Asian academicians meet in Australia to improve international ties

Asian academicians meet in Australia to improve international ties


Hundreds of higher-education leaders from the Asia-Pacific region came together in a conference in Australia to define equal partnerships with Western institutions and their need to be flexible to adapt to a rapidly changing economic environment, says a report published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Though most believed that Asian higher education was finally finding a way of its own, there was a general feeling amongst representatives from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and others that their international activities should be stepped up.
Asian universities tend to be very domestically oriented, and their self-esteem is very high within the nation. But they are very limited and their standards are not global," said Doo-Hee Lee, a business professor at Korea University and the association’s founder and president. “Western universities still set the standards, and Asian universities are always falling behind.”
To ensure that graduates do not grow up in an environment where they know nothing about their neighbours, especially in Asia, Lee announced the creation of the Asia Pacific leaders program with the participation of 15 Asian countries and 22 universities. Under this program top university students will study, volunteer, and learn the local culture in a neighboring country’s university.
There is definitely an increased interest of academicians from Asian universities about creating for themselves a regional identity. This can be verified with the increased number of participation in the annual conference ( total 900 attendees, 300 more than expected) and a definitely doubled sponsorship for the same.
Arun Sharma, deputy vice-chancellor for research and commercialisation at the Queensland University of Technology, in Australia, gave the opening address. “If the profits stay in the country, then you can broaden your network, enhance your brand everywhere, do your research at the cost price, even get some government funding and provide education in that country,” he said.
“Seeing higher education merely as an export for profit is a route down the food chain,” Sharma said. Hence, he called for a mercantile approach to higher education, in which Western countries export their programs to Asia and then repatriate the profits. He noted that the government of India is currently considering a bill that would welcome foreign universities but require profits to remain in India, which he supported.
Building partnerships at home and abroad was a popular topic with attendees since its is the best way to leverage limited resources and expose the faculty and students to a broad array of ideas.
Internationally most popular Singapore has already been working on plans and programs to attract more foreign students through a new university of technology and design, a new American-style liberal-arts college affiliated with the National University of Singapore.
In 2001, Peking University even introduced the Yuanpei honors college, a pilot program that immerses a select group of students into a liberal-arts project similar to those in the United States.
Lee wrapped up the conference saying that while American universities have time-tested academic programs, Asian universities continue to be in an age of experimentation.

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