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Higher Education in the
Asian Century

There is increasing interest in the Asian arena, both as a home for the delivery
of international higher education and as a breeding ground for a new brand of
sustainable domestic and international growth. Academics are increasingly turn-
ing to Asia and Asian education in order to better understand and predict the
emerging trends of global education, and this book will serve to provide a forum
for debate of this nature. The book provides an insight into the interplay of Asian
and European education, identifies the key areas for further development and
firmly grounds the approach as one of conversation and dialogue, rather than
one-sided dictation. It also highlights the critical issues within the development
of international education, discusses the value and challenges of existing TNE
practices as a mechanism to respond to the emerging Asian needs and provides
insights into the future direction of education in the Asian century.

Christopher Hill is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and Director of

the Doctoral Training Centre at The British University in Dubai.

Rozilini M. Fernandez-Chung is the Vice-President of HELP University College

in Malaysia.
Asia-Europe Education Dialogue
Series Editor: Kerry J. Kennedy

This Routledge book series provides a forum for dialogue on key educational
issues and challenges faced by Asian and European societies. Its distinctiveness is
its broad focus on Education in Asia and Europe. In essence, it will address major
issues in education reform, student learning, leadership, curriculum, higher edu-
cation, multicultural education, and other major educational issues affecting Asia
and Europe.

Published books:

Practical Knowledge in Teacher Education

Approaches to Teacher Internship Programmes
Edited by Javier Calvo de Mora and Keith Wood

Realising Learning
Teachers’ professional development through lesson and learning study
Edited by Keith Wood & Saratha Sithamparam

Class Size
Eastern and Western perspectives
Edited by: Peter Blatchford, Kam Wing Chan, Maurice Galton, Kwok-Chan Lai
and John Chi-Kin Lee

Higher Education in the Asian Century

The European legacy and the future of Transnational Education in the
ASEAN region
Edited by Christopher Hill and Rozilini M. Fernandez-Chung
Higher Education in the
Asian Century
The European legacy and the future
of transnational education
in the ASEAN region

Edited by Christopher Hill and

Rozilini M. Fernandez-Chung
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Christopher Hill and Rozilini
M. Fernandez-Chung; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Christopher Hill and Rozilini M. Fernandez-Chung to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-83181-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73637-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents

List of tables and figurevii

List of abbreviationsviii
Notes on contributorsix

Introduction 1

1 Malaysia, TNE and politics 6

MORSHIDI SIRAT AND ROBIN MIDDLEHURST

2 Higher education, transnational education and the

evolution of the Cambodian education system 21
KEE-CHEOK CHEONG AND SAM GHANTY

3 International benchmarking through transnational

higher education programme knowledge transfer:
An Indonesian case study 41
AGUSTIAN SUTRISNO AND HITENDRA PILLAY

4 The legacy of European education in Thai

higher education 59
RATTANA LAO AND CHRISTOPHER HILL

5 The European legacy and the higher education link

in Singapore 73
AARON TAN AND ROSEMARY GOSLING
vi Contents

6 International influences on Vietnamese higher

education: French and Soviet legacies meet
contemporary globalism 95
CHRISTOPHER ZIGURAS, ANH PHAM AND SUPANIDA CHANTARIN

7 The Philippines and the European legacy to

ASEAN integration 107
WILLIAM LAWTON AND NINIA I. CALACA

8 Higher education in Myanmar: The potential impact

of TNE in the adaptation of its national higher
education for a globalised world 134
ROZILINI M. FERNANDEZ-CHUNG AND TIM GORE

Summary 150
Index156
Tables and figure

Tables
2.1 The Structure of the Cambodian Education System 24
2.2 Cambodia – Selected Education Indicators 2000–2012 26
2.3 Comparative Education Indicators, Cambodia, Thailand and
Vietnam, 2009–2013 27
2.4 Indicators of Cambodia’s Tertiary Education Subsector
2000–201129
4.1 Distribution of Public and Private University MOUs Classified
by Region 65
4.2 Foreign Students in Thailand 66
4.3 Number of Thai Government-Funded Students Studying in the
UK, Germany and France 68
8.1 Number of Higher Education Institutions in Myanmar
According to Ministries; 1998, 2011, 2013 137
8.2 List of Private Higher Education Institutions
and Establishment Year 139

Figure
8.1 Structure of Myanmar Education System 136
Abbreviations

ACCA Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations
CAT Certified Accounting Technician
CHED Commission on Higher Education (Philippines)
CMO CHED Memorandum Order
DHE Department of Higher Education (Cambodia)
EDB Economic Development Board (Singapore)
FTA Free Trade Agreements
HE Higher Education
HEI Higher Education Institution
HESA Higher Education Statistics Agency
IAU International Association of Universities
MOU Memoranda of Understanding
MUA Ministry of University Affairs (Thailand)
MoEYS Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
MQA Malaysian Qualifications Agency
ODEL Open Distance ELearning
PAP People’s Action Party (Singapore)
PEI Private Education Institutions
PHEI Private Higher Education Institutions
PSGs Policies, Standards and Guidelines
QAA Quality Assurance Agency
SEA South East Asia
SIM Singapore Institute of Management
SUC State Universities and Colleges
TNE Transnational Education
TVE Technical and Vocational Education
UNTAC United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia
WCU World Class Universities
WTO World Trade Organisation
Notes on contributors

Ninia I. Calaca, from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, is an Associate

Professor and a Member of the Technical Panel for Transnational Education
and Distance Education (TPTNEDE) of the Commission on Higher Educa-
tion (CHED) of the Republic of the Philippines. She has more than 15 years
of experience in developing, implementing and integrating technology to
support learning and teaching, such as innovation of content and standards,
learning management systems integration, innovations and modelling and
information systems modelling. She holds several academic degrees, includ-
ing a Diploma in e-Learning (South Korea), a Professional Certificate as a
Specialist in Distance Education (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), an
international certification on e-skills from InWent Germany, an MA in Devel-
opment Education (University of Santo Tomas) and an MPhil in Develop-
ment Studies (Massey University, New Zealand).
Supanida Chantarin is a lecturer in the Centre of Communication and Design at
RMIT University Vietnam. She lectures in advertising to undergraduate stu-
dents. She has a passion to understand her Vietnamese students more deeply
and discover how they experience the student-centred learning approach.
That interest became the main focus of her PhD research. Currently, she is
undertaking her PhD in the School of Global Studies, Social Sciences & Plan-
ning. Her PhD topic concerns the experience of student-centred learning in
transnational universities in Vietnam at RMIT, Australia. Her other research
interests are affective education, creative education and creative advertising.
Kee-Cheok Cheong is currently a Senior Research Fellow with the Asia Europe
Institute, University of Malaya (FEA, UM). A graduate of the University of
Malaya, he obtained his PhD at the London School of Economics. Upon his
return, he joined the FEA, UM, and was Deputy Dean, then Dean of Faculty.
After a decade at UM, he spent 16 years at the World Bank in the capacity of
Economist and subsequently Senior Economist. At the Bank, he was Coordi-
nator for China and Vietnam in the Economic Development Institute, now
the World Bank Institute. After returning to Malaysia in 2000, he contin-
ued as consultant for the Bank and UN agencies. His work has taken him to
China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and North Korea among Asian
x Notes on contributors
countries. His research interests include the areas of: economic development,
transition economies, particularly China and Vietnam, international economic
relations, education and human capital, and economic history, specifically
relating to the Chinese overseas. He is the author of books, book chapters
and papers in academic journals and participates regularly in international
conferences.

Rozilini M. Fernandez-Chung has more than 20 years of teaching, managing

and developing policies and curriculum and is the Vice President (Quality
Assurance) of HELP University, Malaysia. Overseeing group education and
operations quality, her role includes academic policy formulation, audits of
academic and support departments, process advisory support and general
quality assurance and enhancement activities. Prior to joining the University,
she was the Director for Standards and Reference, Malaysian Qualifications
Agency, Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). She was responsible for
the development of the Malaysian Qualifications Framework, the regulations
under the Malaysian Qualifications Agency Act 2007, the Codes of Practice,
Programme Standards, Guidelines to Good Practices and numerous higher
education regulations and policies, some of which have been since adopted by
other QA jurisdictions. She continues to be involved in the QA fraternity as
an auditor, researcher, policy advisor and trainer and is the International QA
Advisor for Bangladesh.

Sam Ghanty is a Senior Research Fellow and Member of the Board of Directors
of Securities & Exchange Commission of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambo-
dia. Sam Ghanty earned his MBA and Master of Science and PhD in Finance
and International Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1975,
1976 and 1981. He served as the head of the finance program and professor
of Finance, Investment and Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
(USA) from 1977 to 1995. He returned to Cambodia in 1995 to work for
the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank from 1996 to 2005 as con-
sultant and training coordinator for the training centres for the government
officials at the National Bank of Cambodia (Central Bank) and the Ministry
of Economy and Finance. He served as an independent member of the Board
of Directors at the Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (2001–2005), Canadia
Bank (2006–2007), Arial Global Group of Singapore (2004–2007) and the
Cambodian Public Bank (2014–present). He currently serves as an advisor
on the National Accounting Council (NAC) of the Ministry of Economy and
Finance, a member of the Board of Directors at the Securities and Exchange
Commission of Cambodia (SECC) and a member of the Board of Directors at
the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia (PIC).

Tim Gore, OBE, is the CEO of the University of London Institute in Paris.
This historic institute has played a part in Franco-British academic cooperation
since the 19th century, becoming part of the University of London in 1969.
Tim leads this unique Institute at a time of considerable change, as it enlarges
 Notes on contributors xi
its teaching portfolio, enhances its research capacity and develops its strategic
partnership with Queen Mary University of London. He was previously based
in London as Director, Global Networks and Communities, for the Univer-
sity of London International Programmes, where he was responsible for their
global engagement work. Prior to this, Tim was the Director of the Centre for
Indian Business, the University of Greenwich, where his role was to engage
the University of Greenwich’s intellectual capital with India. Tim previously
held a number of senior leadership roles with the British Council, working
closely with educationalists, institutions, companies and governments to
improve bilateral and multilateral educational links in Hong Kong, Singapore,
United Arab Emirates, Jordan and India. He was awarded an OBE in 2008.
Rosemary Gosling is a political sociologist and has worked in further and higher
education for over 40 years, first as a lecturer and subsequently as a Director
of the University of London (UoL) International Programmes at the London
School of Economics and Political Science. She has taught in and advised col-
leges, teaching for the UoL International Programmes for the last 27 years.
This has involved working with national and local governments to ensure
compliance with the different legal systems. Recently, she has undertaken a
study of the legislation surrounding the Foreign Education Bills in India.
Christopher Hill is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and Director
of the Doctoral Training Centre, British University in Dubai. Christopher is a
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an OBHE Associate and a member
of the Association of Commonwealth Universities Internationalisation Steer-
ing Committee. Christopher has published and presented in the field of inter-
national education, organised and delivered conferences, workshops, training
and lectures and led funded projects to develop research capacity and interna-
tionalise HE systems around the world. Christopher has worked extensively
in the field of transnational education for the past decade, particularly in Asia,
and delivered on key consultancy projects for governments and higher educa-
tion agencies in the UK and Asia.
Rattana Lao is a Lecturer of Thai Studies at Pridi Banomyong International
College, Thailand. She is the author of A Critical Studies of Thailand’s Higher
Education Reforms: The Culture of Borrowing, which was published by Rout-
ledge in 2015. She holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Educa-
tion (Political Science) from Teachers College, Columbia University.
William Lawton is a higher education consultant and has worked in higher edu-
cation for 25 years, first as a lecturer and more recently as a researcher and
writer. His main areas are HE internationalisation, especially TNE, mobility
and the digital HE revolution. He has a long-standing interest in government
policy and higher education. Bill’s recent research projects have included com-
parative quality assessment, student perceptions of outward mobility, develop-
ing internationalisation and branding strategies for universities and TNE in
Thailand and the Philippines. He worked with EAIE, HEFCE, the Higher
xii Notes on contributors
Education Academy, QS Intelligence Unit and the British Council. He wrote a
chapter on digital learning and virtual mobility in Europe as part of a study for
the European Parliament. Bill was Director of the Observatory on Borderless
Higher Education from 2011–14 and was a founding member of the UK HE
International Unit. He worked at the Canadian High Commission in London
as a political analyst and Head of Academic Relations. In the 1990s, he taught
politics at the University of Hull in England. He is from Newfoundland.

