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

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From the data on demography, population structure, participation trends in education and
economic development in the region, it is evident that recent increase in the student enrolment at
higher education level is just a beginning and in the times to come countries it will increase
further. According to UNESCO data 2009, only in nine Asian countries and territories the gross
enrolment ratio at tertiary level is 50% or higher, where as in the countries with huge population
like China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh the participation rate is increasing very
rapidly and every year millions of new students are entering in the HEIs of this region.
The world development indicators (WDI) show that all Asian countries are not at the equal level
and stage of the development; there lies a stark difference at inter-region, inter-country and intra-
country levels. There exist extreme difference in economic development and prevalence of
education and institutional development. For example, the participation rate in higher education
in republic of Korea has an unparallel place with a value of 98.1%, followed by Macao China
63%, Israel 60%, Japan58, Hong Kong China 56.6%, Mongolia 53% and Lebanon 52.5% while
in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, and Pakistan the participation rate at higher education level is
less than 7%.
5.4.3 The development trends in Asian higher education
The development of higher education in many Asia countries is faced with two major problems:
at the one hand the participation rate is low and on the other hand it is rising up at snail‟s pace.
This problem is rooted in low economic development and limited capacity in terms of human
and material resources. For such countries IGOs assistance is of great importance. While those
countries that are performing well also need co-operative support from IGOs in furthering their
objectives in the development of higher education sector so that they could maintain their place
and position by achieving excellence at all levels, and could compete at international level.
In many countries where higher education institutions were already faced with financial
constrains, a rapid increase in the student enrolment is further aggravating the situation as result
either institution are compromising the quality or sharing the cost with students. In some cases
such institutions are opting for a third option also; marketing their products and services to
generate revenue. The last two market oriented approaches are transforming both the role of
higher education institutions and the way knowledge generated and distributed.