7In a globalised scientific community, national and local dynamics still matter.
The study of higher education communities at the national level is warranted to
understand how domestic higher education communities with shorter or longer his-
tories, associated organisations and related specialist publications contribute to the
challenges of national higher education and dialogue with the international higher
education community. This dialogue between the national and international higher
education communities is particularly relevant, as topics such as faculty and staff
development, institutional research and quality assurance, for example, can some-
times strengthen local higher education research, as these practices are highly
embedded in their local contexts. This book aims for a broad discussion on the
subject of higher education research as a field of study in Asia. It strives to share
ideas about the evolving higher education research communities in Asia, identify
common and dissimilar challenges, improve regional articulation of these national
communities, and ultimately contribute to the international higher education
research community. This is particularly important as several higher education
authors have argued for an Asian view that goes beyond the simple adoption of
Western models that may not be the most appropriate for analysing the Asian con-
text. In light of this gap in current knowledge, each chapter in this book focuses on
a set of questions that the editors of this book deem critical to better understand the
higher education community in Asia.
- Who is undertaking higher education research in Asia?
- Where are the key regions of higher education research in Asia, and how have
they been evolving? - To what extent does higher education research in Asia involve international,
regional, national and institutional collaboration? - Is higher education an independent academic field at the national level across
Asia? - Does Asia have research institutes, academic degree programmes and nationally
based academic journals specialising in higher education? - What kinds of topics are being researched, and what methodologies are being
applied? - What is the relationship between government policy and higher education
research?
The country cases apply robust analytical thinking and in-depth analysis based
on a solid theoretical and methodological framework to highlight key events and
issues critical to the past, current and future development of each country’s national
community. This includes the effects of agents in higher education research devel-
opment, the role of funding sources, the resulting influence (or not) of this research
on policymaking, the relative influence of national versus international higher edu-
cation research communities and the links between higher education, teaching and
practice. In each case, the authors briefly present the historical background of their
own higher education research community and focus on specific issues regarding
the current landscape of higher education research in their own context. In terms of
methodology, these studies use various methods including both quantitative and
1 Introduction: Higher Education Research as a Field of Study in Asia