Robin Middlehurst is a Professor of Higher Education and an External Policy

Adviser in the Vice Chancellor’s Office, Kingston University London. She
also serves as a policy adviser to the Higher Education Academy, is a trustee
of the British Accreditation Council and is an Advisory Board member of
the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Robin’s research includes
borderless education and internationalisation, governance and leadership,
quality assurance and enhancement in higher education. Her previous roles
have included Director, Strategy, Research and International at the Leadership
Foundation, co-designing and co-directing the UK’s Top Management Pro-
gramme for Higher Education, Director of the Quality Enhancement Group
of the Higher Education Quality Council (now QAA), academic posts at the
University of Surrey and Institute of Education, London, and serving as a gov-
ernor in two UK universities. Professor Middlehurst has published extensively
on higher education policy and management and undertakes consultancy for
governments and higher education agencies in the UK and overseas.

Anh Pham is a university lecturer with over fifteen years’ experience in tertiary
education, especially in the internationalisation of higher education in Viet-
nam. Her recent doctoral research at RMIT focused on the contribution of
transnational higher education to workforce development in Ho Chi Minh
City. She has worked for RMIT University, Deakin University, HCMC Uni-
versity of Technology and Education, Vietnam, Herriot Watt University and
Sunderland University, and in a voluntary capacity with organisations in Viet-
nam and Australia, including the Don Bosco Vocational and Settlement Pro-
ject and UNESCO Cultural Exchange Programs in Vietnam.

Hitendra Pillay is a Professor in the School of Professional and Cultural Learn-

ing at the Queensland University of Technology. He has multi-disciplinary
background ranging from education to engineering to cognitive science,
resulting in a diverse academic research portfolio. He has won many Aus-
tralian Research Council grants and published over 120 academic papers and
over 100 technical reports for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank,
Australian Aid and the European Union. He is highly sought after as an inter-
national education advisor/consultant and researcher. Drawing on his multi-
disciplinary academic research and social sector development work, his current
research interest is synthesizing the fragmented research agendas into more
holistic and cross-disciplinary models of knowledge creation, innovation and
global development.
 Notes on contributors xiii
Morshidi Sirat is the Founding Director of the Commonwealth Tertiary Educa-
tion Facilities (CTEF) and a professor at the School of Humanities, Universiti
Sains Malaysia. Morshidi has served as the Director of the National Higher
Education Research Institute (IPPTN), as the Deputy Director-General of the
Department of Higher Education (Public Sector) and as the Director-General
of Higher Education at the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. Morshidi
publishes widely on higher education policy in the ASEAN region and is very
active in research and consultancy work for IIEP Paris, the ADB, the World
Bank and UNESCO APEID Bangkok. Morshidi is actively engaged as member
of the editorial boards of higher education journals such as Higher Education –
The International Journal of Higher Education Research, the Studies in Higher
Education Journal, Higher Education Policy and the Asian Education and
Development Studies Journal.

Agustian Sutrisno completed his PhD at the Queensland University of Technol-

ogy under the sponsorship of the Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Endeavour
Scholarship. His thesis examines the knowledge transfer processes between
partner universities in the context of transnational education. He received
both the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award from QUT and the Outstand-
ing Post-Graduate Thesis Award from the International Education Associa-
tion of Australia for his PhD thesis. Dr. Sutrisno currently lectures at Atma
Jaya Catholic University in Jakarta and advises the Australia Awards Scholar-
ship Office in Indonesia on the design of transnational master’s scholarship
programmes in Indonesia.

Aaron Tan has more than 20 years of experience in the field of education and
is currently the Director of the Teaching & Learning Division at the Singa-
pore Institute of Management Global Education, overseeing the professional
development of the academic community, student academic support, as well
as educational technology. He holds a Doctorate in Education from Durham
University, and his current research interests include students’ learning pat-
terns and pedagogy. He is a member of the British Educational Research Asso-
ciation (BERA) and the European Association for Research on Learning and
Instruction (EARLI).

Christopher Ziguras researches varied aspects of the globalisation of education,

particularly the ways in governments and institutions manage and regulate
cross-border provision. His latest book is Governing Cross-Border Higher
Education (Routledge, 2015). He is Deputy Dean, International in the social
sciences at RMIT University, where he oversees a variety of international pro-
jects, ranging from intensive courses in Myanmar to an International Summer
School in Melbourne. Chris received the RMIT University Vice-Chancellor’s
Distinguished Teaching Award in 2011, was the Tony Adams Visiting Senior
Scholar at the Centre for Higher Education Internationalization at Università
Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore in Milan in 2013 and he is currently President of
the International Education Association of Australia.
Introduction

The 21st century has been characterised as “the Asian century”, and therefore,
its interaction with Europe, a relationship that began centuries ago through the
silk and spice trade, will be fundamental to both explaining its past and to better
understanding its future. There remains a clear legacy, within Asia, of European
influence, practice and policy, and yet this legacy takes a different shape, a differ-
ent set of values according to origin and host. To say there is a single European
identity, especially when viewed historically, is as misleading as to say there is a
single Asian identity. The intricate relationships that have so shaped identity and
reality require closer examination.
There is increasing interest in the Asian arena, both as a home for the deliv-
ery of international higher education and as a breeding ground for a new brand
of sustainable domestic and international growth. The advances seen in coun-
tries such as Singapore and Malaysia, the rapid development of China and India,
the emerging markets of Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, the opening up of
Myanmar and the sheer demographics of student numbers ensure that there is
considerable scope for analysis and discussion. Academics are increasingly turn-
ing to Asia and Asian Education in order to better understand and, to an extent,
predict, the emerging trends of global education and this book will serve to pro-
vide a forum for debate of this nature. This book does not purport to contain
the answers to future problems, but rather insight into current activity and past
performance as a lens through which we can hope to better understand opportu-
nities, impact and potential.
With the growth of Asia and the development of internal strength and capacity,
the dynamics of the relationship can be clearly viewed as having shifted away from
‘dependence’ to one of ‘interdependence’. While there exists sufficient literature
to track this change in relational dynamism, this book proposes to capture and
highlight some of these issues in relation to higher education. This book will
focus specifically on the nations within ASEAN and use these as a point of reflec-
tion for the growth of education more broadly and the impact expansion can
have on national systems.
The history of the European-Asian connection can be seen today in many fac-
ets of everyday life even beyond structural legacies. European language, religion,
administration and education systems have clearly left their marks, for example,
2 Introduction
the French in Vietnam, the British administrative system in Malaysia, the Dutch
education system in Indonesia and the Spanish Catholic legacy in the Philippines.
To a large extent, much of the European influence is clearly linked to education,
mainly at the primary and secondary levels, and can be seen to have impacted
upon reality, relevance and reputation. What is perhaps less understood is the
legacy of impact and the manner in which current practice has been shaped and
created by past engagement and association, particularly in higher education.
Past influence is also often reflected in the movement of people between these
countries, as students pursuing higher education abroad would typically opt to
do so in the European country they are most strongly linked to. For example,
Indonesians largely travelled to Holland, Malaysian and Singaporeans to the
United Kingdom and Vietnamese to France. In later years, with the increase in
demand and economic growth, the movement of students turned into move-
ment of study programmes, which has since become known as Transnational
Education (TNE). In Malaysia and Singapore, for example, the influence is
seen in the number of TNE programmes offered from the United Kingdom,
demonstrating clear and unequivocal evidence of the depth of influence these
European nations have in the development of the South East Asian nations.
UK government data indicates that Malaysia is the largest market for UK TNE
provision. Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data show that there are
almost four times as many M ­ alaysia-based students studying UK higher educa-
tion programmes than Malaysians studying in the UK (https://www.gov.uk/
government/world-location-news/uk-university-success-in-malaysia).
The selection of higher education is based purely on the fact that it is often
seen as having the biggest impact on the nation, socially, economically and politi-
cally, and has become a clear policy issue for many nations and a beacon for
growth and reputation enhancement. With the increased focus on Asian educa-
tion of late, this book seeks to provide the reader with a reflective analysis of past,
present and future and an opportunity to reflect upon activity and impact across
a diverse and highly relevant region.
Historically, the socio-economic and political landscapes of all ASEAN nations,
with the notable exception of Thailand, were shaped by the colonisation of major
European nations. However, with the growth of Asia, both in terms of economy
and people, there is a need to review this relationship and explore a shift from
dependence to interdependence. The legacy of European involvement, in its
many shapes and influences, is a storied one, but to treat Europe or Asia as single
entities is to gravely miss the nuances and subtleties of interaction, development
and systemic evolution. While there are indeed consistencies of engagement, the
real value here is in an exploration of case studies and national development. Rela-
tionships emerge and evolve and the impact this has can be keenly felt through
observation and reflection.
Each chapter focuses on a single country and is explored from the perspectives
of co-authors to provide discussion rather than conclusion. The aim is to provide
the reader with access to a conversation between informed experts and not a
definitive textbook response to a single issue. As the book attests, the nature and
 Introduction 3
reality of TNE is varied and complex and manifests in different ways in different
settings.
The Malaysian chapter deals with the issue of politics and policy making in the
higher education forum and examines the role of foreign impact in the creation
and development of the current national system, the manner in which it contin-
ues to impact decision-making and the extent to which it is changing the per-
ception of local delivery and value. Malaysia represents an interesting case study
for TNE activity, review and reflection and marks an excellent way to start this
collection of country-based chapters and discussion.
The Cambodian chapter looks at the turbulent past of the nation and high-
lights the issue of human capital and development. While the role of TNE in
Cambodia is considerably less developed than in neighbouring nations, this chap-
ter clearly identifies the potential for change it could bring, based upon a funda-
mental understanding of the current challenges and past developmental activity.
This chapter takes a case study approach and, through detailed analysis, seeks to
highlight the key challenges inherent in the current system, the impact historical
intervention has had and the opportunities for development.
The Indonesian chapter examines the issue of international benchmarking as a
consequence of TNE and uses a case study approach to demonstrate the value of
internationalisation for developing national systems. This chapter carefully incor-
porates Indonesia’s colonial past into the discussion and uses this as a platform to
examine legacy and impact. Significantly however, the Indonesia chapter looks at
the growing influence of Australian TNE, moving away from the traditional colo-
nial legacy. Two strong reasons may be attributed to this, one, that this is influ-
enced by the influence of English as the global lingua franca and two its proximity
to and trade relations with Australia. This is further evidence of the impact and
legacy of European education and the fundamentally global nature of TNE.
The chapter on Thailand provides an insight into the journey of historical edu-
cational engagement and charts its evolution and impact upon academia, soci-
ety and national capacity building. The chapter provides an in-depth discussion
regarding the value of TNE and the need to ensure it is correctly managed and
integrated on a political, social and administrative level. Discussion between the
two contributing authors examined the nature of integration and the impact for-
eign engagement has upon domestic growth, perception and development and
seeks to raise the issue of legacy and impact from a practical perspective as well as
a theoretical and policy standpoint.
The Singapore chapter captures the colonial influence on its current higher
education success. From the setting up of the first college to the award of schol-
arships and development of the university’s administrative processes, the story is
one of building on the colonial legacy. It clearly shows the influence of unbroken
legacy on the higher education sector and remodelling higher education sup-
ported by a strong foundation from bygone era.
The chapter on Vietnam charts the historical development and influence cul-
ture, systems and identity have had upon the current state of higher education
in Vietnam through the influences of French colonialism, Soviet communism
4 Introduction
and contemporary globalism. The authors use a fixed point of reference, namely
Paris, across the three periods in question to firmly identify, discuss and analyse
the role of European influence mingled with that of other geographical locations
to shape the reality and current systems of Vietnam. The chapter then goes on to
examine the challenges facing educators, as a result of foreign influences, seek-
ing to introduce student-facing approaches to teaching and learning. This is a
detailed and comprehensive analysis of the development of education in Vietnam,
the role of competing agendas to shape reality and the challenges facing those
on the ground.
The chapter on the Philippines provides a comprehensive review and analy-
sis of key developmental issues in the field of higher education and charts the
national response to and strategic underpinnings toward transnational education.
The chapter clearly outlines the historical context of education within the Philip-
pines and provides the reader with a balanced and nuanced discussion as to the
operational challenges, potential impacts and procedural and policy responses
underway. This chapter, through discussion by two country experts, explains the
mechanisms necessary behind successful educational review and the opportuni-
ties for domestic capacity building and international collaboration.
The Myanmar chapter, unlike that of Singapore, speaks about regaining the
lost legacy. After years under armed conflict and economic stagnation, Myan-
mar appears to look towards foreign support in developing its higher education
sector. But as the chapter will show, this is going to be a long and windy road
as, there are still lingering suspicion and doubt as to the influence of European
culture and education. Perhaps it is here that one sees the most obvious reference
and concerns with regards to re-colonisation through education and the poten-
tial for shaping future activity based upon actual needs.
The aim of this book was to provide a platform for discussion and reflection
rather than a collection of facts and statistics. To that end, each chapter is a dia-
logue between colleagues with expertise and interest in the respective regions and
nations. The design was to enable an exchange of ideas and views, thus providing
the reader with an insight into perception, reality and developmental activity in a
fascinating and highly relevant part of the world. Authors were chosen with care
to represent knowledge, insight and an interesting viewpoint on legacy, develop-
ment and impact and were then tasked with identifying key and emerging themes
of relevance and value to promote, discuss and analyse. The aim was for the book
to flow around the central theme of TNE development but not to be prescriptive
in nature.
The general thematic underpinning and focus of the book is the development
of TNE within the Asian context, in order to address the more fundamental
questions of role, design, impact, quality and perception of ‘foreign’ education as
a response to local needs. Issues of curriculum development, quality benchmark-
ing, employability and global awareness are included in order to demonstrate the
necessity to understand the operational aspects of educational development as
well as the strategic underpinnings at play. The chapters cover a variety of topics
 Introduction 5
and questions and, in so doing, provide valuable insight into a myriad of chal-
lenges and opportunities in the region.
The fluid nature of this book is by design, as it represents a dialogue between
European and Asian academics debating the issues, value, relevance and future
development of TNE as an agent of positive change, capacity building and quality
assurance. There is discussion as to the inherent benefits and merits of TNE, from
both a structural and pedagogical standpoint, and a debate as to the legacy of
development thus far on the national capacity for delivery and the direction Asian
nations must take to ensure a sustainable, contextually embedded and interna-
tionally recognised educational system.
1 Malaysia, TNE and politics
Morshidi Sirat and Robin Middlehurst

