Higher Education in Asia: Challenges from and Contributions to Globalization

Abstract

The paper puts Asia’s rising, especially its emerging as higher education hub in the context of globalization. By summarizing the four waves of internationalization of higher education over the past hundred years, the paper makes an argument that internationalization is not limited to Europeanization or Americanization, the rise of Asia in the 21st century represents alternative routes to modernity. Asian value and scholarship may serve as a counter-force for the Western-centric globalization of higher learning. In the conclusion, the paper advocates a way towards inclusive globalization and calls for the integration of local/national experience with those of other societies and cultures.