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

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the countries, for the last two decades, policy reform process has accelerated and resulted in
more appropriate education polices and legal instruments to serve better the needs of education
sector. Likewise an unprecedented increase in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at primary,
secondary and tertiary levels has been seen.
UNESCO is the only organization that has launched a degree program for capacity development,
produces toolkits for teachers and other stakeholders. It has also established decentralized field
offices. UNESCO-Bangkok regional office works for the development of higher education in
Asia and Pacific region. UNESCO encourages students through representation and internship
facilities in the organization. All three organizations are playing their role in Asia to develop
higher education in the member countries through 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. The World Bank provides financial
assistance in the form of loans and grants but the share of grant is negligible for Asian countries.
UNESCO and the World Bank has launched joint program Global Initiative for Quality
Assurance Capacity (GIQAC) that aims to help member countries in quality assurance process in
higher education. Among the three IGOs, only the OECD has launched a program to assess
higher education learning outcomes.
In the UN family, UNESCO is the only agency, which has a mandate to work for and on higher
education. UNESCO has emerged as a leading international organization that is contributing to
the development of higher education in the world. In order to achieve its objectives effectively it
has given a place on its platform to a wide variety of stakeholders that include: students,
teachers, researchers, professionals, publishers, educational institutions, community members,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, financial organizations, social, industrial
and business organizations and parliamentarians.
In Asia, UNESCO has been working on different programs; Education for All (EFA), the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) and
United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). These initiatives are
also contributing to the development of higher education in the long terms.