Introduction and context

This chapter critically examines the development of Malaysia’s higher educa-
tion policy, highlighting the influence and impacts of transnational education
(TNE) on local politics and policy-making. It is also important to recognize that
local political context and priorities in turn have important implications for TNE
development in both host and sending countries. Moutsios (2010) argues that
there are differences between politics and policy-making, but nevertheless, in this
chapter it is argued that the nexus between politics and policy-making is evident
in many developing countries, with Malaysia no exception. Arguably, politics is
deeply entrenched in the policy-making process, and thus examining the impacts
of TNE necessarily creates the need to examine how a global phenomenon (such
as TNE) has influenced the working of local politics. In the final analysis, it is
pertinent to examine how political context and considerations are crafted into
policy decisions, which affect TNE development and vice versa. However, it
is also important to recognize that not all policy interventions with regard to
TNE in developing countries are politically motivated, and the politics related
to TNE may not be expressed in political terms. The latter may be strategically
expressed in terms of nation building, national identity and national interest. In
other words, it can be argued that regulating TNE in Malaysia is premised on
the need to safeguard national identity and interests first, taking quality assurance
into consideration as a secondary concern.
Contrary to Moutsios (2010), policy-making in relation to higher education
is an activity which cannot take place away from the local political context. While
politics is commonly perceived as the actions of rulers, parliaments, ministers,
politicians and political parties, as well as those who help them to take office (see
Minogue, 1995), in the context of this chapter we are interested in how priori-
ties (which may be political in nature) are played out in the crafting of regulatory
frameworks with regard to TNE development and TNE partnership involving
local players. Thus, to all intents and purposes, we have looked at the influence of
TNE on the interface between Malaysia’s policy-making/political environment
and wider context, rather than politics according to Moutsios’s (2010) defini-
tion. To do this, we have identified phases of influence as the internationalization
 Malaysia, TNE and politics 7
of higher education has intensified, examining how these are manifested in the
Malaysian political landscape.
The chapter argues that both chronologically and as a matter of expediency,
British or colonial higher education policy was transplanted into the emerg-
ing Malayan and later Malaysian higher education landscape (Selvaratnam,
1986, 1988; Zailan, 2007), resulting in both positive and negative implica-
tions for Malaysia’s development. In this regard, Li-chuan Chiang (2012) pro-
vides a framework to explicate the impacts of colonial legacy and subsequently
recolonization by way of TNE activities in Malaysia. One of the most impor-
tant aspects of colonial link was the use of the English language in higher
education, and the other was the adoption of the British university adminis-
tration system and nomenclature. While there are other models to examine
TNE development and partnership arrangements in developing countries (see
Li-chuan Chiang’s (2012); Sidhu & Christie, 2015; Ziguras & McBurnie,
2015)), this framework is more suited to the purpose here. Li-chuan Chi-
ang (2012) argues that there are two development models of TNE, the linear
model and the non-linear model, and each of these could explain the interface
between policy-making and politics in a developing country as a result of TNE
penetration and operation.

The analytical framework

The linear model emphasizes the growth and decline of TNE in a country in
terms of the link between its higher education development stages and capacity
building. In this respect, the work of McBurnie and Ziguras (2009) is highly
relevant. McBurnie and Ziguras (2009, 97–99, cited in Li-chuan Chiang, 2012:
173–174) postulate the link between TNE development and a country’s capacity
building in terms of four broad phases. These phases reflect a shift from a trend
where there is an outflow of students to study in destinations overseas, to sub-
stantial inflows of international students into a particular country. It is important
to note that between Phase 1 (outflows of students to study destinations abroad)
and Phase 4 (internationalization of higher education and student inflows) there
is Phase 2, where the growth of outward student mobility slows as the capac-
ity of the local higher education system to meet local demand is built up over
time. In Phase 3, the lower-status transnational programmes get squeezed out as
the local higher education system becomes more competitive and governments
become concerned with quality over quantity. The final phase, Phase 4, involves
a country shifting from being a net importer to a net exporter of education ser-
vices as domestic capacity and quality is sufficiently developed and the govern-
ment becomes more selective in utilizing transnational programmes to attract
foreign students. Arguably, this four-phase model is overly simplistic in explaining
the role of TNE in Malaysia’s higher education landscape viewed from a politi-
cal context. This model does not explain the many political complexities which
have influenced policy decisions regarding higher education provision by foreign
8 Morshidi Sirat and Robin Middlehurst
and transnational providers in Malaysia. For instance, issues such as the private
and public provision of higher education and the balance between them are not
addressed adequately in such a linear model.
The non-linear model, however, portrays diverse situations, both positive and
negative, of TNE development in developing countries such as Malaysia. Indeed,
Li-chuan Chiang (2012: 176) argues that the non-linear model portrays compli-
cated and mixed pictures regarding TNE development where there are possible
rationales, strategies and conditions for the development of TNE in host coun-
tries. Interestingly, in the context of this non-linear model, McBurnie and Zigu-
ras (2009: 93–105, cited in Li-chuan Chiang, 2012: 176) adopted a scenario
approach to capture the possible development routes for TNE. These routes were
non-linear in character. According to McBurnie and Ziguras’s (2009) concep-
tualization, in Scenario 1, ‘the world of higher education becomes more for-
eign’, with the growth scenario driven by the perceived benefits for key actors
embracing TNE, including for importing governments to meet local demands,
reducing the outflow of students and funds, and enhancing local academic and
administrative practices. Exporting governments and institutions are able to reap
financial and reputational benefits, and students can access the perceived pres-
tige of foreign education at a cheaper price than studying abroad. In Scenario 1
the perceived benefits of TNE in the host and sending countries outweigh the
disadvantages to the host higher education system. In fact, developing coun-
tries hosting TNE are oblivious to the inherent disadvantages of the presence of
TNE in their system. For instance, the IAU (2012: 4) argues that TNE presence,
with its perceived prestige, has the potential to disadvantage local higher educa-
tion institutions that are striving to respond to national need. The IAU observes
further that some host countries experience difficulty regulating the presence,
activity and quality of foreign programmes. In McBurnie and Ziguras’s (2009)
Scenario 2, they refer to this as ‘the world churns’, in that as previously importing
countries develop their preferred domestic education providers to meet unmet
demand, TNE may ‘outgrow’ the demand and become a relatively short-lived
and temporary phase in a longer-term trajectory of building domestic capacity.
In Scenario 3, ‘branch campus clusters’, the clusters of branch campuses of pres-
tigious universities that are built in importing countries and which act as regional
education hubs, will be primarily focused on attracting international students, as
well as providing options for domestic students. In fact, one could envisage this
scenario as presenting a recolonization of the host country’s higher education
landscape. With recolonization of the host country’s higher education system,
a regulatory framework reflecting local political aspirations and demands will be
developed and put in place. Over time, regulations begin to take effect, and thus
in Scenario 4, ‘raising the bar’, the growth scenario for TNE slows to emerging
negative features, including low-quality, excessive commercialization and a more
profit-oriented outlook, rather than having a primary commitment to academic
values or a genuine concern for local needs and aspirations.
The above-noted non-linear model is an appropriate framework within which
to discuss the impacts of TNE on the political scene in Malaysia. In this chapter,
 Malaysia, TNE and politics 9
we deliberately adopt the same framework to explicate the effects of TNE on
Malaysia’s political scene and vice versa. Specifically in this context, this chap-
ter addresses the following issues insofar as TNE is concerned:

(i) From the perspective of host countries, are colonialism and recolonization
considered as part of a national, transnational, European/‘Western’ context?
(ii) To what extent has there been an impact of TNE on policy development
with respect to higher education?
(iii) Has there been a mirroring of foreign/trade policy or a reaction to TNE
presence?
(iv) Has national policy development supported or controlled foreign engage-
ment or the provision of higher education?
(v) To what extent does the national government seek to control or support
‘foreign’ education?

