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this identity requires more regional collaboration that has the potential to influence
regional policymaking on higher education in Asia. Recently, there has been an
increase in international exchange and collaboration between practitioners of higher
education in areas such as quality assurance and capacity development. Regional
student exchange and quality assurance initiatives are now particularly prominent in
Asia, with subregional programmes established between the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations and Middle Eastern countries (Yonezawa et al. 2014 ). However, very
few of these interactions have yet led to high-quality research publications, with the
exception of initiatives conducted in Hong Kong and Singapore. Hong Kong holds a
particularly strong position in the global higher education research community in
terms of its international publication record, as noted by Jung and Horta ( 2013 ),
while working as a bridge between East Asia – especially China – and the rest of the
world (Postiglione 2015 ). Both Singapore and Hong Kong have strong university
education and research sectors with diversified and cosmopolitan academic insti-
tutes, host numerous academic conferences on (higher) education and boast rich
resources and a strong tradition of academic freedom (also part of these two cities’
drive to be recognised as regional knowledge hubs: see Lee 2014 ). However, these
two cities are more of an exception than the rule, and more needs to be done.
The creation of a regional higher education association, in the likes of the
Consortium for Higher Education Researchers (CHER) in Europe, with a strong
geographical foundation associated with an inclusive community that debates
higher education issues from around the world and interacts with higher education
communities based elsewhere in the world (Kehm and Musselin 2013 ), is one
potential way to lay the foundation for the development of a higher education
research community in Asia. The creation of the Higher Education Research
Association in Asia (HERA), which has held a conference in South Korea, Japan,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China and it will hold its next conference in
Malaysia, seems to be following the path towards the creation of such a community
with a strong regional identity linked to a global outlook. This conclusion also
argues that the engagement and participation needs to be done in the international
context, such as publishing in international higher education journals (to further
gain global legitimacy and visibility), and participating in international conferences
voicing the research, analyses, views and contributions that the Asian higher educa-
tion research can bring to the global pool of knowledge.
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