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

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is evident from the state policies and reforms in education sector. One the conceptual side, higher
education in this region is shifting towards new dynamics that include, academic freedom,
decentralization, democratization, privatization, innovation and reorientation
4.7 Higher education landscape in Asia
The higher education in Asia presents a patchy picture; in some countries the higher education
show very high development and growth and on the other hand in the some countries it is still at
nascent stage. As a result there exist great heterogeneity in terms of participation rate,
completion rate and school life expectancy. In the following pages a detailed landscape of higher
education has been presented.
4.7.1 East Asia
East Asia comprises on eight countries and territories that include: China, Hong Kong, Japan,
Macao, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan. This sub-region has an area of 11.8
million square kilometers that makes 28% of Asian continent and it is abode of 1.5 billion
population or 38% of the population in Asia. It is the second most densely populated area in Asia
after South Asia, with a population density of 133 persons per kilometer square. The GDP per