Higher Education in East Asia and Singapore: Rise of the Confucian Model.
TL;DR: This paper reviewed Asia-Pacific higher education and university research, focusing principally on the Confucian education nations Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong China, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.
Abstract: The paper reviews Asia–Pacific higher education and university research, focusing principally on the “Confucian” education nations Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong China, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam. Except for Vietnam, these systems exhibit a special developmental dynamism—still playing out everywhere except Japan—and have created a distinctive model of higher education more effective in some respects than systems in North America, the English-speaking world and Europe where the modern university was incubated. The Confucian Model rests on four interdependent elements: (1) strong nation-state shaping of structures, funding and priorities; (2) a tendency to universal tertiary participation, partly financed by growing levels of household funding of tuition, sustained by a private duty, grounded in Confucian values, to invest in education; (3) “one chance” national examinations that mediate social competition and university hierarchy and focus family commitments to education; (4) accelerated public investment in research and “world-class’ universities. The Model has downsides for social equity in participation, and in the potential for state interference in executive autonomy and academic creativity. But together with economic growth amid low tax regimes, the Confucian Model enables these systems to move forward rapidly and simultaneously in relation to each and all of mass tertiary participation, university quality, and research quantity and quality.
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TL;DR: For example, the authors argues that no country has established a bona fide economic market in the first-degree education of domestic students, and no research university is driven by shareholders, profit, market share, allocative efficiency or the commodity form.
Abstract: For more than two decades, governments around the world, led by the English-speaking polities, have moved higher education systems closer to the forms of textbook economic markets. Reforms include corporatisation, competitive funding, student charges, output formats and performance reporting. But, no country has established a bona fide economic market in the first-degree education of domestic students. No research university is driven by shareholders, profit, market share, allocative efficiency or the commodity form. There is commercial tuition only in parts of vocational training and international education. While intensified competition, entrepreneurship and consumer talk are pervasive in higher education, capitalism is not very important. At the most, there are regulated quasi-markets, as in post-Browne UK. This differs from the experience of privatisation and commercialisation of transport, communications, broadcasting and health insurance in many nations. The article argues that bona fide market refo...
262 citations
Cites background from "Higher Education in East Asia and S..."
...For example, since 2000 in East and Southeast Asia, leading universities have been corporatised in China, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and to some extent in Vietnam (Mok 2009; Marginson 2011)....
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...…explore regional–cultural and national differences in the role of, for example, private higher education, household financing and entrepreneurial behaviour within institutions (e.g. the national cases in Teixeira et al. 2004; Santiago et al. 2006; Brown 2011; For East Asia see Marginson 2011)....
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TL;DR: For example, the authors compare different approaches to public good in higher education that have evolved across the world, identifying generic elements can be identified, and a common language of public good developed, which also makes it possible to establish a broad-based notion of specifically global public goods.
Abstract: Discussion about the purposes and benefits of higher education has been stymied by a particular construction of the relation between private and public benefits now dominant in policy circles and public debate. In this reading of higher education, the private and public benefits are rhetorically juxtaposed on a zero sum basis, while the individual benefits are defined as solely private and in economic terms. In liberal Western societies, in which limiting the role of the state is the central problem of politics, and individual freedoms tend to be positioned as outside both state and society, the collective conditions (‘social benefits’) provided by higher education are seen as exclusive of the individual benefits. These collective benefits are shadowy, undefined. Given that in liberal Western societies—especially English-speaking societies—understandings of the public good(s) created by higher education have become ideologically ‘frozen’, so that the public good can scarcely be identified, this suggests the need to look beyond liberal Western jurisdictions for fresh insights and conceptual frameworks. Notions of the role of government and of universities, the ‘social’, ‘community’, individual and collective, and public good, vary considerably between different traditions of higher education, for example the Nordic, German, Russian, Latin American and Chinese traditions as well as those in the United States and the Westminster countries. There is no good reason to treat the Anglo-American approach to public/private as the sum of all possibilities. By comparing the different approaches to ‘public good’ in higher education that have evolved across the world, generic elements can be identified, and a common language of public good developed. This also makes it possible to establish a broad-based notion of specifically global public goods.
249 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the motivations and decisions of universities to establish international branch campuses and found that university managements' considerations can be explained by the concepts of legitimacy, status, institutional distance, risk-taking, riskavoidance and the desire to secure new sources of revenue.
Abstract: The international branch campus is a phenomenon on the rise, but we still have limited knowledge of the strategic choices underlying the start of these ventures. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the motivations and decisions of universities to engage (or not) with the establishment of international branch campuses. As a point of departure, institutional theory has been selected to frame the potential motives for starting an international branch campus. Secondary literature, including professional journals and university reports and websites, has been analysed to obtain information that alludes to the motivations of universities for adopting particular strategies. It was found that university managements’ considerations can be explained by the concepts of legitimacy, status, institutional distance, risk-taking, risk-avoidance and the desire to secure new sources of revenue. We argue that universities should avoid decisions that are based largely on a single dimension, such as legitimacy, but rather consider a broad spectrum of motivations and considerations.
222 citations
Cites background from "Higher Education in East Asia and S..."
...The corporatisation of institutions is a process also occurring outside Western countries, in East Asia for example (Marginson 2011; Welch 2011)....
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...Although foreign HEIs might benefit from high levels of family commitment to investment in higher education, they need to be aware that governments retain tight control over policy, planning and funding (Marginson 2011)....
