Abstract
The Author argues that historical regional developments in Europe and East Asia greatly influence the formation of an East Asian Higher Education Area. As such, this article compares European and East Asian regionalization and higher education regionalization processes to show this path dependency in East Asian regionalization of higher education on its regionalization process. Lastly, the author advances that (1) defining the East Asian region; (2) developing regional guidelines/frameworks; and (3) establishing sub-regional higher education areas, using regional guidelines/frameworks, need to be done prior to integrating into an East Asian Higher Education Area. This integration process is to be advanced by institutionalizing regional mobility, quality assurance and mutual recognition of higher education and professional qualification with the establishment of regional institutions focused on these areas.
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Notes
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its ASEAN way of consultation, consensus, and non-interference on the internal affairs of its member nation states is the core of East Asian regionalism along with its security relations with key powers, especially the United States.
The European Union’s supranational institutions (e.g. European Commission, European Parliament), based on treaties, form the core of European regionalism, and the norms, decisions and practices they develop support its institutions and enhance its regionalism over time.
The first and second EU enlargement occurred between January 1995—April 2004 (Austria, Finland and Sweden) and May 2004—December 2006 (Poland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary & Malta) respectively. Furthermore, Bulgaria and Romania acceded in 2007 and Croatia in 2013.
The Euro was first introduced in 1999 for trade settlement purposes but only started using Euro bank notes and currency in 2002.
Switzerland, an EFTA member nation, is not a part of the EEA. Switzerland, however, does have similar bilateral agreements with the EU.
See He (2004) and He and Inoguchi (2011) for a detailed discussion of these conflicting ideas of Asian regionalisms which include: Japan, India and China’s pan-Asianism; Mahathirs East Asian Economic Group; Indonesia, Malaysian and Philippine Pan-Malayism; and Korea and Japan’s idea of an East Asian Community.
The US and Russia have officially joined during the sixth East Asian Summit held in Bali, Indonesia on November 19, 2011.
See Acharya (2012) for a historical account of Asian regionalism using a capacity-legitimacy framework to explain how an ASEAN-led regionalism ended up in the Asian region.
Although Malaysia became independent in 1957, it formed the Federation of Malaya with Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore in 1963, until Singapore left the federation in 1965, while North and South Vietnam became a unified Vietnam in 1976.
The TPP initiative started with the US interest to join an existing Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership Agreement between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, but resulted to a new regional economic initiative expanding it substantially to include Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, the United States and Vietnam.
RCEP is an initiative comprising of the 16 East Asian Summit member nations, excluding the United States and Russia. It is seen as an alternative towards the US-led TPP and was originally envisioned to only include the ASEAN plus 3 member nations but was enlarged to include the original 16 EAS member nations.
The Magna Charta Universatum, drafted and signed at the University of Bologna during its 900th anniversary in 1988, aim to celebrate University traditions and encourage strong bonds among European Universities. Source: http://www.magna-charta.org/cms/cmspage.aspx?pageUid={d4bd2cba-e26b-499e-80d5-b7a2973d5d97}.
The Council of Europe and UNESCO developed and elaborated the Lisbon recognition convention. As of 03 March, 2013, 45 of the 47 member nations of the Council of Europe ratified the Lisbon convention. Source: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/165.htm; http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ChercheSig.asp?NT=165&CM=8&DF=03/03/2013&CL=ENG.
The E4 Group comprises the European University Association (EUA), which was a result of the merger of the Association of European Universities and the confederation of European Union Rectors Conferences in 2001, European Association of Institutions of Higher Education (EURASHE) (1990), European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) (2000), and the European Students Union (ESU) (1982).
There are actually 2 European Qualifications Frameworks: the European Qualifications framework for Lifelong Learning and the European Qualifications Framework for the EHEA.
As of 2000, only 18 of the 33 Asia Pacific countries ratified the UNESCO’s 1983 mutual recognition convention for the Asia and Pacific region. source: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001227/122721eo.pdf.
Japan does not have a domestic higher education capacity issue. Furthermore, Malaysia and Vietnam are trying to solve domestic higher education capacity issue by increasing private sector participation, inviting foreign universities to set up branch campuses and diversifying its higher education providers.
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Chao, R.Y. Pathways to an East Asian Higher Education Area: a comparative analysis of East Asian and European regionalization processes. High Educ 68, 559–575 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9728-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9728-y