Asia is an exciting region for examining contemporary higher education politics and policies. Traditionally a sending region of international students, scholars, and scientists to established institutions in the West, the region is now transforming into an attractive global destination for academic talents. This is visible in world university rankings where flagship universities from China, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, or South Korea are recognised alongside top institutions from the US, UK, Europe, Canada, or Australia. The literature tells us that non-democratic states would struggle to meet the demands of widening higher education access at the risk of system stability. Asia is the home of a variety of democratic and authoritarian regimes; thus, examining the Asian experience offers an opportunity to assess this assumed relationship between higher education policies and democratic development. Asia is also the site where new initiatives facilitating intra-, inter-, and trans-regional higher education cooperation are emerging. These initiatives are drawing previously less- or disconnected individuals and knowledge institutions to deepen collaboration. Governments in Asia played central roles in these developments, crafting innovative policy solutions while balancing local politics with the need to meet global grand challenges.
Panel contributions address the following overarching themes. First, the politics of higher education governance reforms focusses on how governments steer higher education and the tools used to ensure that universities meet state and societal expectations. Second, the politics of higher education finance covers how higher education is funded and the politics behind changes in the funding system. Third, the framing of higher education policy over time explores how governments talk about higher education policy and the linkages they create between this policy area and other issues (e.g., economic growth, social mobility). Fourth, the varieties of Asian higher education regionalism identify the forms of, and mechanisms driving, regional institutional and policy collaboration. Together, the contributions explain how higher education policies evolved over time in a rarely compared region, test the robustness of existing higher education analytical frameworks and concepts through Asian case studies, and identify regional specificities concerning the role(s) of key actors, discourses, and structures in policy processes.