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qualitative approaches. Based on accumulated expertise and a strong scholarly net-
work, this book aims to explore the evolution of higher education research as a field
of study in Asia using a historical, theoretical and empirical approach. It further
aims to extend the research scope beyond the East Asian countries to incorporate
Southeast Asian, South Asian and Central Asian countries. An overarching frame-
work is presented in the introduction, followed by 14 country cases from different
Asian regions describing the dynamics of higher education research in each indi-
vidual country. It is noteworthy that some of the countries have little to almost no
history concerning research done in higher education, since its national higher edu-
cation research communities were never truly developed or are only now starting to
develop. In many country cases, the focus on higher education research rests on one,
a few or a group of researchers that take interest in issues related to higher educa-
tion, in other cases remits to a newly formed research centre and attempts to create
national communities and national language journals. In most of these cases, the
authors opted to explain the evolution of their higher education system, bringing in
topics of current interest, and mix it with the little there is to say about a research
field that is only now starting to evolve from an embryonic phase.
The book consists of four sections. Part I opens with a general overview of higher
education research in Asia, including how this academic community has developed,
its level of activity and its values and methods from an Asian point of view. In Chap.
2 , Hugo Horta presents a comparative analysis of international publication data
across the various Asian countries, using historical quantitative analysis from a
descriptive perspective, to provide a macro view of higher education research in
Asia, covering the contribution of higher education researchers to the global pool of
knowledge in higher education research and assessing the patterns of collaboration
at regional and global levels. Rui Yang, in Chap. 3 , criticises the almost total current
reliance on Western theoretical constructs in the conceptualisation of higher educa-
tion development in East Asia and argues for perspectives that emphasise the influ-
ence of traditional East Asian cultural thinking on contemporary development. In
the following chapter, Jae Hyung Park examines the Confucian heritage and its
methodological issues in knowledge production, followed by ‘Asia’ as a higher edu-
cation research methodology. Roger Jr. Chao, then, explores the regionalisation of
higher education research in Asia and its relationship to the broader literature on
Asian regionalism, to facilitate a better understanding of its evolution and future
direction.
Part II presents higher education research in East Asia – including Japan, China,
Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan and Mongolia – which currently leads the
higher education research community in Asia in most cases. Akiyoshi Yonezawa
describes how higher education research in Japan was shaped historically and dis-
cusses its current and future challenges in the global context. Li-Fang Hu and
Shuang-Ye Chen outline the development of higher education research in China
into a well-recognised independent academic field with an organised academic
community in its unique national and historical context. Using empirical publica-
tion data, Yat Wai Lo and Felix Sai Kit Ng focus on higher education research in
Hong Kong, both at the national and international level. Zhidong Hao examines the
key issues in higher education in Macau and its national and global challenges. The
J. Jung et al.