Abstract
This chapter introduces the themes and chapters of Higher Education in Asia-Pacific: Strategic responses to globalization. It begins with the definition of the Asia-Pacific region—the long arc of coastal nations from Southeast Asia to Japan plus the adjoining nations of the Western Pacific—and a statistical overview of population, economy and education. This chapter then summarizes the main elements in the globalization of higher education and looks at the global, local and national dimensions in turn. Global convergence has changed the context of national systems and individual institutions and is transforming Asia-Pacific higher education as a whole. It brings with it a new set of freedoms and compulsions that affect both local institutions and nation-states and is changing the relationship between them. It also reworks inequalities between nations—and creates both intense pressures for standardization, and scope for strategy-making and distinctive global influence, though only some nations and institutions are using the opportunities that have opened up. Finally, this chapter guides readers into the contributions to the book. Higher Education in Asia-Pacific is organized in four principal sections. Part I contains chapters looking at the Asia-Pacific region in the global context. Part II presents chapters on the global strategies and activities of individual universities in the Asia-Pacific region. In Part III, the longest section of the book, there are chapters on the responses and strategies of Asia-Pacific governments and systems. Part IV includes two chapters on higher education in neighbouring South and West Asian countries. The book’s conclusion follows.
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Notes
- 1.
Includes social sciences.
- 2.
The annual rankings by the Times Higher Education and QS marketing use composite indexes that cover a range of criteria, of which research is only one. Composite rankings can be criticized on grounds of validity; and these rankings are prone to sharp annual rises and falls that appear unrelated to institutional performance (Marginson 2010a).
- 3.
“Asia-Pacific” as defined in the Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking includes West Asia, and also covers Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.
- 4.
Held et al. (1999, p. 16) later define globalization in more precise terms as “a process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions—assessed in terms of their extensivity, intensity, velocity and impact—generating transcontinental and interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction and the exercise of power”. Carnoy (1999) distinguishes the processes of globalization from its “ideological packaging” and ideologically driven policy designed to further it. One ideological packaging of globalization is the normative notion of “globalization” as the worldwide spread of capitalist markets, as expressed in popular culture and academic literature. Interestingly, both pro neo-liberal and anti neo-liberal positions often draw on this normative notion of globalization, leaving themselves without a term that readily describes forms of world system other than global markets—for example communicative convergence, which combines cultural and economic phenomena and does not necessarily involve market transactions, as much of information and knowledge flows on an open source basis (Marginson 2009a).
- 5.
The World Bank does not list literacy data for the most developed nations.
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Marginson, S., Kaur, S., Sawir, E. (2011). Global, Local, National in the Asia-Pacific. In: Marginson, S., Kaur, S., Sawir, E. (eds) Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1500-4_1
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