359Research Institutes
In many Asian countries, numerous institutes, centres and academic units have been
established to facilitate higher education research, which is often initiated by
government- driven institutes. For example, the National Higher Education Research
Institute in Malaysia conducts policy research commissioned by the Department of
Higher Education. However, higher education research units are lacking in Asian
universities. Even in Korea, which has the highest university enrolment of all of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, only three
university research institutes focus on higher education research (Rumbley et al.
2014 ). Elsewhere in Korea, research in this field is carried out as part of education
research in general. China and Japan have some higher education research institu-
tions with a long history, such as those at Xiamen University and Hiroshima
University, but these institutes are also responsible for providing consultancy and
supporting governments and university authorities, as demonstrated by the Chinese
case studies in this book. There are some benefits that can arise from combining
research and practice in these institutes, and the resulting synergies can bring find-
ings of great interest to the research field and also to policymaking, but only if
resources – human, financial and time – are not overly concentrated in mostly one
of these activities. On the other hand, the recent launch of higher education research
institutes in some Asian countries is quite promising. For example, the Centre for
Higher Education Research and Studies was founded in Saudi Arabia in 2001, and
the King Saud Chair for Higher Education Studies was founded in 2015 by the
Imam Mohammad ibn Saud University in Riyadh to train higher education research-
ers and conduct higher education research. The establishment of these research
institutes focusing on higher education research can illuminate issues concerning
the characterisation and development of higher education in Middle Eastern coun-
tries that still remain largely unknown to other Asian, but also to worldwide
audiences.
Academic Programmes
The number of higher education academic programmes varies significantly between
countries. For example, 18 institutions in China are authorised to grant Ph.D.
degrees in higher education, and students enrolled on 15 EdD programmes receive
professional doctoral degrees. In addition, 91 higher education programmes and 96
education economics and management programmes that address economic and
administrative aspects of higher education have been established at the master’s
level. Japan also has a few such programmes. However, very few higher education
academic programmes are available in other countries in Asia. As illustrated in the
case study of Korea, most Korean universities do not offer higher education
20 Higher Education Research in Asia: History, Development and Challenges