Quality Assurance In Asia Pacific Universities

This edited volume examines the importance of quality issues in contemporary higher education systems in the Asia Pacific. Part One foregrounds relevant discussions of ‘quality’ within today’s globalized, interconnected, and complex higher education systems while Part Two focuses on selected universities in the Asia Pacific region. Chapter contributors discuss how quality issues and quality assurance mechanisms are implemented in their situation-specific systems. Part Three extends the research of higher education quality assurance in Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) and the diverse international student body in the Australian higher education system. The conclusion chapter discusses a typology of methods used by higher education systems in establishing effective quality assurance mechanisms.

University league tables at national, regional, international levels are increasingly complex, influential and controversial. In spite of criticisms on robustness of methodology and bias of indicators, higher education institutions continue to have an appetite for them and use or misuse them in their planning, policymaking and promotion activities. This publication will contribute to the much needed analysis of the implications, benefits and unintended consequences related to rankings and the broader issues of quality assurance in the Asia Pacific region.

Expansion and privatization have created new concerns over the quality of education throughout the Asia/Pacific region. This volume provides a framework to examine these challenges in the region and beyond.

With the rapid expansion of higher education institutions throughout the world and education’s increasingly market-based orientation, students, parents, higher educators, employers and governments have a much greater interest in the actual academic quality of universities and colleges in various dimensions in the era of globalization. Universities and colleges are definitely beginning to take on accountability toward related members of the school and societies in the same way that private enterprise does. In this way, universities are supposed to act as an effective organizer and a good learner on how to improve their quality, particularly in research and teaching quality, through several assessment tools. Hence, a major concern for Asian governments is how to assure quality in higher education and how to enhance global competitiveness through a variety of national policies and institutional engagement. As a result, quality assurance mechanisms, which emphasize output monitoring and measurements and systems of accountability and auditing, have become more popular in Asian and other regions.

This volume seeks to identify and explore the forces affecting higher education in the Asia Pacific region today. It includes a set of conceptually-rich organizing chapters followed by detailed country-specific studies that detail both the underlying dynamics of these forces and the manner in which they have affected specific countries. In this way, the chapters touch on the complex demographics of the region, how continued and continuous economic development impinges on higher education, and how neoliberalism has affected higher education across many dimensions. The volume also addresses the complex issues associated with cross border education and the daunting challenges of both national and cross-national quality assurance.

The Rise of Quality Assurance in Asian Higher Education provides information on the well researched quality assurance frameworks, processes, standards, and internal and external monitoring that have taken place around the globe. However, in Asia, where higher education has witnessed rapid growth, and is also contributing significantly to international education which is benefited by many developed countries, this data has not been readily available. In recent years, governments in Asia have made significant investment with an aim of creating education hubs to ensure that higher education is internationally competitive. This book examines the developments in higher education quality assurance in eleven Asian countries, providing systematic insights into national quality assurance arrangements and also examining the different approaches governments in Asia have implemented based on social and economic contexts. Includes chapters from eleven countries that examine quality assurance arrangements Explores untold case studies of countries, such as Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, India, and others Examines higher education context, quality assurance arrangements, effectiveness, challenges, and international quality assurance in Asia Offers contributions from leading scholars and practitioners who are working in higher education in Asia Provides engagement for research students