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

6 Research findings
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The world political structure is complex and interlinked. Furthermore cultural and economic
diversity, in different parts of the world, pose challenges to the process of cooperation and
interaction at international level but with the passage of time cooperation and interaction at
international level is becoming a common phenomenon. So a multiple actor model has an
increased acceptance in this globalized world where institutions and IGOs work together to
achieve shared goals in the field of education. In this complex environment, IGOs being
international actors play an important role to initiate and promote cooperation at state level.
Perhaps due to this reason IGOs have grown very rapidly in the post world war period. The level
of state-IGOs and sate-state cooperation varies from government to government due to multiple
reasons. States establish, support and promote IGOs to protect their interests and to face
international challenges. Peace, health, literacy and economic development are the major
challenges faced by international community. Many IGOs are now reaching education in order to
face all these challenges. So education has becoming an important component of the IGOs
development assistance strategies.
6.1.1 Role in higher education: a comparison of the IGOs
The three organizations, UNESCO, OECD and the World Bank, have different organizational
and bureaucratic structures. These IGOs follow different but overlapped objectives, approaches,
functions and activities. OECD and the World Bank are economic organizations but very
different from each other whereas UNESCO is purely a laboratory of ideas. All the three IGOs
are engaged in the field of education including higher education but none of the organization
considers higher education as priority area. UNESCO and the World Bank have larger presence
in Asia through programs, projects memberships, and offices at regional and national levels.
UNESCO is comparatively more active and visible in the region at institutional levels through
UNITWIN, UNESCO Chair, ASPnet and other Programs. All three organizations work for
capacity development, policy reform in the member countries through technical assistance and
capacity building measures that include conferences, workshops, training programs, publications,
newsletters, and data and information sharing. All three organizations work for quality assurance
in the field of higher education, collaborate with other IGOs, through different means. UNESCO
is the only organization that has launched degree program for capacity development, produces