place in Korea, China, and Japan),13 U.S.
students will find educational opportunities in Asia
more accessible. With more incentives financially
and with employment offered by Asian countries,
more American students will go to Asian destinations, while the percentage of Asian students coming
to the U.S. may slightly decrease. This has already
happened: Many Asian-Muslim students have reported that they consider cultures in Singapore and
Malaysia less discriminatory than those in the U.S.;
additionally, more Indonesians are studying in China
now than in the U.S., and the number of Taiwanese
and Japanese students in the U.S. has dropped significantly over the last decade.
Despite the pattern of strong Asian growth, the U.S.
is still the global research giant. It is expected to lead
other countries with an anticipated 31 percent share
of the world’s research spending in 2012. However,
that percentage is changing. Asia is the fastest growing region in research and development spending,
which presents more opportunities for U.S. researchers to either collaborate with their Asian colleagues
or join their ranks directly in producing scholarship
and knowledge. This collaboration and inclusion is
highly welcomed by Asian governments and universities, as it further facilitates global knowledge
transfer and sharing.
The flow of talent between the U.S. and Asia is clearly
shifting directions, although slowly, and still at a small
scale. The phenomenon, for example, of a noticeable
number of Korean scholars who obtained doctorates from the U.S. returning to Korea to teach in their
own universities provides an unsettling look into a
possible future of declining U.S. hegemony over the
“best brains.”14 There are thousands of senior faculty
and researchers either returning to China temporarily, or settling in China permanently, with attractive
compensation packages and conducive work environments for their professional development. The Indian
government is actively recruiting returnees to fill
its vastly vacant seats on university campuses and
research labs. New patterns of mobility have replaced
the East-West and North-South movement, so often
associated with academic and professional career trajectories. No longer is there simply a mono-direction
brain drain from Asia to the United States.
Yenbo Wu is associate vice president for international education at
San Francisco State University and a current member of the NAFSA
Board of Directors. He is a former Fulbright scholar to Japan.
Endnotes:
1. OECD report, Education at a Glance, 2011.
2. Wildavsky, Ben. “University Globalization is
Here to Stay.” The Chronicle of Higher Education,
Aug. 26, 2010
3. UNESCO, “The State of Higher Education in
the World Today,” 2009.
4. See note (1) above.
5. Altbach, Philip. Forward. Crossing Borders in
East Asian Higher Education, 2010.
6. Wheeler, David. “Asia Will Power Growth in
Research and Development This Year,” The
Chronicle of Higher Education, January 4, 2012
7. Knight, Jane. “Education Hubs: A Fad, a Brand,
an Innovation?” Journal of Studies in International Education, July 2011.
i 3 i
© 2012 NAFSA: Association of International Educators
scene. Of the 152.5 million college students in
the world in 2007, about one-third are in six Asian
countries alone. Asian students will continue to flow
to the U.S. and Western Europe. But with a growing trend of regionalism in Asia, that speed will be
slower, and the percentage smaller. With further
growing economic power providing better career opportunities, and with an improved quality of regional
university education, more Asian students will settle
studying in neighboring Asian countries in the years
to come. If the U.S. and Western Europe cannot effectively stop the financial crisis’ negative impact on
higher education, this trend could accelerate.
Regional Globalism and International Higher Education in Asia
12. “International Student Mobility in East Asia:
Executive Summary,” prepared by JWT Education and published by the British Council,
February 2008.
13. See note (4) above.
14. “American Universities in a Global Market,”
Inside Higher Ed, August 31, 2010.
© 2012 NAFSA: Association of International Educators
8. See note (1) above.
9. Status report, “3rd Asia-Europe Meeting of
Ministers for Education (ASEMME3),” May
9-10, 2011.
10. See note (1) above.
11. See note (1) above.
i 4 i