The Call for Internationalization: Questing for Regional Education Hub Status and Transnationalizing Higher Education in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong

Abstract

The rise of transnational higher education in the Asia-Pacific region has undeniably reflected the growing pace of globalization and the subsequent pressures imposed by it. Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, among others, are three notable cases in which states have explicitly declared their intentions to make their country/territory a regional education hub, and hence we have witnessed rapid development of transnational higher education in these Asian societies in recent years. Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the top three source countries for the UK’s transnational higher education provision¹; apparently the pressing need for transformation into a knowledge-based economy has exceeded the capacity of many states to promptly expand their public institutions to offer sufficient opportunities for higher education to their population. The proliferation of higher education providers, coupled with the global trends of marketization and privatization of higher education, have subsequently created a much diversified ecology of higher education; this development has also fundamentally blurred the line between public and private.