This document summarizes current trends in comparative higher education research on Asia. It discusses various levels of comparison that can be made, including intercontinental, intracontinental, country-to-country, and comparisons of specific institutions, programs, policies and practices. It also addresses why certain comparisons are made and considers factors like economic development, educational reform, contesting colonial influences, and modernization. Recent trends highlighted include globalization, massification, commercialization, internationalization, privatization, and growing inequalities in access to education.

1. Current Trends
in
Comparative Higher Education Research
on and at Asia
Assist.Prof.Dr. Ulaş Başar Gezgin
ulasbasar@gmail.com

2. Which Ones to Compare?
• Intercontinental Comparisons:
• Colonial Academic Tripartite Division of Labor:
• Socio, Anthropo, Oriental
• EU vs. Asia
• US vs. Asia
• Africa vs. Asia
• Australia vs. Asia
– Direction of comparison
– The problem of homogeneity
– Stereotyping

3. Source: http://wizzyschool.com/cosmiceducation/asia%20political%20map.php

4. Which Ones to Compare?
• Countries?
• The Most Common: China, Japan, India, South Korea, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Singapore (, Australia?) etc.
• Less Common: Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand
• Regional Clusters: SEA, NEA, EA, SA, Middle East, Central Asia
• Cultural Clusters: Countries of Confucian Heritage, of Muslim Heritage
• Ethnic Clusters: Countries of Sizeable Ethnic Chinese (Alibabas)
• Economic Clusters: Japan vs. EU, US etc.

5. Which Ones to Compare?
• Intracontinental Comparisons:
• The Most Common:
• Japan vs. China
• India vs. China

6. Why?
• Education as the Driver of Economic Growth
• (Bidirectionality?)
• Educational Reform
• Recommendations for the Incumbents
• (Academic Concerns???
• Sociology and Politics of Academia)

7. Why?
• Contesting Colonial and Post-Colonial
Hegemony in the Area of Education
• Modernization
• ‘Multi-modernization’
• Multipolarity In Tandem with Econ Dev

8. At What Levels to Compare?
• The Structure of the Institutional Equivalents (e.g.
Unis, high schools, vocational schools etc.)
• Macro-level Indicators (e.g. Enrolment rates)
• Micro and Nano level comparisons (e.g. classroom)
• Matrushkas of Bronfenbrenner
• Curricula
• Assessment Structures etc.

9. Source: http://www3.uakron.edu/schulze/610/lec_bronf.htm

10. At What Levels to Compare?
Top Asian universities 2012-13
Rank Institution Country / Region
182City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 276-
300 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China
27University of Tokyo Japan Republic of
276-
183Yonsei University Korea
29National University of Singapore Singapore 193Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel
300 Tokyo Medical and Dental University Japan
301-
35University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 201- 350 National Cheng Kung University Taiwan
225 Fudan University China
301-
46Peking University China 201- 350 Hokkaido University Japan
225 Middle East Technical University Turkey
Republic of 201-
301-
350 Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong
Nagoya University Japan
50Pohang University of Science and Technology Korea 225
301-
201- 350 King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia
52Tsinghua University China 225 University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 301-
Kyushu University Japan
54Kyoto University Japan 201- Republic of 350
225 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) Korea 301-
Republic of 226- 350 Renmin University of China China
250 Bilkent University Turkey 301-
59Seoul National University Korea 226- 350 Sharif University of Technology Iran
250 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur India 301-
226- 350 National Sun Yat-Sen University Taiwan
65Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Kong
Hong 250 Koç University Turkey 301-
Republic of 350 Sun Yat-sen University China
Republic of 226-
250 Korea University Korea 301-
University of Tsukuba Japan
68Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Korea 226-
350
250 National Tsing Hua University Taiwan 301-
86Nanyang Technological University Singapore 251- 350 Zhejiang University China
275 National Chiao Tung University Taiwan 351-
124Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 251- 400 National Central University Taiwan
Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong
128Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan 275 351-
400 Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee India
251-
134National Taiwan University Taiwan 275 Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay India 351-
251- 400 Keio University Japan
137Tohoku University Japan 275 Nanjing University China
351-
251-
137Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel 275 Tokyo Metropolitan University Japan
400 King Mongkut's University of Technology, Thonburi
Thailand
147Osaka University Japan 276-
Boğaziçi University Turkey
351-
400 National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Taiwan
300
158Tel Aviv University Israel 276- 351-
300 Istanbul Technical University Turkey 400 Waseda University Japan
Source: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2012-13/world-ranking/region/asia

