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

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aims, objectives, priorities and resources of IGOs and that of states? How IGOs work with
international actors particularly states? (Drake, 2001); In what manner and of what type
cooperation the states maintain with the IGOs? (Stiglitz, 2002); What kind of organizational
structure, management and leadership exists within an IGO and in a country? Why do states use
formal international organizations? What are the functions and the properties of IOs? (Abbott,
1998).
2.1 The supporting evidence
Many research studies have been conducted to study different aspects and varied functions of
IGOs: Wallace and Singer have studied in detail the development and growth of IGOs from 1815
to 1965 (Wallace & Singer, 1970). McCormick, (1980) investigated into the cooperative
behavior of nations and IGOs. Stephens has studied the engagement of international organization
in adult education and lifelong learning in different parts of the world with a focus on least
developed countries (Stephens, 1989), how international institutions matter in shaping the
behavior of the players in world politics (Martin & Simmons, 1998), emerging approaches to
international institutional designs (Thompson & Snidal, 2000), Koremenos, Lipson and Snidal
have studied how international institutions operate and how they relate to the problems faced by
member states (Koremenos, Lipson, & Snidal, 2001). Scott has in his research study has tried to
develop an understanding about IGOs through Institutional theory (Scott, 2004), likewise Diehl,
in his book the politics of global governance, has debated on how international organizations
make decisions and respond to different conflict by having an in-depth inquiry how, where, and
why IOs operate (Diehl, 2005), IGOs and distribution of social power role in creating conflicts
between states had been studied by Hafner (Hafner-Burton, 2006). But the role of IGOs in the
development of higher education in Asia has not been given sufficient weight and space in the
existing research literature, as we didn‟t find any independent study on IGOs‟ role in Asian
higher education. But there exists a study conducted on China by Rui Yung. He has studied the
influence of OECD, the World Bank and UNESCO on the Chinese higher education policy and
funding reform process (Yang, 2010). Yang has focused only China and beautifully explored the
higher education in China and nicely explained the role of international bodies‟ role in higher
education system but this study is more descriptive than analytical in nature.