361Education provides decision makers with information on the status of international
higher education.
Strong Link with Government
One of the distinctive features of higher education research in Asia is its strong link
with government policymaking. In Singapore, for example, as evident from the case
study, the development of higher education is largely determined by the govern-
ment, as well as by factors relating to globalisation, because the government is
responsible not only for setting major policy directions but also for providing finan-
cial resources. In Malaysia, higher education has become a key policy concern,
leading to the establishment of the Ministry of Higher Education in 2004. Research
agendas in this field have since tended to follow the main directions for reform (Kim
et al., 2015). The situation is similar in Thailand and Mongolia, as demonstrated in
their respective case studies in this book. The Chinese case analysis revealed that
since 2011, more than half of the articles on major publication databases in China
have been supported by the state as part of various research funding projects. The
fact that the higher education research communities in these Asian countries engage
in research topics that result from responding to government needs for the assess-
ment of policies and challenges can be very positive, in the sense that governments
are using the national communities – and their expertise – to inform policies and
impact national higher education stakeholders. The drawback, however, relates to a
possible over-reliance on these projects – including the resources that they pro-
vide – that can undermine academic freedom, autonomy and critical thinking of past
and current government policies (see Rostan 2010 ; Savelsberg et al. 2002 ).
What Topics Are Being Studied and What Methodologies
Have Been Applied in Asian Higher Education Research?
The policy-driven nature of higher education research in Asia is reflected in the
main themes under study and methodologies applied. In many countries, the main
research themes are government-level policy issues. In China, the majority of arti-
cles published on higher education investigate practical issues, and articles on sys-
tem policy are the most frequently published in educational journals in Korea. In
Taiwan, policy directions, institutional activities and higher education reform are
mainstream themes, with a current focus on higher education evaluation and rank-
ings, internationalisation/globalisation, marketisation and world-class universities.
In Singapore, the major research themes are related to decentralisation, massifica-
tion, quality and excellence, globalisation, marketisation, internationalisation and
entrepreneurialisation. As illustrated in the related case study, the major themes of
20 Higher Education Research in Asia: History, Development and Challenges