81least of the editors) come from Asia, work in Asia, or are connected/affiliated with
an institution that studies Asia, including higher education. Although this observa-
tion seems to hold true for journal articles on regionalization of higher education
research in Asia, there is a need to conduct a broader and systemic study to increase
its reliability.
In relation to power asymmetries and influence in Asia, a brief observation on inter-
national and regional organizations’ related publications (Appendix 8) shows that the
East West Center, Asian Development Bank, SEAMEO-RIHED, UNESCO Asia and
Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, APEC, and very recently even the Institute of
International Education have been engaged in the regionalization of higher education
research in Asia. A deeper look at the nature of these publications, however, shows that
APEC and SEAMEO-RIHED took the lead in regionalization of higher education
research in Asia. This can be seen in terms of the Australian-led Brisbane Communiqué
and the latter’s mission to increased collaboration (and eventually harmonization) of
Southeast Asian (which was later expanded to East Asian) higher education.
The Asian Development Bank and East West Center’s geographical focus (on
Asia and the Asia Pacific, respectively), UNESCO’s interest on mutual recognition
of higher education qualifications, and the Institute of International Education’s
interest in understanding international education in relation to US international edu-
cation competitiveness in part explain their entry and contribution to regionalization
of higher education research in Asia. The Asia Pacific Quality Assurance Network,
whose mission statement is “to enhance the quality of higher education in Asia and
the Pacific region through strengthening the work of quality assurance agencies and
extending the cooperation between them,”^3 also contributes to research focused on
harmonizing quality assurance in the region which is a functional part of regional-
ization of higher education in Asia.^4
The increased focus on higher education in global and regional policy platforms,
the development of Asian regionalism, and regionalization of higher education
explains not only the growth of higher education research in Asia but also that for
regionalization of higher education research in the region. Most (if not all) of the
selected East West Center publications included in the selected literature in Appendix
1 were based on international education-related events hosted in Asia in collabora-
tion with Asian universities and researchers. Furthermore, APQN’s work and their
contributing authors/scholars established a small community centered on APQN’s
central theme of quality assurance in Asia and the Pacific region. The existence of a
higher education research community in Asia is no longer the question, but rather is
there a subcommunity within the higher education research community focused on
regionalization of higher education in Asia.
Looking at Appendix 9, which maps the selected literature into Knight’s func-
tional, organizational, and political approaches (FOPA) to regionalization of higher
education, the minimal research contribution to the organizational approach is the
(^3) http://www.apqn.org/about/mission/
(^4) APQN and their affiliates organize conferences and events around harmonizing quality assurance
in the Asia and the Pacific region.
5 Regionalism, Regionalization of Higher Education, and Higher Education Research...