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

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capital theory in order to study the public and private benefits and returns of education. Early
research studies found that education has no significant contribution to individual and societal
gains (Friedman & Friedman, 1980). It was believed by the international development
organizations that primary and secondary schooling are more important than tertiary education
for development and poverty reduction. Since these organizations, including the World Bank,
encouraged relative neglect of higher education by the governments of poor countries (Bloom,
Canning, & Chan, 2006). In many countries, resources were reallocated from secondary and
higher education to primary education that resulted in the slowdown of development and
expansion of higher education in many low income countries (Tilak J. B., 2010).
But, contrary to such early view, recent evidence suggests higher education is a determinant as
well as a result of income, and can produce public and private benefits (Bloom, Hartley, &
Rosovsky, 2006). The low priority given to higher education, within development initiatives by
the states and IGOs, was due to the shortage of empirical evidence that it affects economic
growth and poverty reduction (Tilak, 1994). An analysis or study of any phenomenon based on
limited information with few variables is incomplete because we do not know with certainty
other possible potential variables and exact effect of each variable in specific circumstances.
For the last few decades the importance of higher education is well understood and recognized
by IGOs, states and societies. Nowadays higher education institutions are among the key actors
in the production, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge thus higher education can and
do make a significant contribution to regional economic, social and cultural development
(Marmolejo & Puukka, 2006). Equally, higher education provides well educated skilled human
capital through vocational education. This type of education is of great importance and it has a
higher demand in the job market so it results in the enhanced employability and reduced chance
of education-job mismatch (Giret, 2011).
Higher education contributes to society in many ways: it paves the way for industrialization by
developing human capital that include skilled labor, professionals, planners and scientists; it
promotes knowledge based economy by establishing information and communication
technologies, knowledgeable workers and managers with 21 st century skills; it ensures
sustainable growth by shaping and guiding reform process and attitude; it helps in the