2
in higher education systems and their impact on social and economic development
(Tight 2004 ). There has also been an increased demand for expertise and data on
higher education to provide a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of
higher education characteristics and systems (Altbach et al. 2006 ). Recent emphasis
on university competitiveness, such as notions of world- class universities, league
tables and internationalisation, has also brought about new research interests within
higher education (e.g. Seeber et al. 2016 ). These changes have highlighted a number
of related issues, both theoretical and practical, at the national, regional and interna-
tional level.
However, the maturity of higher education research differs between regions and
countries. While some countries have only a few basic statistics and overview
reports to guide their own knowledge and policy initiatives, many of which are
unsound, others have solid institutions and agencies gathering systematic informa-
tion through ongoing research on higher education (Schwarz and Teichler 2000 ).
The study of higher education is closely related to the size, scale and growth of the
higher education system in each region (Clark 1996 ; Tight 2007 ). It is not surprising
that higher education as a significant field of academic study initially developed in
North America, which now has the largest and oldest body of relevant research
compared to other countries (Tight 2007 ). Altbach et al. ( 2006 ) have shown that the
United States of America has the largest research enterprise in the field of higher
education, with a well-developed training programme for researchers. Moreover,
studies on higher education have focused mainly on the Anglo-Saxon academic
traditions, such as those found in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and
Australia. Beyond this realm, Tight’s ( 2004 ) analysis of the main higher education
journals from outside North America has identified a diverse array of research inter-
ests and methods among European academics. More recently, mass higher educa-
tion systems have also developed in other countries, including countries in Western
and Eastern Europe, Oceania and parts of Asia-Pacific, with a concomitant increase
in higher education research. Higher education studies as a course have been added
to many curricula, and research institutes focused on higher education have been
established in several countries (Teichler and Sadlak 2000 ; Altbach et al. 2006 ).
This book concentrates on higher education research in Asia, a region of the
world that has experienced a fast growth in participation in higher education, par-
ticularly in the first decades of the twenty-first century, but that it is evolving at an
accelerated pace in terms of contributions to new knowledge in all fields of science
(including the humanities). Japan and South Korea have reached the universal
access stage in terms of gross enrolment in higher education (World Bank 2000 ),
and numerous indicators point to a rapid growth in recent research productivity
among Asian academics (Postiglione and Jung 2012 ). The average annual growth in
research output in China and South Korea in 2011 was 16.8% and 10.1%, respec-
tively. China, as the world’s second largest national producer of science and tech-
nology research papers, accounted for 9% of the world total in 2009. Rapid annual
growth rates of over 10% were also experienced by Iran, Thailand, Malaysia and
Pakistan between 1999 and 2009 (National Science Foundation 2012 ).
J. Jung et al.