11. At What Levels to Compare?
• Comparisons among Times Asia Top 400.
• Comparisons among Times Top 400 overall.
• How to step up?
• To what extent the rankings are valid.
• Problematic criteria.
• Comparison of Faculties or Departments rather than Unis. (Stronger vs. Weaker Faculties or
Departments)
• Engineering Japan vs. Manufacturing China?
• Research on World-class universities
• WCU as a tool of marketing and funding
• Colonial Heritage: Trying to be even more ‘Western’ than ‘Westerners’.
• Transfer of culture vs. technology debate.
• The influence of international trade agreements on higher education

12. At What Levels to Compare?
• Education and Other
Social Institutions:
• Hierarchy/Heterarchy at
• Click to edit Master text styles
Society and at Unis
– Second level
• Values: Individualism/ – Third level
• Fourth level
• Collectivism at Class – Fifth level
• Citizenship Education
Source: http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html

13. At What Levels to Compare?
• Asian students at non-Asian unis
• Non-Asian students at Asian unis
• Asian students at non-Asian unis in Asia
• English as a Second Language
• Learning strategies of Asian students
• Value of education for Asian parents
• University entrance exams
• Research by Asian scholars living in Asia or non-Asia; by non-
Asian scholars in Asia or non-Asia

14. Recent Trends in
Asian (Higher) Education
• Globalization
• Massification (Shin and Harman, in press)
• Commercialization
• Internationalization
• Quality vs. quantity
• Privatization
• Off-shore campuses
• Growing inequalities in access to high quality education
• Source: Gezgin, U. B. (2009). The currents and trends in the Vietnamese education system within the
international(ized) context: A comparative perspective. (Paper prepared for the Third Conference on
Comparative Education in Vietnam, October 16, 2009.)

15. Personal Experience
• RMIT at Vietnam
• Upper Iowa University at Malaysia
• Vietnam-German Uni
• (Turkish-German, Egyptian-German)
• Educational institutions at Thailand
• PhD study in New Zealand
• And communications with Asian academics of
various countries...

16. In Addition to Gezgin (2009)
• Chinese students in Australian education (Yang, 2007).
• Australia as the exporter of higher education (Harman, 2004; Yang, 2007).
• Financing higher education; privatization; “shifting costs to parents”; “cost sharing”
(Johnstone, 2004).
• Academic freedom in Hong Kong vs. China; higher education restructuring (Petersen & Currie,
2008).
• Quality Assurance Systems in Japan vs. Asia (Toma & Naruo, 2009).
• University autonomy and strategic planning (Sirad, 2010).
• Use of ICT for education in Asia (Richards, 2004; Zhang, 2007).
• Self-reflection: Asian Comparative Education Societies themselves as a research topic (e.g. How
do they differ? Their history and reception? etc.) (Bray, 2002).
• International education as ‘soft power’ (Canadian foreign policy) (Trilokekar, 2010).
• ‘Inter-university collaboration and university-industry cooperation’
• Distance Education (Kawachi, 2008).

17. References
• Bray, M. (2002). Comparative education in East Asia: Growth, development and contributions to the global field. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 4(2), 70-80.
• Gezgin, U. B. (2009). The currents and trends in the Vietnamese education system within the international(ized) context: A comparative perspective. (Paper prepared for the Third
Conference on Comparative Education in Vietnam, October 16, 2009.)
• Harman, G. (2004). New directions in internationalizing higher education: Australia’s development as an exporter of higher education services. Higher Education Policy, 17, 101-120.
• Johnstone, D. B. (2004). The economics and politics of cost sharing in higher education: comparative perspectives. Economics of Education Review ,23, 403–410.
• Kaneko, M., Kimura, I., Yamagishi, R. (2003). Higher education development in Asia: – Inter-university collaboration and university-industry cooperation–. JBICI Review, 8, 131-175.
• Kawachi, P. (2008). Building social capital through distance education in Asia. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 6(1), 15-26.
• Petersen , C.J. & Currie, J. (2008). Higher education restructuring and academic freedom in Hong Kong. Policy Futures in Education, 6(5), 589-600.
• Richards, C. (2004). From old to new learning: global imperatives, exemplary Asian dilemmas and ICT as a key to cultural change in education, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 2(3),
337-353.
• Sirad, M. (2010). Strategic planning directions of Malaysia’s higher education: university autonomy in the midst of political uncertainties. Higher Education, 59, 461-473.
• Toma & Naruo (2009). Quality assurance in the Japanese universities. Amfiteatru Economic, 11(26), 574-584.
• Trilokekar, R.D. (2010). International education as soft power? The contributions and challenges of Canadian foreign policy to the internationalization of higher education. Higher
Education, 59, 131-147.
• Yang, M. (2007). What attracts mainland Chinese students to Australian higher education. Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development, 4(2), 1-12.
• Zhang, J. (2007). A cultural look at information and communication technologies in Eastern education. Education Technology Research Development , 55, 301–314.
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18. • Thanks for your listening.
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