Higher education in Asian countries and the role of international ...

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a given number of skilled labor, technical labor, professional, specialists, planners and managers
that can be produced in higher education institutions and universities (Psacharopoulos, 1991).
Likewise peer pressure also played a great role in the expansion of higher education that was
further enforced by rapid socio-economic development in Europe, North America and Japan.
Much of the recent expansion in Asia is attributed to the development model which is further
strengthened by record economic growth in China and South Korea that is usually attributed to
higher education among other multiple factors. Different studies conducted during the last
decade show that returns of higher education are not only increasing but also have surpassed that
of other levels of education in the many countries of the world including Asian and African
countries (Varghese N. , 2004)
4.9 IGOs in Asia
The IGOs with global mandate are active in all regions of the world including Asia. These IGOs
rooted very fast soon after the World War II in Asia: UN agencies including UNESCO, Common
wealth, World Trade Organization (WTO), the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organization of
the Islamic Conference (OIC), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) etc. are some of them. There also exist regional and sub-regional Asian IGOs, which
have members from Asia and some of them have trans-continents members as well. Some
important Asian IGOs are:
Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) 1965
Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1966
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 1981
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 1989
ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992
Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in 2002
East Asian Summit (EAS) in 2005
These IGOs are working in diverse fields and have different agenda. The IGOs in the field of
education are engaged in setting standards, innovating and disseminating fresh ideas through the
coordination and distribution of statistics on development indicators, producing policy papers to