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

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as responsive and high quality research is of great utility for the society thus in higher education
institutions it always at the central position. Furthermore research contributes to knowledge
generation, innovation and inventions. Supporting higher education and research in and by less
developed countries is imperative for smooth global development but very little international
development research funding has addressed this need in a systematic way as mostly the research
allocations focus on projects designed to address specific problems rather than to research
capacity building (Olsson & Mkandawire, 2009).
In all countries of this region enrolment at secondary level is substantially increasing and as a
result the demand for higher education is also increasing rapidly. Since the advent of 21st
century, a majority of the countries has seen an unprecedented increase in participation rate in
higher education. There are several and varied factors that contribute to high demand for higher
education in Asia, it includes: higher competition in the job market, expansion of the services
sector, a shift towards knowledge and information based economy, demand for high order skill
and competencies due new technological development, graduation as a prerequisite for upper
jobs in public and private sectors, concept of graduate job market where higher education helps
to unlock the doors that lead to services and industrial sector, prevalence of the paradigm that
better education means better opportunities, high regard for superior education in the society and
at workplace, external influence due to internationalization of ideas and culture through media,
communication and education, economic globalization, inter-regional and inter-continental
competition, new trends in high developed countries like in western Europe and north America,
higher education a mean of mobility and culture of higher education. From the data on
participation rate at primary and secondary level it is evident that this trend of “flooding higher
education institutions” is likely to continue in the decades to come. To meet the rising demand
for higher education, governments are erecting policies and making strategies in the light of their
priorities, available resources.
The need for and demand of education type and level depend upon any country‟s societal needs,
which are related to its economic and technological development. The ground factors are
decisive in defining and determining the importance of different types and levels of education.
No matter how low the economic and technological development is in a country, the importance
of higher education cannot be ignored. Education and economic growth are complementary, as
both go hand in hand: investment in education likely to impact positively on the economic