Presidents of Asian Universities Call for More International Partnerships

Fri Apr 17 21:12:40 UTC 2009

Presidents of Asian Universities Call for More International Partnerships
By MARA HVISTENDAHL

Beijing

The global economic crisis has accelerated the need for Asian
universities to engage internationally, and to create regional
mechanisms through which students and faculty members can move more
easily from one country to another, said Asian university presidents
at a conference here this week.

The importance of internationalization to economic and social
development was among the key topics of conversation at the annual
meeting of the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education.
The organization, which is just four years old, drew about 800
presidents and other senior leaders to Renmin University of China, in
Beijing.

Until now, Asian universities have emphasized educating domestic
leaders, said Doo-Hee Lee, president of Korea University and head of
the association. "But we must begin to cultivate regional and even
global leaders, whose vision extends beyond national borders."

To develop more broad-minded students, Mr. Lee told the group during
the conference's opening session, on Thursday, Asia should move away
from "rote memorization" and share methods of teaching
critical-thinking skills.

Drawing inspiration from Europe's Erasmus program, which supports
students who wish to study in other European countries, the
association is developing an Asia Pacific Leaders program to provide
study and internship opportunities for students in Asia, Mr. Lee said.

Recession as Opportunity

The association's short history reflects the rapid expansion of higher
education in the region. It also highlights the interest in places
like Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and
Taiwan in improving the flow of students and scholars across borders.
Modeled on the European Association for International Education, the
Asia-Pacific group has held three other conferences, in South Korea,
Singapore, and Japan. This one is the largest, and has attracted a
number of Europeans, but few Americans.

The global recession, which has hit some Asian countries harder than
others, was the talk of the conference, but many here viewed the
downturn as an opportunity to promote the value of maintaining
international connections.

"You could say that higher education has become more important because
of the global financial crisis," said Hao Ping, a vice minister in
China's Ministry of Education.

Speakers also stressed the need to send students abroad to study, to
gain fluency in other languages and cultures.

"To cut partnerships in international higher ed now would be a
profound mistake," said Rick Trainor, principal of King's College
London. "When the economic upturn comes, we will need such
international collaboration. We all need each other to prosper."

Continued Growth in Study Abroad

A number of Asian countries have already paved the way for expanding
foreign-student enrollments.

Taiwan is spending more on scholarships for foreign students and has
created regional advertising campaigns that promote its
English-friendly environment, stable economy, and relatively low
tuition. It announced plans to open its doors to students from the
Chinese mainland last year, although the Taiwanese government still
does not officially recognize degrees from mainland institutions.

Spurred by some of the world's lowest birth rates, Japan and South
Korea have made foreign-student recruitment a priority to fill
university seats and improve student quality. Japan wants to attract
300,000 students to its universities, up from about 100,000. South
Korea wants to double its foreign-student numbers, to 100,000. Both
plan to achieve their goals by offering more programs in English,
aggressively recruiting students to engineering and science programs,
and creating joint and dual-degree programs with overseas partners.

China is the top source of foreign students for most of its neighbors,
a trend that is likely to continue, given students' enthusiasm for
studying abroad. But it, too, hopes to become a more popular
destination for students from around the region.

The economic downturn has posed substantial challenges for some
countries. South Korea, in particular, has seen the value of its
currency drop sharply, forcing many students to drop plans to study
overseas.

And because about 75 percent of the roughly 200 universities in South
Korea are private and thus dependent on tuition, university heads said
that foreign students were critical to the health of their
institutions.

Several Chinese university leaders said the global crisis had
highlighted the shortcomings of their higher-education system.
Speakers noted the high unemployment rate among recent college
graduates and said that universities must better align their research
programs and curricula with larger social needs as well as the demands
of the work force. Chinese presidents also said that establishing
links with foreign universities was a priority for them.

Interest in America

Tim Angle, assistant provost for outreach at the University of
Mississippi, which was the sole American institution to rent a booth
in the conference's exhibition hall, said he was overwhelmed by the
level of interest in his university. Mississippi has expanded its
outreach into Asia in recent years and is eager to develop more
student-exchange programs.

Because such programs allow students to pay home-campus tuition, they
are "a very inexpensive way for students to get out," Mr. Angle said.
"And our students are very cost-conscious these days."

Mr. Angle said he was struck by the sophistication of the inquiries he
received. A number of universities, for example, asked about setting
up exchange programs focused on engineering, business, or other
disciplines.

"We feel like we've made some possible strategic partners," he said.

The View From Europe

Björn Einar Aas, president of the European Association for
International Education, said he had come away from the initial day's
session convinced that Asian universities were coming into their own.
"It's uplifting to see that on their fourth conference, they have
raised their game, as they say in America. They are part of an
emerging global industry."

Whether Asia can truly replicate what is being done in Europe remains
to be seen, and some participants cautioned that it would take a
substantial amount of money, along with political and economic will,
to develop regional networks.

"It's still university to university" here, said Fiona Hunter, past
president of the European association. "It's much more disparate here.
It's a much bigger region, it's much more diverse. At the moment, they
don't have a program like Erasmus. … But they have the driver of
internationalization."

http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/04/16030n.htm
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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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