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TL;DR: The tendency to high participation systems (HPS) is common to countries that vary widely in rates of economic growth, education system structures, and financing arrangements, but share the tendency to urbanization as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The world is rapidly becoming more educated at higher education level. In nearly all countries with per capita GDP of more than about $5,000 per annum there is a longterm tendency to growth of participation. The worldwide Gross Tertiary Enrollment Ratio (GTER) increased from 10% in 1972 to 32% in 2012, and is now rising by 1% a year. By 2012 the GTER had reached 50% in 54 national systems, compared to 5 systems twenty years before, and there were 14 countries with a GTER of 75% or more. The tendency to high participation systems (HPS) is common to countries that vary widely in rates of economic growth, education system structures, and financing arrangements, but share the tendency to urbanization. Possible causes include state policies, economic development, aspirations for social position, credentialism, global factors, and combinations of these. The paper describes the tendency to HPS, explores the possible explanations, and begins to reflect on the implications; on the way reviewing prior discussions of growth in participation including Trow (1974), Schofer and Meyer (2005), and Baker (2011). It closes with suggestions for further investigation.
184 citations
Cites background from "Higher Education in East Asia and S..."
...Such an approach is helpful in understanding the fast-moving and semi-open world of global higher education, with its imaginative possibilities, and is equally applicable to the study of HPS (see more discussion in Marginson, 2008; Marginson, 2010; Marginson, 2011)....
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...For example, families and schools in East Asia expect every student to be a high achiever, a strong starting point for tertiary participation (Marginson, 2011)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the role of higher education in China's rise and how Chinese universities are responding to the drive for innovation, against a background of globalisation and internationalisation.
Abstract: Higher education, an integral part of China’s nation-building project, is a critical element in China’s strategic policy initiative of building national strength through science and education. One way to achieve this goal is to develop a higher education system of international stature. Perhaps more than any other country, through national programs such as 211 and 985, China has been explicit in selecting its best universities for intensive investment, with the expressed aim of making them world-class within coming decades, and contributing more to overall R&D and scientific development. Analysing how these top-tier universities in China are reaching for the gold standard, and using Tsinghua University as an example, this article examines the role of higher education in China’s rise and how Chinese universities are responding to the drive for innovation, against a background of globalisation and internationalisation. It analyses the experience of Tsinghua, a Chinese flagship university, sometimes dubbed ‘China’s MIT’, through an in-depth case study in an international context, seeking to answer the question of how far Tinsghua embodies the qualities of a world-class university.
151 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: The authors argued that the ways in which knowledge is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century and that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies.
Abstract: In this provocative and broad-ranging work, a distinguished team of authors argues that the ways in which knowledge scientific, social and cultural is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century. They claim that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying a range of features of the new moder of knowledge production reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity the authors show the connections between these features and the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the knowledge produced by research and development in science and technology (both public and industrial) is accorded central concern, the authors also outline the changing dimensions of social scientific and humanities knowledge and the relations between the production of knowledge and its dissemination through education. Placing science policy and scientific knowledge in its broader context within contemporary societies, this book will be essential reading for all those concerned with the changing nature of knowledge, with the social study of science, with educational systems, and with the relations between R&D and social, economic and technological development.
7,486 citations
"Higher Education in East Asia and S..." refers background in this paper
...…responsibilities to institutions, and an emphasis on entrepreneurship (Huang 2006; Oba 2007)—a partial shift to Mode 2 conceptions of research (Gibbons et al. 1994); and the use of quality assurance, audit and accountability mechanisms to entrench performance cultures and steer activities…...
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...Thus the familiar new public management (NPM) reforms are rolling out in East Asia and Singapore, such as the corporatization of institutions—including devolution of financial responsibilities to institutions, and an emphasis on entrepreneurship (Huang 2006; Oba 2007)—a partial shift to Mode 2 conceptions of research ( Gibbons et al. 1994 ); and the use of quality assurance, audit and accountability mechanisms to entrench performance ......
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08 Dec 1993
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the following categories: elementary and secondary science and mathematics education, higher education in science and engineering, academic research and development, public attitudes and public understanding.
Abstract: : 1. Elementary and Secondary Science and Mathematics Education. 2. Higher Education in Science and Engineering. 3. Science and Engineering Workforce. 4. Research & Development: Financial Resources and Instituional Linkages. 5. Academic Research and Development: Financial Resources, Personnel, and Outputs. 6. Technology Development and competitiveness. 7. Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding.
3,343 citations
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In this article, Nunez et al. present the CECE model, a new theory of success among Racially Diverse College Student Populations (CECE) model, and the Completion Agenda, the Unintended Consequences for Equity in Community Colleges.
Abstract: 1. The Complexity of Higher Education: a Career in Academics and Activism Philip G. Altbach.- 2. Advancing an Intersectionality Framework in Higher Education: Power and Latino Postsecondary Opportunity Anne-Marie Nunez.- 3. Student Veterans in Higher Education David T. Vacchi and Joseph B. Berger.- 4. The Changing Nature of Cultural Capital Jenna R. Sablan and William G. Tierney.- 5. The Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) Model: A New Theory of Success among Racially Diverse College Student Populations Samuel D. Museus.- 6. Organizational Identity in Higher Education: Conceptual and Empirical Perspectives David J. Weerts, Gwendolyn H. Freed and Christopher C. Morphew.- 7. Student Ratings of Instruction in College and University Courses Stephen L. Benton and William E. Cashin.- 8. College Enrollment: an Economic Analysis Leslie S. Stratton.- 9. The Welding of Opposite Views: Land-Grant Historiography at 150 Years Nathan M. Sorber and Roger L. Geiger.- 10. The Completion Agenda: The Unintended Consequences for Equity in Community Colleges Jaime Lester.- 11. Using IPEDS for Panel Analyses: Core Concepts, Data Challenges, and Empirical Applications Ozan Jaquette and Edna E. Parra.- 12. Toward a Better Understanding of Equity in Higher Education Finance and Policy Luciana Dar.
2,366 citations