85Actors and Thematic Selection
As key actors and power asymmetries do play a role in regionalization of higher
education, they also play a role in regionalization of higher education research.
Donor countries, regional organizations, interregional forums, and other function-
ally specific organizations contribute to regionalization of higher education research
to provide evidence-based policy advocacies or directives and interregional policy
mobility or simply to gain a better understanding of a phenomenon within their
geographic area of focus.
The Australian-led Brisbane Communiqué and the European Union that sup-
ported regionalization of higher education initiatives in Asia are just examples of
donor countries’ engagement. Australia, through APEC and the ASEAN-Australia-
New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (ASEAN-ANZ FTA), has been continuously
advocating and supporting regionalization of higher education in Asia. In terms of
regionalization of higher education, SEAMEO-RIHED, and to a lesser extent the
Asian Development Bank, started strongly advocating for regionalization of higher
education in Asia and contributing to its research (SEAMEO-RIHED 2008 , 2009 ;
ADB 2012 ). On the other hand, AUN and APQN have focused on quality assurance
issues since the 2000s, while UNESCO has been strongly contributing to mutual
recognition of higher education qualifications especially in the late 2000s.^5 In fact,
Table 5.1 showed that regionalization of higher education initiatives in Asia and
regional quality assurance only started in the mid-2000s, while academic/student
mobility, credit transfer, and mutual recognition (revisited) issues occurred in the
2010s.
With the developments in regionalization of higher education in Asia, APEC and
East West Center’s geographic focus on the Asia and Pacific region required them to
engage and contribute to research. In fact, APEC’s research contributions and
EWC’s edited volumes only started in the mid- and late 2000s, respectively.
Contemporary issues, academic discourse, and the development of regionalization
of higher education in Asia, however, do play a key role in the thematic selection of
topics especially those published in academic journals.
Research and Government Policies
Given the diverse nature of actors and researchers of regionalization of higher edu-
cation in Asia, is there truly a unique feature in this subfield of higher education
research? Similar to all higher education research, it is driven by contemporary
developments in Asian regionalism, global higher education discourses, and chal-
lenges in Asian higher education.
(^5) UNESCO’s 1983 Mutual Recognition Convention for Higher Education Qualifications was
revised in Tokyo late 2011.
5 Regionalism, Regionalization of Higher Education, and Higher Education Research...