In order to address the above concerns, we will need to understand the global
phenomenon that is TNE and its impact on developing countries, particularly
from the perspective of how politics and public policy-making are being played
out in the process of dealing with TNE.

Transnational education in developing

countries: An overview
There are many definitions for transnational educational phenomena. In this
chapter, with Malaysia as a focus, and realizing that the majority of TNE in
Malaysia is dominated by entities from English-speaking countries (the UK, Aus-
tralia and the United States), we adopt a definition which reflects transnational
arrangements or models which are very much based on trends offering TNE
qualifications in the UK, Australia and the United States. Thus, by way of a
general definition, TNE is a component of the wider phenomenon of the inter-
nationalization of education, and its general principal is that students can study
towards a foreign qualification without leaving their home country. This means
that the programmes and providers cross national and regional borders, rather
than the student (British Council, 2013). Notably, transnational education takes
different forms, from franchised programmes and internet-based activities to the
establishment of international branch campuses (Sidhu & Christe, 2015).
In the context of the spread of TNE and in connection with the WTO, remov-
ing barriers to trade in higher education with the aim of facilitating the move-
ment of programmes does not necessarily create a level playing field. Instead, this
action may actually exacerbate existing inequalities by providing more oppor-
tunities for TNE in host countries with a weak or non-existent higher educa-
tion system (Ziguras & McBurnie, 2015). Furthermore, local political concerns
and priorities are not well articulated in arguing for political and policy inter-
ventions that are beneficial to their emerging higher education systems. These
developing countries are literally at the mercy of the TNE providers, for they
10 Morshidi Sirat and Robin Middlehurst
are highly dependent on TNE to narrow the gaps between unmet demand and
supply. Given these inequalities, the ability of TNE providers to insert themselves
into a developing country with a relatively weak system is likely to undermine
efforts at national development (Ziguras & McBurnie, 2015: 15). Thus, for low-
and ­middle-income developing countries, their acceptance of TNE is aimed at
increasing local capacity, whereas for TNE providers, it is about profitability. In
this connection, TNE providers are sometimes accused of taking advantage of
the inability of host countries to effectively regulate higher education (Ziguras &
McBurnie, 2015: 16). Profit-driven TNE activities in a weak host higher edu-
cation system have resulted in dire consequences for the development of the
indigenous higher education system (Lawton et al., 2013: 19), and if this issue is
articulated and couched with political overtones, the result would be deep resent-
ment towards TNE at the local level.
To put TNE development in context in terms of its potential impact on devel-
oping countries, it is reported that the UK is the world’s second largest (13% of
market) and fastest growing (6% p.a.) provider of international education, with
the UK’s education exports being worth approximately £18bn to the UK econ-
omy (see http://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/transnational-education). Within
the scale of this development, of interest is a core recent concern within the neo-
colonialism literature, namely the insinuation that TNE is a form of cultural impe-
rialism manifesting itself in the form of neo-colonialism. This n ­ eo-colonialism
argument is based on the fact that programmes are basically international quali-
fications delivered in a country with local teachers and without any significant
differentiation in the curriculum (Lawton et al., 2013: 13). Furthermore, the
dominant use of the English language is seen as an excellent example of cultural
imperialism. The continued use of the English language in ex-British colonies
was seen as politically misaligned with emerging national aspirations. At the other
end of the political divide, the use of the English language provides students with
the opportunity to study in English and develop an understanding of other cul-
tures (http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/how-does-transnational-education-
affect-host-countries). For developing countries that prioritize nation building
and national identity with a focus on a national language, this presents a political
dilemma.
Clearly, the impact of TNE is very significant in the global higher education
landscape. In the case of UK TNE, nearly 600,000 students accessed UK higher
education qualifications without entering the UK, and the number of students
gaining a UK qualification via TNE has increased by 50 per cent in the last four
years. In the UK, 126 institutions offer some sort of TNE – a number that has
increased each year and is a 10 per cent increase on the number offering TNE
in 2000. Notably, only a small proportion of students studying UK courses
through TNE do so in branch campuses; the majority study via local partner
institutions or through distance learning (http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/
how-does-transnational-education-affect-host-countries).
In all of the above developments, there are political imperatives influencing the
decision to facilitate TNE operation within the higher education system, or even
 Malaysia, TNE and politics 11
to work together with TNE providers. The British Council (2013: 9) acknowl-
edges that:

At the country level, the drivers and rationales are often different for sending
and host countries. For example, sending countries are often interested in
generating revenue or developing international research linkages, while host
countries are often interested in expanding domestic capacity or developing
new academic programmes and administrative process.

TNE-politics nexus
Setting the Malaysian context of TNE development within the non-linear model
discussed earlier, it is generally acknowledged that having a close historical link
with English-speaking countries (the UK, Australia, the United States) and
with substantial unmet higher education demand, a country such as Malaysia is
more likely to adopt TNE from the English-speaking countries (see Ziguras &
McBurnie, 2015). It is for the same reason that TNE providers decided to offer
courses in Malaysia. In the years immediately after independence, the relation-
ship between TNE providers and their partners in Malaysia in effect reproduced
‘colonial power hierarchies’, and reinforced hegemonic discourses of Western
‘best practice’ (Zailan, 2007; Sidhu & Christie, 2015) that were perceived to
be transferable and which should be transplanted in newly emerging nations.
Furthermore, as Altbach (1998) argues, Western universities and the use of the
English language are very pervasive. Western universities were at the centre of
a knowledge network that included research institutions, means of knowledge
dissemination and research communication in the English language (Altbach,
1998). Arguably, this was a fact during pre-independence Malaya and a logi-
cal basis for the argument in favour of the recolonization of the post-colonial
Malaysian higher education institutions and system, starting with the prestigious
Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. The first autonomous campus of the Univer-
siti Malaya was established in Kuala Lumpur in 1959 and became a full-fledged
university in 1962. Universiti Malaya was based on the elitist British university
tradition, as its main role was to supply a newly independent Malaya with profes-
sionals and bureaucrats. However, the role of public universities changed fol-
lowing the introduction of the New Economic Policy to eradicate poverty and
restructure society by redressing the economic imbalances among ethnic groups.
Public universities in Malaysia, from that point onwards, have been seen as a
crucial means to redress the divisive ethnic disparities through capacity building
and social mobility. Thus, as public universities have a political agenda at the core
of their establishment, TNE was confined to partnerships with private higher
education institutions.
It follows that, as we move into the twenty-first century, we could argue that
recolonization in the Malaysian higher education landscape is widespread, and
the main agent of this phenomenon is TNE from English-speaking countries.
This idea of recolonization emerges when transnational institutions express how
12 Morshidi Sirat and Robin Middlehurst
they will play a part in the higher education system of a developing country in
rather distinctive ways. For instance, according to the British Council, TNE will
remain a critical part of the international education agenda for many years to
come, and it is committed to supporting UK institutions and their present and
potential partners in the development and delivery of quality transnational educa-
tion (British Council, 2013). However, we also argue that the Malaysian politi-
cal masters and policymakers are responsible for allowing such recolonization to
happen, since the system was weak between 1970 and 1990. How this recoloni-
zation process proceeds requires further probing. As a starting point, Malaysia’s
substantial unmet demand for tertiary education places from independence to the
early 1990s, and then the aspiration to be a regional hub for education has laid
the groundwork for rules and regulations which have facilitated TNE to play an
influential role in the higher education landscape. Interestingly, however, and this
has to be acknowledged at the outset, what Malaysia is and has been implement-
ing in terms of attracting TNE into the country is not unique to Malaysia. What
is unique, though, is the scale and diversity of TNE activities in Malaysia and their
impact on the Malaysian higher education system. The decision to integrate TNE
into the local higher education system was based on the need to control and man-
age TNE in the context of local aspirations. Arguably, there is a widespread global
higher education policy convergence in developing higher education systems as
far as the role of TNE is concerned (see, for example, Li-chuan Chiang, 2012).
The uniqueness for each country lies in the outcome of such policy convergence.
Regarding the assessment of the impact of TNE on local politics and vice versa,
there are several analytical frameworks that take into account the effects of inter-
nal and external factors on national contexts of policy-making and implementa-
tion (Deem, 2001; Marginson and Mollis, 2001; Robertson and Dale, 2008,
cited in Sidhu & Christie, 2015: 301). For our purpose, it is useful to examine
policy reform initiatives to capture the dynamic interplay of TNE and local forces
in shaping educational phenomena and outcomes. Prior to 1996, Malaysia was
very open to foreign programmes in partnership with local institutions. These
programmes catered for Malaysians who could not gain entry into local pub-
lic universities. The curriculums offered in public and private institutions were
different, particularly in relation to the requirement to instil a spirit of nation
building and the development of a national identity. In the case of Malaysia, it is
important to situate a shift in the treatment of TNE in terms of Malaysia’s politi-
cal sensitivities concerning language, ethnicity, religion, urban-rural divide and
educational opportunity. This political context was gradually imposed on TNE,
and it is important to understand the reasons for government regulatory machin-
ery reaction to TNE requirements.
A specific case in point is the treatment of branch campuses. Sidhu and Christie
(2015) argue that branch campuses are complex to establish and sustain. Malaysia
is very open to TNE and has been actively recruiting branch campuses since the
early nineties, with Monash Malaysia as a pioneering effort. However, the reform
initiatives in the latter half of the 1990s underscored the government’s effort
to assert control over the governance of public universities and the provision of
 Malaysia, TNE and politics 13
private higher education. Two reform initiatives, the Private Higher Education
Act 1996 (Act 555) and the Student Loan Fund, have facilitated liberalisation
in higher education in terms of access, but they have also limited opportunities
for political liberalisation by bringing the private higher education sector under
greater government control than in the past (Sidhu & Christie, 2015). Notably,
TNE in Malaysia needs to satisfy local registration requirements as set out by the
Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education. In addition, TNE
providers, together with their partners, have to comply with the accreditation
and quality assurance protocols of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA).
Malaysian students pursuing TNE programmes are eligible for government stu-
dent loan schemes if the programmes comply with MQA requirements and are
registered with the Department of Higher Education. There is no negotiation
involved between TNE and regulating agency with regards to all these require-
ments. However, there are facilitation sessions between regulating agencies and
TNE and their partners. Thus, joint ventures and other forms of TNE partnership
in the Malaysian higher education system were made possible by the Malaysian
state’s emergent interests in giving private institutions – domestic and foreign – a
role to play in realizing its Vision 2020 aspirations to become a regional educa-
tion hub (Sidhu & Christie, 2015).
While there is a political basis for control noted earlier, especially in the case of
the requirement to conduct core courses in civilization and the Malay language,
other requirements are also in place to guarantee quality assurance programmes
and to safeguard students’ welfare and interests. There are no complex negotia-
tions between TNE providers and regulating agencies as a rule, and procedures
are already in place. Arguably, the government regularly uses quality assurance
and accreditation regimes to manage market access by foreign education provid-
ers (Sidhu & Christie, 2015). In the past the Malaysian government has invited
selected universities to contribute to its economic and developmental goals,
rather than extending open-ended market access (see Miller-Idriss and Hanauer,
2011). However, since 2014, and in line with WTO requirements, the Private
Higher Education Act 1996 has been amended to allow for open-ended market
access. With this open market access, local institutions, branch campuses and
other TNE provision in Malaysia are now subject to scrutiny by the MQA.

