Transcript Higher Education, Research and Knowledge in the Asia Pacific Region V. Lynn Meek

Higher Education,
Research and Knowledge
in the Asia Pacific Region
V. Lynn Meek
Director
Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy
University of New England,
Armidale NSW 2351, Australia
[email protected]
A presentation by the UNESCO Scientific Committee for
Asia and the Pacific
Breakfast Panel, World Bank ABCDE Conference
Tokyo Japan 29-30 May 2006
Outline
• Introduce publication
• Outline general themes and issues
addressed by the committee
• Look at some pacific issues of each
participating country
• Outline few main items on future
research agenda
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Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
V. Lynn Meek and Charas Suwanwela
Chapter 2: Modernisation, Development Strategies and Knowledge
Production in the Asia Pacific Region
William K. Cummings
Chapter 3: Research Policy and the Changing Role of the State in the
Asia Pacific Region
Grant Harman
Chapter 4: The Changing Landscape of Higher Education Research
Policy in Australia
V. Lynn Meek
Chapter 5: Policy Debate on Research in Universities in China
Wei Yu
Chapter 6: Between the Public and Private: Indian Academics in
Transition
Karuna Chanana
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Contents Cont.
Chapter 7: Development and Impact of State policies on Higher
Education Research in Indonesia
Jajah Koswara and Muhammad Kamil Tadjudin
Chapter 8: National Research Policy and Higher Education Reforms
in Japan
Akira Arimoto
Chapter 9: Acknowledging Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Higher
Education in the Pacific Island Region
Konai Helu Thaman
Chapter 10: Higher Education Research in the Philippines: Policies,
Practices and Problems
Rose Marie Salazar-Clemena
Chapter 11: Higher Education Reform in Thailand
Charas Suwanwela
Chapter 12: Research Management in the Post-industrial era: Trends
and Issues for Further Investigation
V. Lynn Meek
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General Themes and Issues
• In a globalized world, appropriate
role of the State
• Impact of new private providers on
quality
• Impact of increased marketization
and privatization on governance
and management
• Role of university in knowledge
based societies and economies
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General Themes and Issues
• GATS
• What sort of enabling environment
should governments provide in
order to better stimulate higher
education institutions’ and systems’
knowledge contribution?
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Research and Research
Universities
• Knowledge utilization is nothing new in
Asia Pacific - for centuries, it has been
central to the development strategies of
the region
• EG Japan apt at incorporating Western
knowledge/science while maintaining
Eastern traditions
• Region more of a knowledge production
powerhouse than commonly assumed:
China, India, Hong Kong, Korea,
Malaysia, Singapore, etc.
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General Trends
• Increased emphasis on research
commercialization
• Increased emphasis on research priority
setting
• Increased emphasis on research quality
• Increased emphasis on concentration
and selectivity in funding
• Increased emphasis on research
management at all Levels
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Country Trends: Australia
• Research funded on basis of
outputs
• Research concentrated in a few
universities
• Research increasingly defined in
terms of economic and commercial
relevance
• RQF - further concentrate research
funding through assessment of
quality and impact
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Country Trends: China
• Rapid expansion - largest higher
education system in the world
• Rapid growth in research funding 50% state; 50% private
• Creation of ‘world class’ universities
• 60 research intensive universities
enrolling 80% of postgraduate
students
• Problem of graduate unemployment
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Country Trends: India
• Also large, complex system of higher
education
• Two peak bodies: University Grants
Commission and Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research
• Specialized research institutions:
Academy for Medical Sciences; Indian
Statistical Institute; Indian Institutes of
Technology
• Indian scientist working abroad returning
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Country Trends: Indonesia
• Problems being overcome:
- disparity in research capacity across
universities and fields
- Poor research management
- Unpredictable funding
- Lack of research culture
- Low level quality
- Lack of national research umbrella
organization
- Poor integration of research and graduate
student education
- Limited collaboration with industry
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Country Trends: Indonesia continued
• Overcoming challenges
- Greater autonomy for universities
- Introduction of quality enhancement
schemes: eg University Research for
Graduate Education - graduate
education capacity building
- Better integration of research with
community service
- Improving research incentives and
building research culture
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Country Trends: Japan
• Clear recognition of higher
education contribution to knowledge
based society & economy
• Incorporation of national
universities - ie more freedom to set
policies and directions at
institutional level
• Setting of national research
priorities
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Country Trends: the Pacific
Islands & Indigenous
Knowledge
• Indigenous knowledge systems:
‘specific systems of values,
knowledge, understandings and
practices, developed and
accumulated over millennia, by a
group of people in a particular
region, … unique to that group or
region’
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Country Trends: PI &
Indigenous Knowledge Cont.
• Indigenous knowledge peculiar to the
culture that owns it
• Past superiority of Western knowledge
being questioned
• Incorporation of indigenous knowledge
into formal education systems
• Increasing interest in indigenous
knowledge, eg traditional medicine and
sustainable agriculture
• Find better ways of integrating indigenous
ways of knowing with Western Scientific
knowledge
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Future Research Agenda
• Increasing importance of the knowledge
based economy - balance with other
social and cultural values
• Managerialism & marketisation of higher
education
• Appropriate levels of public financial
support and support of the public good
aspect of higher education
• Diversification of higher education
functions in knowledge-based society
• Importance of local culture and history
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