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most striking observation. In fact, only Tadaki and Tremewan ( 2013 ) and
Ratanawijitrasin ( 2015 ) work on advancing the use of international consortia as a
transformational space, and the challenges of governance in the evolving landscape
of Southeast Asian higher education, respectively, focused on the organizational
approach. Although international and regional organizations have contributed to
research within both functional and political approaches, the ADB, APEC, and
UNESCO tend to focus on the functional approaches, while the SEAMEO-RIHED
has placed significant effort to research focused on the political approaches.
Looking at research within the functional approaches, the range of themes
involved ranges from transnational education and world-class universities to the
various higher education challenges (access, equity, privatization, quality assur-
ance, and governance), rankings, and higher education research within the Asian
region. Although not all of these researches are directly relevant to regionalization
of higher education research, these researches provide the contextual background
and academic discourse into what does on in the region and indirectly filter into
regionalization of higher education research. They also bring out the different
dimensions and challenges within the regionalization of higher education process in
Asia. Within the political approach, researches range from intra-regional and inter-
regional policy transfer and influence, advocating regionalization of higher educa-
tion in Asia (including Southeast Asia/East Asia/Asia Pacific), and these policies
influence to member nation states and increasingly an alternative path to regional-
ization and/or an Asian higher education model.
Discussion
Given the development of regionalism, regionalism, and regionalization of higher
education research in Asia, there is the need to establish certain parameters. Is there
a higher education research community focused on regionalization of higher educa-
tion research? Which organizations form part of this research community? What
factors determine the themes of regionalization of higher education research? And
are there unique features in regionalization of higher education research in terms of
government policy? This section focuses on discussing the abovementioned ques-
tions in relation to the various data on Asian regionalism and regionalization of
higher education in Asia presented in the earlier sections.
Regionalization of Higher Education in Asia Research
Community
Given the regionalization of higher education research (Appendix 4) and related
research by international/regional organizations and their affiliates (Appendix 8), it
may be plausible to mention the presence of regionalization of higher education in
R.Y. Chao Jr.