Gender Issues in Asia Pacific Higher Education: Assessing the Data

Abstract

Gender issues within Asia Pacific higher education have been the subject of a summary review by UNESCO (2010) which raised a variety of questions about gender, including but not limited to: the expansion of access for women to higher education, the tensions and conflicts in many cases between issues of providing equality within higher education structure and promoting equity of treatment, efforts to account for national differences in provision and treatment, the distribution of gender roles within higher education, both in terms of fields of study and in terms of nationality, and patterns of career achievement when reviewed by gender. These topics and others, outlined in the concept paper for the APHERP seminar of the same title, are in this chapter given focus by eliciting data to clarify the major areas of examination that underscore the broader directions of gender development in Asia Pacific higher education and to highlight areas on which greater steps toward access, equity, and quality may be obtained.