Chinese Education and Society, vol. 47, no. 1, JanuaryFebruary 2014, pp. 36.

2014 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. Permissions: www.copyright.com

ISSN 10611932 (print)/ISSN 19449298 (online)
DOI: 10.2753/CED1061-1932470100

William Yat Wai Lo and Li Wang

Globalization and Regionalization

of Higher Education in Three
Chinese Societies: Competition
and Collaboration
Guest Editors Introduction

Competition is one of the very important dimensions of globalization effects

on higher education. Some recent developments and phenomena, such as the
rapid growth of cross-border higher education and the prevalence of global
university rankings, have intensified the competition in the global higher
education market. Policymakers and university administrators are seeking
the way to success or at least to survival in this competition. Thus, at the
institutional level, we have witnessed many higher education institutions,
especially elite research universities, actively participating in the global rank-
ing exercises, aiming to enhance their reputation globally (Hazelkorn 2009).
At the national level, we note that many countries and regions have commit-
ted themselves to establishing a differentiated higher education system and
building world-class universities to stand out in the national level competition
(Mok 2007). These include Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the
three Chinese societies we intend to cover in this issue of Chinese Educa-
tion and Society. For example, governments in Mainland China and Taiwan
have launched special initiatives, namely, Chinas 211 and 985 projects and
Taiwans programs Aiming for the Top University and Encouraging Teaching

William Yat Wai Lo is an assistant professor in the Department of International Edu-

cation and Lifelong Learning at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong.
Li Wang is an associate professor at the Institute of Education Leadership and Policy
of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

3
4chinese education and society

Excellence in Universities, intended to improve the performance of selected

universities in both research and teaching. The University Grant Committee
in Hong Kong has also clearly distinguished among the various universities,
providing them with different roles and mission statements. These actions are
seen as attempts to achieve excellence in quality through role differentiation
among institutions.
Nevertheless, while these countries and universities are eager to compete
for global ranking, we consider collaboration among nations and institutions
within a region an effective response to this internationalized environment.
Indeed, regionalization and regionalism in higher education in the Asia-Pacific
region have been concerns of academics since the internationalization of higher
education has brought challenges related to quality, equity, and sustainability.
Universities in the region have therefore initiated various collaborative projects
and alliances to facilitate regionalization in a bottom-up manner. For instance,
universities in the region have established University Mobility in Asia and
the Pacific (UMAP), a voluntary association promoting mobility of university
students and staff, thereby facilitating regional academic cooperation and
exchange among higher education sectors in the region. Meanwhile, govern-
ments and international organizations (such as the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations; ASEAN) are also eager to establish regional frameworks for
educational collaboration. The ASEAN University Network (AUN), which
aims to strengthen the existing network of universities of ASEAN countries,
is an example of the top-down approach to regionalization.
In addition to educational issues, political and economic aspects are in-
volved in the process of globalization and regionalization of higher education
(Jayasuriya 2010). Indeed, it is extremely difficult to detach political and
economic rationales from higher education. The articles presented in this issue
examine the internationalization agenda of three Chinese societies (mainland
China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) against their domestic socioeconomic context,
thereby reviewing the effects of internationalization and regionalization on
individual education systems and on Greater China as a whole. In addition,
the articles explore the possibilities of integrating higher education systems
across the three Chinese societies as a response to intensified global competi-
tion. While cooperation between the systems has been observed, conflicts and
tensions also emerge as a result of individual pressure to excel. By examining
strategies adopted by governments and higher education institutions, this
issue of the journal illustrates a form of competitive cooperation between
universities in the greater China region.
The first article by Li Wang investigates Chinas responses to the process
of internationalization of higher education. It particularly focuses on recent
strategies adopted in the Chinese higher education sector in search of the best
 januaryfebruary 2014 5

