363the ‘Asian identity’ of higher education research is difficult to define. In Chap. 3 of
this book, Rui Yang pointed out that Western higher education research has long
been regarded as standard practice, whereas Asian approaches to conducting
higher education research differ (often based on national values rather than regional
values, particularly in China and Japan). There are differences not only in the con-
ceptualisation of higher education development across Asia, but in the ways in
which scholarly communities produce knowledge. It is also difficult for higher
education scholars in Asia to integrate Asian values and traditions with Western
scholarly norms. In Chap. 4 , Jae Park argued that higher education research in
Asian contexts ‘should be able to portray, explain, and ease the numerous and
manifold problems’ afflicting higher education in Asia. The issue seems to relate
somewhat to the fact that many Asian countries continue to be developing higher
education research communities at the national level (which, in itself, is positive),
but this development may be done in a way in which such communities become
too locally rooted and lack the resources required to attract substantial regional and
international attention and to provide an input to the international higher education
literature.
Regional collaboration between Asian higher education researchers, as Hugo
Horta pointed out in his Chap. 2 , needs to be fostered as a way for the research and
visibility of Asian-based higher education researchers to gain further visibility and
legitimacy. Until recently, the higher education research communities neither col-
laborated much nor shared their findings, and country case studies in comparative
projects were led by non-Asian-based academics or international organisations.
This presents a concern that others non-native to Asia may provide a vision and
understanding of Asia higher education biased by their own cultural, social and
economic views and understandings of the world. Indigenous eyes and minds are
needed to identify, understand and explain critical but subtle characteristics and
nuances of Asian higher education systems to the world. To do this, the national
higher education communities have to bring these views to researchers based else-
where, and doing so requires much greater engagement with the global higher edu-
cation research communities, publishing in the English language and in international
and specialised peer-reviewed higher education journals, because it is through them
that research gains visibility and global understanding. If Asian-based researchers
do not do this – and do not do this in the international literature – others will do it
for them, with the risk of conveying distorted or ‘colonial’ views when doing so. In
engaging in these activities, balancing between publishing nationally and interna-
tionally becomes the crux of the problem, but in the mix, there are also challenges
related to the changing socialisation, training and sets of incentives that the current
and future generations of higher education researchers need to undergo.
Echoing Roger Chao’s Chap. 5 , this conclusion of the book argues for the need to
raise awareness, establish an identity for the Asian higher education community and
increase efforts to target an international audience. It also argues that the creation of
20 Higher Education Research in Asia: History, Development and Challenges