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

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documents belongs to these categories: Education at a Glance, PISA, OECD Education Statistics,
Reviews of National Education Policies, Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS),
and Higher Education Management and Policy. OECD directorate for education is responsible
for the production of education related documents and publication, which covers a wide variety
of subject. These publications on education help the member and non-member countries to have
better understanding of the shared problems, new challenges faced by the education sector and
viable solutions available to them. These documents also give opportunities to make inter-
countries and inter-regions comparisons and allow the actors to learn from each other. The
OECD, through its publications and activities in Asia, has cleared the way “for greater
convergence and commitment amongst Asian states to adopt uniform models of best practices at
higher education level” (Yang, 2010).
On Asian partner economies, since year 2000 OECD‟s Directorate for Education has produced
123 reviews and surveys, 25 reports and 50 publications. The detailed data reveals that 80% of
the documents produced were on four Asian member economies while only 20% were on the
remaining seventeen Asian partner countries. Among these partner on five countries Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam OECD Directorate for Education has not produced
even a single document while sixteen countries are without any report and nine countries are
without any presence on publication table. (see the table)
5.2.11.1.2 OECD data and Asian countries
OECD to stay informed and to keep the world informed collects, analyses and present the data
on its member and some of the non- member countries in the field of education and other fields.
OECD gathers and compiles information on high-income countries but little or no information
on low-income countries (LICs) and middle-income countries (MICs) (Olsson & Mkandawire,
2009). Likewise on majority of the Asian countries much data do not available with OECD.
A repository of information on low- and middle-income countries which, together with the
information available on OECD Member countries, can serve as a genuine knowledge bank on
global knowledge systems (Olsson & Mkandawire, 2009). Because detailed data on education
helps all stakeholders to have a better understanding of the situation and multi-dimensional
comparisons that further enrich their experiences and help in policy framing, informed decisions
and research. The OECD has three types of databases: