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

7.5 Implications
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Though Asia is the largest UNESCO region in terms of population and this region has the
biggest size of higher education in the world, there is no UNESCO-Centre for Higher
Education so there is a need to develop one in this region as well.
Likewise Asia is under represented in terms of UNITWIN/ UNSCO Chairs in higher
education sector.
The World Bank lending is the highest for South Asia but the grants for education sector
are the least for this sub-region, even though more than 40% of poor population lives in
this part and a big majority of it is illiterate. There is need to support this region.
In the countries where the participation rate at tertiary level is the lowest in Asia, the
IGOs should launch special programs to help and assist them to overcome the problems.
An increase in the participation rate at higher education level is no guarantee of socio-
economic betterment of the society. It is also important that IGOs and states focus on
economic productivity oriented education at higher level.
OECD is more an elite countries’ forum than an organization working for the global
development -as it claims- so OECD should go one step forward and let poor countries as
well to benefit from it.
OECD has very low presence in Asia, in terms of number of member countries,
particularly in central and west Asia. In order to further its agenda of global development
OECD should include countries from all regions.