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

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design to study the IGO-state relations and the role of IGOs in the development of higher
education of a country. Due to these reasons it demands great prudence while dealing with IGOs-
state relations.
International organizations are faced with many challenges that vary from one region to the other
where some of the challenges are of global in nature. One of the major global challenges being
faced by IOs is integrating less developed countries on various measures; peace, health,
education, economics and environment. Among the other global challenges include; human
rights, trade, investment, cross border higher education, intellectual property right, regionalism,
pace of reforms, balance of power.
7.3 Criticism and appreciation
International organizations are criticized for overlooking and bypassing higher education sector.
That is evident from their different activities in past two decades. Jomtien conference 1990 and
Dakar summit 2000 advocated only “primary education for all” to guarantee socio-economic
development whereas secondary and tertiary education were not considered “for all” in these
events.
The 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education; the 2000, the World Bank and the
UNESCO joint publication Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise, a
report by the independent Task Force on Higher Education and Society; the 2002, the World
Bank research study on tertiary education Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges
for Tertiary Education; the 2002, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) reports; India:
Education Sector Development in the 1990s and Tertiary Education: Lessons from a Decade of
Lending, FY1990-2000; the 2004 World Bank policy paper on higher education; the 2009
UNESCO 2nd World Conference on Higher Education, all these documents stressed the
importance of policy reform in higher education to make it responsive to the changing need. But
the research studies have found that the process of reform and development is very slow.
Likewise Bloom, Canning, and Chan (2006) have also found that higher education is good for
economic and technological development, even though donor agencies including the World Bank
kept it at bay for a long period (Bloom, Canning, & Chan, 2006).
The above arguments have weight and worth so one cannot deny them completely. Had IGOs
followed a balanced approach by giving due importance to all education sub-sectors then