Transnational provision of education in Malaysia:

Looking back, looking forward
In the years immediately after independence, the government seemed to be con-
tent with the use of TNE as a ‘demand management tactic’ (Mok, 2010) to nar-
row the gap between demand for and supply of tertiary education places. Recently
the government has played a greater role as a ‘market-generator’ in setting out
strategic directions and proactively orchestrating developments in transnational
higher education to meet the national agenda (Mok, 2010). In the context of
the ever-increasing demand for higher education since independence, the limi-
tations in domestic capacity and the financial constraints on overseas study, the
14 Morshidi Sirat and Robin Middlehurst
government has introduced Act 555 to facilitate private higher education provid-
ers and provide for the establishment and upgrading of private universities and
branch campuses of foreign universities in Malaysia. Act 555 has been amended
twice, most recently in 2014, to take into account global and local changes. Argu-
ably, while local political circumstances were very much the basis for the estab-
lishment of public universities since independence in 1957, and particularly since
1970, during the same period TNE providers were free to insert and assert them-
selves in the local higher education landscape, primarily through partnership with
local private education institutions.
At that time, seemingly there were two systems of higher education, one public
and the other private. The public higher education system was closely supervised.
With the introduction of Act 555 the two systems were brought together, with
quality assurance mechanisms put in place for both sectors and the establishment
of a Higher Education Council to provide the necessary policy framework for
the development of higher education in Malaysia. In the process, since 2007, the
idea of a regional hub for education excellence was mooted and TNE provid-
ers in various forms were encouraged to initiate operation in Malaysia. Strategic
initiatives such as the development of Educity in Iskandar, Malaysia indicate the
seriousness with which Malaysia is making efforts towards establishing itself as
an education hub through the development of ‘branch campus clusters’ of TNE.
With this regional education hub aspiration, the need for national identity and
quality of higher education provision were the priorities while regulating agen-
cies, in addition to the economic benefits of education hubs and the internation-
alization of higher education. At present, the government is opting to orchestrate
the vibrant but regulated TNE sector to achieve higher-quality education pro-
vision in Malaysia, as there are value advantages to this approach. At the same
time, however, local political contexts need to be taken into consideration so that
indigenous higher education institutions can develop and national interests be
given priority.

Commentary from a sending country perspective

This commentary focuses on three issues highlighted in the chapter:

• The analytical framework and its explanatory value with regard to the
development of TNE from the perspective of a sending country (the UK)
• The impact of TNE on a developing country, including potential for
‘neo-colonial’ tendencies
• TNE as trade in higher education services

The framing of this chapter around the nexus between policy and politics and
their influence and impact on TNE (and vice versa, TNE’s influence on policy
and politics in Malaysia) offers an interesting perspective from a host country. It is
worth asking whether this nexus also has explanatory value in relation to the UK,
a sending country for TNE in Malaysia, but also a host country for a range of
 Malaysia, TNE and politics 15
overseas higher education providers, including one Malaysian private higher edu-
cation institution (HEI). Equally, do the models of TNE development proposed
by Li-chuan Chiang (2012) or McBurnie and Ziguras (2009) have resonance in
relation to the story of TNE from a UK perspective?
The forms of TNE that the UK has operated in Malaysia and that are most
visible today include validation and franchising partnerships, twinning partner-
ships and business-university partnerships for establishing overseas university
campuses in Malaysia (more detailed examples are given in Middlehurst & Wood-
field (2004)). From a UK perspective, these have developed partly in response to
experience gained in other countries (as described below), but also in line with
the regulations established by host countries and the codified expectations of the
national quality assurance agency (the QAA in the UK). However, with regard to
the policy-politics nexus, perhaps the most significant point is that the UK’s TNE
developments in Malaysia have been driven by publicly funded UK institutions
acting according to their own strategies rather than as part of an overarching
national higher education policy or a specific national policy of internationaliza-
tion (such a policy was only introduced in 2013 in the UK). Much more signifi-
cant to a range of internationalization initiatives in the UK have been successive
changes in the public funding of universities from the 1980s onwards, and more
recently, immigration policies that have set quotas for visas issued for study and
work in the UK. In the last five years, this policy has damaged perceptions of the
UK as a study destination for international students and has further fuelled UK
institutions’ TNE aspirations.
The first movers in relation to modern forms of TNE from the UK were the
former polytechnics in the mid-late 1980s. Several institutions responded to
overtures from German and Dutch fachhochschule to validate master’s degrees, as
these institutions were not permitted to offer this level of degree under their own
national regulations. The UK polytechnics that engaged in these international
validation arrangements gained experience in this form of TNE. The mid-1990s
saw a major expansion of overseas franchising and validation arrangements by
many (though by no means all) of these UK HEIs. They had gained university
status through a new Further and Higher Education Act passed in 1992 and had
new freedoms. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, a strong and growing economy in the
decade from 1985–1995 fuelled demand for skilled workers and for increased
access to higher education. Public universities were asked to increase their intake,
and private higher education institutions were encouraged both to offer their
own certificates and diplomas as well as degrees through twinning with foreign
HEIs.
While the newly granted autonomy of the ex-polytechnics in the UK facilitated
their developing TNE arrangements, a major accelerator for the development
of validation, franchising and twinning partnerships by these new UK univer-
sities in Malaysia (as well as in other parts of South East Asia) was the Asian
regional economic crisis of 1997. At this time, the external value of Malaysia’s
currency, the ringgit, shrank by nearly 50 per cent, while the stock market con-
tracted even more by about 60 per cent. The Malaysian economy experienced
16 Morshidi Sirat and Robin Middlehurst
a recession in 1998 after periods of steady growth from the mid-1980s (Arif &
Abubakar, 1999). One consequence of this economic downturn was a reduction
in the numbers of Malaysian students coming to the UK to study, and these new
universities either experienced or feared a loss of income from the recruitment
of international students to the UK. Malaysian families sought cheaper higher
education alternatives at home, and the government also sought to reduce pub-
lic expenditure in the recession and save on foreign exchange by reducing the
number of students going overseas. In 1997, around 51,000 Malaysian students
were enrolled overseas, around 30 per cent of who were government-sponsored.
The World Bank estimated that educating these students overseas resulted in a
net currency outflow of around RM2m (Rahimah et al, 1999, quoted in Middle-
hurst & Woodfield, 2004). It was in this period that the Malaysian government
passed the Private Higher Education Institutions Act in 1996, which enabled the
establishment of degree-granting private universities and overseas branch cam-
puses in Malaysia.
In the UK, the development of overseas campuses has, in the main, been a
form of TNE only developed by the established (pre-1992 Act) universities rather
than the UK’s new universities. The first overseas campus of any UK university
was established by the University of Nottingham in Malaysia in 2000 as part of
that university’s broad international strategy. The choice of Malaysia was linked
to strong alumni connections as well as to strategic foresight of the university’s
leadership that was already noting (and responding to) the shifting global eco-
nomic balance from west to east. The favourable political, policy and regulatory
environment for TNE in Malaysia was also an attractive and enabling factor from
a sending country perspective. Interestingly, the University was rewarded for this
international development by earning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2001
(and the Queen’s Award for Industry in 2006). The relationship between higher
education and national economic and geo-political interests may be illustrated in
this example.
Examining patterns of international higher education relationships, particu-
larly as internationalization has expanded and developed over time, it is clear
from a sending country perspective that former colonial ties, also manifested in
shared languages and common structures of higher education systems, have facil-
itated developments in TNE as well as historical patterns of international student
mobility and exchange. But local social and ethnic histories and policies are also
relevant. Well-qualified and talented Malaysian students have enrolled in UK uni-
versities, both by travelling overseas and by enrolling in UK TNE opportunities
in Malaysia because, as the author indicates, these students could not gain entry
into local public universities because of a quota system that has tended to persist,
although formally abandoned in 2003 (Welch, 2010). It is also an interesting
question as to why it is typically Malaysian private colleges that have engaged in
TNE partnerships with UK (and Australian) ‘public’ universities (albeit the UK
universities’ TNE operations are categorized as ‘private’ by Malaysian regula-
tions) – if capacity building of the national system as a whole was part of the
policy objective of encouraging overseas providers into Malaysia? Overseas TNE
 Malaysia, TNE and politics 17
providers also have some difficulties in tailoring their provision to in-country
needs given that, for franchised courses, for example, Malaysian regulations
require that TNE curricula must be exactly the same as domestic curricula (this is
also an issue with the design of TNE curricula beyond Malaysia) (Middlehurst &
Woodfield, 2004). The rationale is clearly to uphold quality and standards, but
this stricture can prevent tailoring of curricula to the needs of students and their
non-UK employment contexts – and could potentially also lead to accusations of
‘neo-colonialism’ too.
International agencies as well as higher education practitioners and researchers
have become increasingly concerned about and sensitive to accusations of neo-
colonialism, brain-drain and economic gain targeted at providers of TNE and
sending country HE systems. The International Association of Universities has led
the way in promoting a rethinking of the internationalization of higher education
(Egron-Polak, 2013) and more recently advocating ‘inclusive internationalisa-
tion’ that leads to lasting and equitable academic benefits (Egron-Polak & Green,
2015). Much earlier, UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning funded a
study that sought to address the role and impact of TNE in a sample of countries,
including Malaysia (Middlehurst & Woodfield, 2004). Other researchers have
looked in depth at particular forms of TNE – in this case, Malaysia’s Twinning
Programmes – to assess tensions between asymmetrical and reciprocal partner-
ships. It is necessary to continue to undertake such research and to examine TNE
from host and sending country perspectives, despite the complexities of research
design and the difficulties of untangling the dynamics and i­nter-relationships of
the policy-politics nexus across sending and host nations.
Knight (2010) called the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) a
‘wake-up call for higher education around the world’, as this new international
trade agreement defined higher education as an internationally tradable service,
not in terms of higher education’s traditional value as a public good or social
responsibility. In Europe, GATS negotiations are undertaken at a regional level
and the UK is part of this; Europe has to date chosen to exclude higher education
from these negotiations. Across European countries there is continuing debate
about approaches to internationalization that seek to commodify and commer-
cialize higher education; this debate ranges from charging international students
differential fees to engaging in forms of TNE that are designed to be profitable.
The debate is complicated by the involvement in TNE of both non-profit higher
education providers (including UK universities) and private for-profit higher edu-
cation businesses, some of which are of good quality, some of which are not. The
‘traditional’ UK universities (that engage in TNE in Malaysia) are closely regulated
in relation to quality and governance both at home and overseas; this is also true of
private providers in England that have gained degree-awarding powers and official
course designation. On the other hand, other private providers can remain outside
host country regulations and unscrupulous providers can exploit the opportunities
opened up by signatories to GATS in poorer countries that have not yet devel-
oped a robust regulatory framework. A recent case study of Bangladesh compares
Malaysia as a potentially positive model in this regard, since Malaysia welcomed
18 Morshidi Sirat and Robin Middlehurst
TNE providers while at the same time developing a regulatory framework cover-
ing public and private sectors as well as foreign providers (Alam & Mishra, 2015).
Malaysia’s quality assurance agency has also developed close working relationships
with the UK’s agency, and there is exchange of information with regard to quality
concerns and any potentially rogue providers or diploma mills.
In contrast to the political situation in Malaysia (where one political party has
dominated politics for more than half a century), the UK has had a more varied
political history over a similar period, leading to swings of policy in relation to
education and related areas such as employment and immigration. This has been
sharpened by increased devolution to the four countries of the UK since the late
1990s. In the last 15 years, there has been an increasingly divergent set of policies
in relation to higher education with widely different political views, policies and
legislation now existing between Scotland and Wales on the one hand and Eng-
land on the other (with Northern Ireland tending to follow England, but less stri-
dently). Two examples are relevant for our discussion. In 2004 England passed a
Higher Education Act that further liberalized its higher education system, open-
ing the way to further new universities and welcoming ‘alternative providers’.
There may be some parallels with Malaysian policies here in that the Government
wanted to challenge the traditional universities by increasing competition in the
domestic market and extending choice for students. Conditions in domestic mar-
kets have long-influenced universities’ international operations – and conditions
in international markets also influence policies at home – as can be seen in the
second example. This involved the publication, in 2013, of a new ‘Industrial
Strategy’ for International Education, including higher education, which sup-
ported further expansion of TNE; it also argued for stronger quality assurance
of TNE. This policy was a clear signal that the Government in England valued
higher education in GATS terms as an internationally tradable service that was
economically good not only for the institutions themselves, but also for the wider
economy. However, not all parts of the UK, nor all HEIs, share these neo-liberal
political philosophies or goals. For example, Scotland’s international strategy is
entitled ‘Connected Scotland’ and identifies Scottish HEIs as international and
collaborative. Furthermore, the British Council is increasingly emphasizing issues
of access, equity and impact in relation to international education (Stiasny &
Gore, 2015), and many UK universities are reviewing their international partner-
ships to ensure that they are beneficial both in terms of quality and in develop-
ing a wider range of collaborations with partners across research, teaching and
business-community engagement. It is to be hoped that the perspective of TNE
as a tradable export loses political support and develops towards a productive and
reciprocal form of academic enterprise and exchange.