brains worldwide by reviewing national, local, and institutional initiatives

to attract world-class human capital. A review of relevant education poli-
cies indicates a paradigm shift in Chinas internationalization strategies in
accordance with its wider socioeconomic context. Different from the policy
focus to catch up with leading education systems in the 1980s and 1990s,
the internationalization agenda adopted in the new millennium can be more
precisely described as en essential part of a policy package to enhance Chinas
national competitiveness and international influence as a whole.
Set against the background of Chinas rising status, the second article by Rui
Yang examines the political economy of the international network of Chinese
universities. Actively engaging with the international academic community,
Chinese universities not only improve their international competitiveness but
also spread Chinas soft power. In the context of the current global financial
economy and the emergence of multiple intellectual centers in the world, Yang
offers suggestions on how to take advantage of the situation and promote the
Chinese model in the pursuit of world-class status.
The third article by Ka Ho Mok presents a different story about Hong Kong.
With the same world-class aspirations, the city-state government has adopted
different strategies. Mok examines how the government of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has reformed its higher education
quality enhancement system and has improved performance. More specifically,
he focuses on the major approaches and strategies adopted by the HKSAR in
ensuring higher educational quality, examining the challenges, and reflecting
on the policy implications of various forms of quality assurance exercises.
The fourth article by Sheng-Ju Chan examines how political tensions be-
tween China and Taiwan affect student recruitment strategies in Taiwanese
universities. On the one hand, the Taiwanese higher education sector attempts
to recruit students from Mainland China in order to internationalize its higher
education and solve the problem of overprovision of university places. On
the other, due to the political legacy, recruiting Chinese students has aroused
some controversies within the island. Therefore, the Taiwanese government
has proposed a Three limits and six noes policy to protect the interests of
local students and societies. This policy entails a wide range of dilemmas
for Taiwan. Chan argues that the contradictions embedded within the policy
design can jeopardize the feasibility of internationalizing Taiwanese higher
education in terms of recruiting Chinese students.
In the final article, William Yat Wai Lo explores the possibility of integrat-
ing the higher education systems in the Chinese societies by emphasizing
Chinese as the common language. Lo argues that that promotion of Chinese
as a zoning tool to enhance the regional capacity of the societies is discussed
against the background of global university ranking. In particular, he considers
6chinese education and society

global university ranking systems as an institution actualizing the soft power of

individual countries in higher education, and therefore as a way of upholding
national interests in the international politics of knowledge production. On this
basis, he argues that the current use of global ranking as a tool to shape Chinese
higher education has proved that China is still a norm taker in the geopolitics
of higher education. Echoing Yangs suggestion on reinforcing the role of the
Chinese culture and language to facilitate the achievement of world-class status,
Lo discusses whether China can change its role from a norm taker to a norm
setter by examining its institutional architecture in knowledge construction.
Each of these articles presents an account of responses from one of the
three Chinese societies to the international competition in higher education
and to the recent call for stronger cooperation between their higher education
sectors. These accounts then contribute to the current discussion on the theme
of this issue of the journal, that is, the globalization and regionalization of
higher education in the greater China region. The discussion is somewhat
exploratory in the sense that it does not claim that there is already a region-
alization process in the three Chinese societies. Nevertheless, we have seen
many salient features of regional cooperation that may trigger a process of
regionalization. The potential emergence of regionalization in the greater
China region warrants that more attention be paid to the future development
of regionalism in the East Asian region.
The majority of these articles emerged from a panel Globalization and
Regionalization of Higher Education in East Asia: Challenges Between Col-
laboration and Competition, presented at the Association for Asian Studies and
the International Convention of Asia Scholars (AAS-ICAS) Joint Conference
in Honolulu, March 31April 3, 2011. As organizers of the panel, we thank
the contributors for their valuable participation and these useful articles that
are the result.

References

Hazelkorn, E. 2009. Rankings and the Battle for World-Class Excellence:

Institutional Strategies and Policy Choices. Higher Education Management
and Policy 21, no. 1: 122.
Jayasuriya, K. 2010. Learning by the Market: Regulatory Regionalism, Bologna,
and Accountability Communities. Globalisation, Societies and Education 8,
no. 1: 722.
Mok, K.H. 2007. Questing for Internationalization of Universities in Asia: Critical
Reflections. Journal of Studies in International Education 11, no. 34: 43354.
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