International Journal of Chinese Education

This article examines the political, economic, and social forces shaping global education policies. Of particular concern is global acceptance of human capital ideology and its stress on education as the key to economic growth. Human capital ideology encompasses consumerism which is a driving force in global economics. This article discusses the role of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, and global education businesses in globalizing education policies and human capital ideology. An alternative to human capital ideology is an educational paradigm based on the goals of longevity and happiness.

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.

We focus this paper on higher education systems and related public policies in emerging societies and developing regions worldwide and observe that effective institutional autonomy and integrity of modern universities are to be promoted in a context where building human capital is a priority and alliances and partnerships among universities worldwide, as well as between them and industry, gain significant relevance. For those societies and regions, our analysis identifies ten different themes oriented towards norms that may be helpful in guiding the development of higher education systems and related public policies.

This study examines international research collaboration among Chinese and Korean academics. International research collaboration among academics, which is generally measured by co-authored publications, is an important part of the internationalization of higher education, not only at an individual level but also at institutional and national levels. This study uses the online Science Citation Index database from Web of Knowledge for the analysis and demonstrates descriptive results of international co-authored publication patterns. International research collaboration is defined as the share of articles published together with at least one author from another country anywhere in the world. The study examines how international research collaboration patterns have changed from 1975 to 2010 in China and South Korea. In particular, it focuses on the growth of international research collaboration, the main collaborative countries among Chinese and Korean academics, and the differences in international research collaboration patterns by academic discipline.

This paper presents the main findings of an EU-China joint study that examines the ‘race for talent’ from the crucial perspective of the relevance and responsiveness of education and training systems in the EU and China. Relevance and responsiveness are explored in a comparative perspective as important, though not the only, aspects of the quality of education by investigating the differences in socio-economic and cultural realities in Europe and China. Specifically, the study explores similarities and differences in the profiles of college graduates in Europe and China against employers’ real expectations and needs. The study also analyses the strategies and measures that education systems, institutions and employers are putting in place to bring into better alignment the relationship between education and the world of work. The study is based on a qualitative and exploratory research design that combined primary data collection from 162 interviews (half in Europe and half in China) and the use of existing research literature in China and Europe. All interviewees had direct experience of education and training systems in Europe and China (through studying, teaching or program design) or work experience involving European and Chinese graduates. The study was one of the outcomes of the 2009 high-level policy dialogue between the European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) and the Chinese Ministry of Education. The research of this study was carried out by a joint taskforce with one team based at the Institute of Education Tsinghua University in China and the other team at GHK Consulting in Europe.

The objective of this study was to provide comprehensive information about student and academic staff mobility between the European Union (EU) and China as well as the main strategies and policies in place to promote mobility. Based on quantitative and qualitative data provided by national authorities and various stakeholders consulted throughout the research process, the study aimed at taking stock of the situation and identifying trends regarding EU-China learning mobility over the past ten years. It also aimed at drawing recommendations to improve current and future mobility actions between the two regions.