Variations on Equity and Access in Higher Education in Asia

Abstract

Higher education in Asia has been undergoing dramatic changes in the past decade. What were once a few state-dominated, elitist institutions, often modeled on previous colonial or neocolonial powers, focused on reproducing a civil service, bureaucratic class, are now being transformed into more privatized, comprehensive institutions reinforced by a substantial expansion of higher education institutions (HEIs of all types; in short, a movement toward massification of higher education throughout the region). As the perceived value of obtaining higher education has taken hold of the public consciousness in Asia, the demand on both the private and public sectors to provide it has correspondingly increased. On the surface, this would seem to be a simple formula: as nations in the region become more wealthy, they respond to this demand by supporting more colleges and universities, which in turn admit more and more differentiated students, and the demand for access and equity is met (although also in a differentiated way). The reality, however, has not been so simple.