255higher education. The ASEAN Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education (AJTLHE) which started in 2009 is published by the Centre of Academic
Development, UKM. It is a web-based journal devoted to the dissemination of
information on teaching and learning in higher education contexts. It therefore con-
centrates on the teaching and learning aspects of higher education. Despite both
journals being open access and thus easier to locate, they are locally indexed and
therefore have little impact beyond the sponsoring university. The journals are
therefore less recognized and not visible in the higher education field. Hence, we
argue that these journals have not had any significant influence on research trends or
practice-policy debates in the field of higher education in Malaysia.
In short, periodical literature is sparse on the specifics of higher education as a
field of study. Likewise, there is very little writing concerning the centres and insti-
tutes for the study of higher education (such as the ACRULeT in UiTM). This insti-
tution, however, like IPPTN, is such a recent establishment that more could hardly
be expected at this time.
IPPTN as the centre for research in higher education policy has published a few
reviews and reports on higher education in Malaysia and in countries of the region.
There are also reports on a variety of developmental projects which are related to
the impact of on-going reforms on systems and universities. At the same time, aca-
demic research papers and publications by a few higher education researchers have
started to appear more frequently in international journals. This is evident from the
report on comparative higher education research output by 11 countries in Asia by
Jung and Horta in 2013. The performance of Malaysian researchers’ publications on
the topic of higher education research in 38 specialized higher education journals
from 1980 to 2012 is encouraging as Malaysia is ranked third in the production of
articles after Hong Kong and Japan (Jung and Horta 2013 ).
Although the IPPTN has succeeded in publishing many books on higher educa-
tion since 2007, an analysis of these books, however, shows that work on the ontol-
ogy and epistemology of higher education is lacking. Many of the books are
collections of papers that share views, experience and practice pertaining to various
areas of higher education. Many of the edited books lack an overarching conceptual
framework. Beyond its descriptive ‘portraits’ of case studies, many of the edited
books add relatively little to theory and knowledge and understanding of higher
education development. Even though the books are most likely to appeal to those
interested in particular case studies and practices in higher education, arguably,
some of the books could have been more cohesive and in-depth if the work had been
situated within a more evident conceptual framework.
Overall, the higher education field as reflected in the analysis of selected research
projects and publications would appear to be in the early stages of technical devel-
opment; or it could be that the selected research and publications have given very
general descriptions and analyses of the field and therefore contain few denotative
facts, theories, methodologies and variables. To a large extent, research on higher
education in Malaysia with its small community of researchers has been carried out
largely in isolation, without referring to the theoretical and methodological
developments made in other countries. Although the outside world knows a little
14 Higher Education as a Field of Study in Malaysia: Towards an Epistemic...