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2 Higher education,
transnational education
and the evolution of the
Cambodian education system1
Kee-Cheok Cheong and Sam Ghanty

Introduction
Perhaps more than most other countries, Cambodia’s education system is a prod-
uct of its turbulent past. Cycles of rise, prosperity, decline and/or destruction
have left a country with a millennium-old civilization inheriting an educational
infrastructure that is just three decades old. As with the economy itself, impressive
revival of the education system has occurred, but the legacy of history has been
expressed through quality deficiencies, especially in tertiary education. These
deficiencies include inadequate funding, which, combined with poor regulatory
oversight, has led to corruption and widespread cheating as well as disregard for
ethics and contracts. This environment has made it hard for transnational educa-
tion to take root, and indeed, attempts as documented by one case study have
met with little success. Yet, as shown by the second case study, success is possible
with a model in which the foreign party exerts the dominant influence.
Broadly defined, the role of education is to enable society to live a rewarding
life. However, the primacy given to economic development in many societies
has brought economics to the fore, with education a central part of this calcu-
lus. The role of education is captured through the concept of human capital
(Schultz, 1961; Becker, 1964).2 As countries advance economically, economists
recognize that physical capital alone is insufficient for sustained growth; human
capital holds the key to higher income, enabling the adoption of technology and
the strengthening of institutions (see, for instance, Ranis and Stewart, 2000).
This important link has been postulated by both neo-classical (Barro & Sala-i-
Martin, 1995) and evolutionary economists (Aghion and Howitt, 2002). At the
same time, as development progresses, education needs and the nature of educa-
tion itself have to change apace (see, for example, Pargaru, Gherghina and Duca,
2009). More recently, and especially for Asia, the rapid advance of globalization
has brought to the fore the notion of national competitiveness. A nation’s human
resource pool is also at the core of this competitiveness.
The role of human capital in economic growth has been the subject of exten-
sive empirical research, across countries and within countries, as well as over
time. Especially for specific countries, context matters. Total enrolments as well
as the quality of education depend on such diverse factors as government policies
22 Kee-Cheok Cheong and Sam Ghanty
towards education, the particular education system adopted, as well as attitudes
towards education. Institutional capability, itself determined by a host of factors,
matters too, as does openness to international education.
Context is particularly important for Cambodia, a country with a long but
turbulent history that saw regime changes in which in each regime, its educa-
tion system developed, fell into disrepair or was destroyed, reconfigured only
for the cycle to repeat itself (Shannon, 2013). These regimes refer to the Ang-
kor Empire, dating from the 12th century and lasting until the 15th century,
a ‘dark ages’ period that saw repeated invasions by the Thai and Vietnamese
kingdoms, the French colonial regime 1863–1953, the reign of Prince Sihan-
ouk 1953–1970, a brief but unsettled regime headed by Lon Nol 1970–75, the
Khmer Rouge regime 1975–1979, Vietnamese occupation 1979–1991, the UN
Transitional Authority 1991–1993 and the current regime from 1993. In terms
of the country’s modern history, the Khmer Rouge regime is especially destruc-
tive, its philosophy of continuous revolution not only destroying pre-existing
institutions but also decimating the population. This chapter takes as its starting
point the period of this regime and the reconstruction of institutions as well as
the revitalization of the economy post-Khmer Rouge.3
The chapter provides first the Cambodian context, which is vital to an under-
standing of the education system the country has in place today. It then reviews
the education system, highlighting its special characteristics, challenges and
strengths, as well as the factors that account for these attributes. In doing so, it
pays particular attention to higher education, recognizing also that the state of
the school system determines the number and quality of the students enrolled at
this level. The chapter finally deals with transnational education (TNE), for good
reason still in its infancy in Cambodia. In highlighting two cases of TNE, one
successful and one the opposite, the narrative here seeks to show the arguably
unique nature of TNE in this country.
This chapter is structured as follows. In the next section, the country situ-
ation is laid out in historical context to provide the setting for a narrative on
the development of the education system. This narrative is accompanied by an
accounting of the factors helpful or harmful to Cambodia’s education system and
its development. Some of these factors are the legacy of the country’s turbulent
past; others are the outcome of resource constraints, institutional weaknesses and
policy deficiencies.

The Cambodian context

Cambodia’s long history can be characterized as one of episodic rise and decline.
Its rise in the 12th century and early greatness, defined by an empire centred
in Angkor over the next century, was eventually eclipsed in the 15th century,
with invasions by Thai and Vietnamese armies and annexation of parts of the
kingdom bringing about several centuries that came to be known as “the dark
ages”. French colonialization that began when Cambodia became a French pro-
tectorate in 1863 brought in the next period of stability, lasting until 1953, when
 Higher education 23
Cambodia was granted independence by the French who were also ejected from
Vietnam that year (see, for instance, Tully, 2002). For the next seventeen years,
monarch Prince Sihanouk sought to bring progress to the new nation. But that
short period was undone by a coup that placed the Western-backed Lon Nol in
control. This control was short-lived.
The rise of the Khmer Rouge brought on civil strife that ousted Lon Nol and
installed the notorious Pol Pot, who, during his regime, unleashed a reign of
terror on the population he ruled that the world had rarely seen. Pol Pot’s target-
ing of Vietnamese nationals living in the border areas of Cambodia and Vietnam
eventually brought about his ouster by the Vietnamese army, allowing the Viet-
namese government to install the pro-Vietnam Hun Sen, a former member of the
Khmer Rouge, as leader of Cambodia. Remarkably, the West, led by the United
States, still smarting from its departure from Vietnam, and China, which under-
took a brief but unsuccessful military campaign to “punish” Vietnam for ousting
its ally Pol Pot, continued to support the rebel Khmer Rouge, whose leadership
held the Cambodian UN seat until 1993.4 Clearly, human rights abuses played
second fiddle to political alignments for these countries at the time.
The Paris Peace Accord signed in October 1991 finally brought an end to
hostilities between the Hun Sen government and the Khmer Rouge rebels,
and the UN Security Council set up the United Nations Transitional Authority
of Cambodia (UNTAC) to administer the country and to oversee the transi-
tion to free elections. These were indeed held in 1993, the result being power-­
sharing between Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh, Sihanouk’s second son. Contest
between them eventually brought Hun Sen victory, and he assumed the Prime
Minister’s post in 1998. Through several elections, he has remained Prime Min-
ister to this day.
Cambodia’s institutions could not have been immune from these episodic
upheavals. Indeed, entire institutional structures were destroyed more often
than not. This is the case specifically with education, the focus of this chapter.
The beginning of formal education was attributed to the Angkor Empire, with
instruction delivered through temples (Rany, Zain & Jamil, 2012). But this sys-
tem collapsed when the Empire declined and Cambodia entered “the dark ages”.
Still, some instruction was provided through “wats” (Buddhist temples).
Revival of education came only with French colonization. When the French
proceeded to install a system based on theirs, with French as the medium of
instruction, formal education was minimally accessible – to families of aristo-
crats and government officials. Even when the system was fully established,
accessibility was still limited to urban areas – rural residents were largely uncov-
ered. With practically no tertiary education institutions, students who com-
pleted their secondary education had to further their education in Vietnam or
France.
The accession of Prince Norodom Sihanouk with the departure of the French
was a boon to Cambodian education – Sihanouk saw to the rapid expansion of
education with the twin objectives of promoting modernization and inculcating
loyalty to the monarchy. Building a national identity was the focus. Sihanouk also
24 Kee-Cheok Cheong and Sam Ghanty
oversaw the rapid expansion of tertiary education, with the establishment of new
universities, about which more will be said in a later section.
Not for the first time, this institutional infrastructure became undone with the
ascendancy of the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot. Through genocide, per-
secution and escape from the regime, Cambodia was estimated to have lost 75%
of its tertiary education faculty and nearly all (96%) of its students (Rany, Zain &
Jamil, 2012). The destruction of the then existing system, did not mean that the
Khmer Rouge regime was anti-literacy. They were against literacy built upon the
existing literature, instead replacing it with their propaganda (Ayres, 2000; Chi-
gas & Mosyakov, 2010).5
The end of the Khmer Rouge left Hun Sen with huge challenges that went
beyond education. He faced a population suspicious of the Vietnamese, his back-
ers. He faced political hostility from his rival for power Prince Ranariddh. And he
had to rebuild education infrastructure almost from scratch, with few resources
at his disposal. And genocide as well as refugee flight had left him little human
capital (Ayres, 2000). This disastrous legacy still haunts Cambodia’s education
system today, explaining its many shortcomings and challenges. It is a tragic irony
of history that cycles of birth, growth and destruction has left a millennium-old
civilization with an educational infrastructure that is just three decades old.

Cambodia’s education system and performance issues

The education system

The current school system of Cambodia consists of 6 years of primary educa-
tion, 6 years of secondary education (3 years lower secondary and 3 years upper
secondary) (Table 2.1). Beyond secondary education, it takes another 2 years to
obtain an associate degree, while a full undergraduate degree takes 4 to 7 years,
depending on the discipline pursued. Post-graduate education consists of a

Table 2.1 The Structure of the Cambodian Education System

Age Group Grade Education Level/Type

Academic Technical & Professional

Vocational

6–11 1–6 Primary

12–14 7–9 Lower secondary
15–17 10–12 Upper secondary
18–24 Associate degree (2 years) TVE programmes ACCA, etc.
Undergraduate degree
(4–7 years)
25 and Master’s degree (2 years)
above Doctoral degree (4+ years)
Source: Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) http://www.seameo.org/
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&Itemid=525 and authors’ compilation.
 Higher education 25
master’s degree that takes 2 years to complete and a doctoral programme that
takes 4 years or more. Technical and vocational education (TVE) is an alterna-
tive pathway for students completing their lower or upper secondary education.
Those transferring upon completion of lower secondary education complete their
TVE programme in 5 years, while those who complete upper secondary school
need just 2–3 years of TVE. The opportunity of transferring from TVE to aca-
demic tertiary education is available to TVE students in their final year.
National examinations govern student progression through the education sys-
tem. These examinations are held at the end of 6 years of primary education, 3 years
of lower secondary education and 3 years of upper secondary education. TVE stu-
dents also need to pass examinations to enter tertiary academic education.
Both the state and private sectors are represented in the system at all levels and
for all types of education. Over 100 private universities enrol students alongside
state-owned universities. And as an example of professional education, a highly
successful professional accounting programme is operated by a private entity,
while a professional programme for land management and land administration
is cosponsored by the Ministry of Land Management and Ministry of Urban
Planning and Construction and delivered by the state-owned Royal University of
Agriculture in Phnom Penh (Sopha, Mund and Setha, 2008).

