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Internationalizing Universities:Comparing China’s Hong Kong and Singapore (1996–2006)

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Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education

Part of the book series: CERC Studies in Comparative Education ((CERC,volume 27))

Abstract

This chapter reviews and examines major policy initiatives aimed at pursuing internationalization, which Hong Kong and Singapore put in place in the decade following 1996. I have set the timeframe from 1996 because the year witnessed some major policy changes in higher education in both territories. In Hong Kong, the University Grants Committee (UGC) released a report reviewing the future development of higher education and encouraging local universities to recruit non-local academic staff and students from the Chinese mainland and neighboring countries as a means of promoting internationalism (UGC 1996, p.126). In the same year, the Singapore government proposed making the island-state the “Boston of the East” by transforming the two public universities—the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)—as “world-class universities” on a par with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Michael H. Lee

Authors
  1. Michael H. Lee
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Correspondence to Michael H. Lee .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arizona, Minneapolis, AZ, USA

    David W. Chapman

  2. George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    William K. Cummings

  3. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Gerard A. Postiglione

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© 2010 Comparative Education Research Centre

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Lee, M.H. (2010). Internationalizing Universities:Comparing China’s Hong Kong and Singapore (1996–2006). In: Chapman, D.W., Cummings, W.K., Postiglione, G.A. (eds) Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education. CERC Studies in Comparative Education, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0446-6_13

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