Performance issues
Given the country’s turbulent history, how well has Cambodia’s education in
its various forms performed since the end of the UNCTAC administration?
Table 2.2 shows a number of indicators for the period 2000 to 2012. These
indicators show that in quantitative terms, significant improvements in the system
have taken place. While the primary school enrolment rate has remained above
90% over the entire period, the primary completion rate has almost doubled – by
2012, almost all students who enrolled in primary school would complete their
primary education when half would have dropped out in 2001.The secondary
school enrolment rate has likewise more than doubled, albeit from a low base of
15% in 2000. Tertiary education enrolment, almost non-existent in 2000, had
reached 16% in 2011.
Even in quantitative terms, however, there are some glaring challenges. Public
expenditure on education, although, at 2.6% of GDP in 2010, was consistently
below 2% before that. And even at 2.6%, Cambodia compared unfavourably with
Indonesia with 3%, Malaysia with 5.1%, Thailand with 3.8% and Vietnam with
6.5% that same year. Cambodia’s spending is especially inadequate given the need
to recover from a heavily damaged sector. Another indicator that signals issues
with education quality is the high albeit improving pupil-teacher ratio in primary
education. This ratio had remained above 50 pupils to one teacher until about
2008. Another challenge is revealed by the gross intake ratio for the first year of
primary school. A ratio above 100 signals students repeating in that grade. The
repetition rate was an alarming 146 as recently as 2005, improving but remaining
at a still high 130 in 2012. Primary education being the foundation for all higher
26 Kee-Cheok Cheong and Sam Ghanty
Table 2.2 Cambodia – Selected Education Indicators 2000–2012

Public Spending Youth (15–24) Primary School Primary Pupil-Teacher

on Education Literacy Rate Enrolment Rate Completion Ratio – Primary
(% GDP) (%) (Net)1 (%) Rate (%) School (%)

2010 2.6 2009 87 2012 98 2012 98 2012 46

2007 1.6 2004 83 2008 98 2008 89 2008 49
2004 1.7 1998 76 2004 97 2004 77 2004 55
2000 1.7 2000 92 2001 51 2000 50
Female/ Gross Intake Secondary Tertiary
Male Ratio, Ratio to School Education
Primary + Primary 1, Enrolment Enrolment
Secondary Both Sexes Rate (Net)1 Rate (Gross)2
School (%) (%)
2009 92 2012 130 2012 — 2011 16
2004 88 2008 140 2008 38 2008 9
2000 82 2005 146 2004 27 2004 3
2000 15 2000 2
1 Primary/secondary net enrolment rate is the ratio of children of the official primary/second-
ary school age who are enrolled in primary/secondary school to the total population of the
official primary/secondary school age.
2 Tertiary gross enrolment ratio is the total enrolment in tertiary education (ISCED 5 and 6),
regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the total population of the 5-year age group
following on from secondary school leaving.
Source: World Bank database http://data.worldbank.org/indicator

levels of education, deficiencies at this level will compromise pupil quality at all
higher levels. Also comparing unfavourably with other countries in Southeast
Asia are the relatively low enrolment rates for secondary and especially tertiary
education. While understandable given the enormity of the catch-up needed, the
data still reveals how thin Cambodia’s human resource base is even today.
Another way to benchmark Cambodia’s education performance is to make
a comparison with its neighbours. Table 2.3 shows comparative indicators for
Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The figures show that both with respect to
youth literacy and primary school enrolment, Cambodia has made progress in
catching up with neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. One area where it con-
tinues to fall short is in retention rates at the primary level – only two-thirds of
primary school students complete their primary education compared to 100% for
both Thailand and Vietnam. Another is enrolment in secondary schools – fewer
than half of Cambodian youth of secondary school age are enrolled compared to
three-quarters in Thailand.
While showing progress, the above figures point to issues of quality. Indeed,
Ayres (2000) went so far as to proclaim an education crisis that emerged from
frequent shifts in statehood ideologies that left education, rooted in tradition,
being unable to cope with modernity. He noted (2000: 462–462)

The ad hoc quality introduced to the educational policy formulation and

implementation processes by the negotiation and articulation between the
 Higher education 27
Comparative Education Indicators, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam,
Table 2.3 
2009–2013

Indicator Cambodia Thailand Vietnam

Male Female Male Female Male Female

Youth (15–24) literacy ratio (%) 88 86 97 97 97 97

2009–2013
Primary school net enrolment ratio1 100 97 96 95 — —
(%) 2009–2013
Out of school children of primary 2 4 2
school-going age (%) 2009–2013
Survival rate to last primary grade (%) – 66 100 97
admin. data 2009–2012
Secondary school net enrolment ratio 40 36 77 82 — —
(%) 2009–2013
Secondary school net attendance ratio2 46 45 75 83 78 84
(%) 2008–2013
1 Primary school net enrolment ratio is the number of children enrolled in primary or second-
ary school who are of official primary school age, expressed as a percentage of the total num-
ber of children of official primary school age.
2 Secondary school net attendance ratio is the number of children attending secondary or ter-
tiary school who are of official secondary school age, expressed as a percentage of the total
number of children of official secondary school age.
Source: UNICEF (2014). The State of the World’s Children 2015. Statistical Tables. New York.

weight of the past and the imperatives of modernity has clearly under-
mined the ‘logical rational planning process’ stemming from developmen-
talism and associated with the development ideology embraced by the
government.

This is an extreme view, rooted in the assumption that education must be rooted
in developmentalism, and that it has no value if focused on traditionalism.6
This viewpoint aside, more concrete issues have been raised. One relates to
inadequate resources allocated to education. Whether one believes in Ayres’s
(2000: 459) assertion that “Cambodia’s leaders have rarely concerned themselves
with questions of educational finance”, it is a fact that budget expenditure targets
are typically not reached.
Under spending for education is manifested in low remuneration for those in
public sector education. The poor salaries paid teachers have then forced many to
moonlight and to devise means to earn income at the expense of their job effec-
tiveness. Thus Wilson (2013) noted:

Many teachers and administrators seek other sources of income. Insufficient

compensation forces them into outside jobs, leading to teacher absenteeism,
generating income by charging students “fees” to enter class, selling exam
answers and degrees, and charging for outside classes covering materials that
should have been covered during regularly scheduled classes.
28 Kee-Cheok Cheong and Sam Ghanty
This state of affairs has led to extensive absenteeism and absence of discipline in
class, rendering the output of the education system of dubious quality.7 With the
loss of practically all-human capital under the Pol Pot regime, the consequences
of this quality deficit are direr than for other developing countries.
This quality deficit also speaks to institutional deficiencies not only in educa-
tion but also in the entire government machinery. For education, this is reflected
in a lack of quality oversight, especially accreditation of education institutions
and programmes. It is also reflected in the large number of government agencies
overseeing an even larger number of tertiary education institutions on a budget
much smaller than that of its neighbours. Sen and Ros (2013: 6) observed that
there were, as of 2013, 97 higher education institutions supervised by 14 gov-
ernment agencies, each with autonomous powers over their institutions with no
overarching coordinating agency. This lack of coordination has likely led to dupli-
cation of programmes and wasteful use of scarce resources.

Tertiary education in Cambodia’s education system

Unlike the rest of the education system, the history of higher education is of
much more recent extraction, having been launched under the regime of Prince
Sihanouk after independence. Under his leadership, 8 universities were founded
in the first decade of his rule.8 Like the rest of the education system, however, it
came to grief when the Khmer Rouge took over. Hun Sen, after removing the
Khmer Rouge, sought to rebuild higher education. But his efforts were ham-
pered by very scarce resources to undertake the gargantuan task of rebuilding an
entire education subsector. International agencies that were in a position to help
in a situation that cried for assistance did not until the 1990s, their hands tied by
their political masters who sought to isolate the Hun Sen regime and Vietnam.
Much of the assistance during the period came from the Soviet Union and Viet-
nam (Duggan, 1997: 4–5). But this also ended in the late 1980s.
Multilateral and bilateral involvement began only around 1990 with a number
of studies,9 but the landscape for international assistance shifted dramatically with
the arrival of UNTAC in November 1991. The Asian Development Bank’s entry
into Cambodia took the form of a sector review in 1994, but it was preceded by
the World Bank, which mounted missions in 1992 and again in 1994 (Duggan,
1997). Reports from these reviews and missions revealed little that was surpris-
ing in the numerous deficiencies in Cambodia’s tertiary education system that
needed substantial assistance.
This transformation from famine to feast in terms of donor assistance had its
downside. The World Bank itself noted, “Foreign assistance is presently piece-
meal and haphazard, and is largely determined by donors’ priorities” (Duggan,
1997: 13). It is of more than passing interest that in the early 1990s, the absence
of a language policy (English vs. French) allowed vested interests among inter-
national donors to prioritize positioning their preferred language over assisting
Cambodia to meet education challenges.10
The period after the general elections of 1993 brought relative political sta-
bility with the formation of a coalition government made up of the factions of
 Higher education 29
Ranariddh and Hun Sen. It also saw a growing cohort of graduating second-
ary school students. With advice from multilateral agencies, including the ADB,
UNDP and the World Bank, the government set about to expand higher educa-
tion (Rany et al., 2012: 233).11 Two major initiatives to overcome the problem of
scarce public resources were taken. The first was to permit, in 1997, public higher
education institutions (HEIs) to charge private tuition fees to non-scholarship
students. The second was to open up tertiary education to the private sector in
what was referred to as “public-private partnership”.
Charging of fees for public HEIs had the effect of increasing enrolment in
these institutions, particularly among fee-paying students, but by conferring
greater financial autonomy, also facilitated the enrolment of non-fee paying stu-
dents.12 The dark side of greater autonomy, however, was many public HEIs
driving enrolment and teaching staff maximizing teaching load at the expense
of education quality. The opening up to private participation with inadequate
institutional capacity for regulation was to lead to the inevitable prioritization
of profit over standards (see later), and of numbers over quality. Whatever their
impact, together, these measures spelled the beginning of massification of higher
education in Cambodia.
The rapid growth of HEI enrolment is clear from Table 2.4, although again,
women are, like in primary and secondary education, disadvantaged. Between
2000 and 2011, the number of HEI students enrolled grew from just 25,000 to
223,000, an annual increase of 22%. Of these 223,000 students enrolled, 84,700
or 38% are women. The number of HEIs also exploded – from just 13 in 2000,
to 105 in 2014,13 of which 66, or 63% are private.
Like the rest of the education system, these impressive numbers mask major
challenges. The first is the paucity of funding. UNESCO data from its Institute
for Statistics show government expenditure on tertiary education represents only

Table 2.4 Indicators of Cambodia’s Tertiary Education Subsector 2000–2011

Year No. of HEIs Enrolment Gross Enrolment

Ratio (%)

Total No. % Private ’000 % Increase % Females

2000 13 38 25 13.6 27 2
2001 15 33 32 28.1 29 2
2002 25 40 41 28.1 30 2
2003 38 60 45 9.8 31 3
2004 45 62 48 6.7 31 3
2005 53 62 57 18.8 31 3.3
2006 60 63 95 66.7 32 5.6
2007 66 61 117 23.2 33 7.2
2008 72 64 137 17.1 34 9.1
2009 168 22.6 36 11.7
2010 195 16.1 37 14.1
2011 223 14.4 38 15.8
Sources: Cambodia Department of Higher Education; UNESCO Institute for Statistics
30 Kee-Cheok Cheong and Sam Ghanty
0.4% of GDP compared to 0.5% for secondary education and 1.1% on primary
education in 2010, although since public HEIs are allowed to charge fees, the
actual expenditures should be higher. Still, much of this expenditure is earmarked
for salaries and other recurrent expenditure. Those multilateral organizations are
stepping up to the plate to cover the costs of education software and hardware
has also helped. However, the Cambodian government still has to find ways to
bear the cost and ensure the sustainability of programmes donors established
after donor projects end.14
Second, despite the explosive growth, impressive because Cambodia was
rebuilding from scratch, access to higher education remains quite low. Even in
2003, tertiary education enrolment was nominal (3%), while as recently as 2011,
the gross enrolment ratio for tertiary education was just 15% (Table 2.4). This
compares with 53% in Thailand in the same year, and 24% in Vietnam.
This already low access is also unequally distributed. Female students account
for fewer than 40% of the total enrolment. This is consistent with the gender
bias at lower levels of education but stands again in contrast with her neigh-
bours, where females typically outnumber males. In Thailand, the female to male
enrolment ratio was 131% in 2012, while in Vietnam it was 102% in 2011. The
privatization of Cambodian higher education has also resulted in the location of
HEIs showing a strong urban bias. HRINC (2010: 6) estimated that in 2009,
75% of total tertiary education enrolment was in the capital city Phnom Penh.
Clearly, private HEIs would only locate in areas where population concentration
and income are high enough to support a market for higher education.15 This
has left many poor rural areas uncovered. A second consequence of privatiza-
tion is the offering of only courses that are popular, leaving less popular courses
unavailable. Chet (2009: 158) noted that the bulk of programmes offered with
business-related. Rany et al (2012: 237) also estimated that in 2009, about 48%
of students graduated with a major in commerce.
Third, after the destruction of the Pol Pot years, Cambodia’s human resource
base is very thinly spread. Docquier and Rapoport (2009) revealed dramatic sta-
tistics for year 2003 that showed that of the 3,269 Cambodian science and tech-
nology researchers trained in the US, 3,030 chose to remain in the United States,
a brain-drain rate of nearly 93%. The few qualified who return to or remain in
Cambodia often teach in multiple institutions to boost their teaching load so as
to earn a decent living wage. As a result there is scant regard for teaching quality,
let alone research for intellectual upgrading or simply keeping up to date (Rany
et al., 2012: 236). This raises the issue of academic relevance – graduates from
HEIs are underqualified and ill prepared for the world of work. This is occurring
at a time when Cambodia needs human capital to move its economy from recov-
ery to sustained growth.
Fourth, given the freewheeling nature of HEI expansion, governance remains
a major challenge. This is partly the result of what Sen and Ros (2013: 10) terms
a “plurality of authorities”. They noted the HEIs and their regional branches
were supervised by 14 government ministries and agencies. Although the Min-
istry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and the Ministry of Labour and
Vocational training have the most HEIs under their wings, there is no single
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Title: Jogging round the world

Riders and drivers, with curious steeds or vehicles, in
strange lands and at home

Author: Edith Dunham

Release date: March 1, 2024 [eBook #73081]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Frederick A. Stokes Company,

1905

Credits: Fiona Holmes and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOGGING

ROUND THE WORLD ***
JOGGING ROUND THE WORLD
Play-fellows of the frozen Arctic. Eskimo Children
and their tame Bear
From Stereograph, Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New
York
 JOGGING ROUND THE WORLD
RIDERS AND DRIVERS, WITH CURIOUS STEEDS OR
VEHICLES, IN STRANGE LANDS AND AT HOME
WITH STORIES AND DESCRIPTIONS
By EDITH DUNHAM
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM COPYRIGHTED
STEREOGRAPHS BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, NEW
YORK, PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

NEW YORK - FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY -

PUBLISHERS
 Copyright, 1905, by
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
Published in October, 1905
 CONTENTS
PAGE
IN THE LAND OF THE ESKIMOS 9
IN THE OLD PARK AT NARA 10
A JAPANESE LADY IN A YAMA-KAGO 12
THE UNICYCLE OF KOREA 14
A KOREAN LADY IN HER PALANQUIN 16
A KOREAN GENERAL IN THE STREETS OF SEOUL 18
CEBU, IN THE PHILIPPINES 20
A CARABAO TANDEM IN LUZON 22
GOING INTO SHANGHAI 24
IN CANTON, CHINA 26
THE HANSOM CAB OF COLUMBO, CEYLON 28
RIDING IN A PALANQUIN IN CALCUTTA 30
A TWO-STORIED CAMEL WAGON AT AGRA 32
AN ELEPHANT FROM KHAIPUR 34
A BULLOCK CART IN AGRA 36
THE ROYAL CARRIAGE OF REWAH 38
ON THE ROAD TO JERICHO 40
THE TOMBS OF THE KHALIFS, EGYPT 42
THE PYRAMIDS AND THE SPHINX IN EGYPT 44
ON THE DESERT OF SAHARA 46
BEFORE THE PETROFSKI PALACE IN A TROIKA 48
NEAR VILLEFRANCHE 50
IN SEVILLE 52
RETURN FROM GRAPE-PICKING, MALAGA 54
DRIVING A DOG-TEAM IN HOLLAND 56
A CARRIAGE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, SWEDEN 58
TAKING A RIDE IN THURSO, SCOTLAND 60
OFF FOR A HOLIDAY IN A JAUNTING-CAR 62
IN PORTO RICO 64
IN CUBA 66
ORMOND BEACH, FLORIDA 68
THE OLD CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE 70
IN NORTH CAROLINA 72
AN OX-CART IN SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI 74
IN CENTRAL PARK 76
ON AN OSTRICH FARM 78
 IN THE LAND OF THE ESKIMOS
Isn’t this a strange playmate? Would you like to have a bear to play
with?
The little Eskimo children on the sledge are having a very happy
time. They are merry little children, always smiling and happy, even
in the long winter nights when the sun does not shine for months at a
time. Wouldn’t you think it queer to have such a long night as that?
When winter is coming their father builds a low, dome-shaped house
of ice and snow, with a funny little door, through which one goes into
a passageway, then into a big room where the whole family lives. A
lamp burns in there, filled with whale blubber or fat, and having a
wick of dried turf. This makes a smoky light, but it warms the house,
and the Eskimos think their winter home very comfortable.
In the long, cold season the father sometimes makes a sledge like
the one in the picture. It is made of pieces of wood, with runners of
ivory from the tusks of walrus, and sometimes with pieces of
reindeer horn. The whole is fastened together with straps made of
skin either from the reindeer or seal. It takes a long time to make a
sledge, for the Eskimos do not have very good tools to work with,
and have to work slowly. Usually the sledges are drawn by dogs. You
have seen pictures of them, haven’t you? As many as twelve often
draw a sledge, and they run very rapidly over the ice and snow, while
their master keeps them in order with his long-lashed whip.
 IN THE OLD PARK AT NARA
See these happy Japanese girls enjoying their ride through the park,
in ’rickshaws. They look very comfortable and cool in their kimonos,
don’t they?
The park they are riding in is at Nara and is such a beautiful place! It
is there that a very tame herd of sacred deer is kept. Nara is on the
island of Hondo, Japan, and is a very old city, famous for its
carvings, cutlery and toys. You would enjoy seeing the toys that are
made there, wouldn’t you?
India ink and fans come from there, too; perhaps your little fan, or
your sister’s, was made in Nara. Did you know that all the figures on
a Japanese fan mean something, and sometimes a whole story is
connected with them? The parasols, too, are interesting, and the
designs on them are not arranged simply to look pretty, but each has
its meaning to the Japanese people.
In Nara, as in most of the Japanese cities, there are some noted
temples, and the carving in a few of them is said to be the finest in
Japan. In one of the temples is a huge bell over thirteen feet high.
Would you like to hear it? In another is a statue of Buddha more than
ten times as tall as you are, the biggest one in Japan. In Nara, too,
are storehouses in which there are specimens of articles used in the
Imperial household hundreds of years before our grandfathers lived.
 A Ride in the old Park at Nara, Japan. Pretty
Japanese Maidens in ’Rickshaws
From Stereograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New
York
A JAPANESE LADY IN A YAMA-KAGO
This does not look like a very safe way of travelling, does it? The
bridge is so narrow and the water rushes by so rapidly that we
should not enjoy crossing in a yama-kago (mountain chair).
The Japanese people are used to going this way over mountain
roads and rough places, so they do not mind. This little bridge is
near Nikko (“Sunny Splendour”), a very beautiful city at the foot of a
great mountain range in Japan.
A long avenue lined with cryptomerias, a kind of cypress tree, leads
to the city, making a picture worth seeing, with the tall, pinkish trunks
and masses of green against the blue sky. Often one gets a glimpse
of some temple wonderfully carved and coloured, or a waterfall
rushing down.
The temples and waterfalls are famous, and also the mausoleum of
Iyeyasee, the most wonderful man in Japanese history. A long flight
of stone steps leads to a marvellously carved gate, inside of which is
a court with storehouses full of ancient treasures, and a stable with a
wonderful frieze of monkeys. In the stable is the sacred steed said to
bear away the spirit of Iyeyasee. Through a bronze gate, then
through another gate of white and gold, one passes through court
after court until the shrine is reached.
Another interesting thing in Nikko is the red lacquered bridge over
the river Daiya. Only the Emperor is allowed to cross this bridge.
Japanese Lady in a Yama-kago (Mountain Chair)
crossing the Daiya River near Nikko, Japan
From Stereograph, copyright 1904, by Underwood & Underwood,
New York
 THE UNICYCLE OF KOREA
We very often see bicycles and tricycles, but did you ever before see
a unicycle like this? The uncomfortable looking vehicle can only be
used by very high officials in Korea, and it is a mark of great
distinction to have four coolies instead of two. See the very elaborate
robes of the high general. I should think he would have to sit very still
on his high seat. A coolie marches ahead of him carrying his robe of
state when he goes to the royal palace.
Korea is a strange country; the people look like the Japanese; the
customs are somewhat like those of the Chinese; and yet the
Koreans are quite different from either. The country is hilly, and when
walking one no sooner gets to the bottom of one hill than he begins
to go up another. Korea is famous for its paper, which is very strong
and does not tear easily. The houses have partitions and windows of
oiled paper. Glass is quite uncommon.
Looking down into Seoul, the chief city, from the wall one is
reminded of a bed of mushrooms. The houses are one-storied, with
sloping roofs tiled or covered with turf, and very close together. The
wall has eight gates, each with a name, as, “Gate of Amiability,”
“Gate of Everlasting Ceremony.” The Northern Gate is up on a high
hill, from which at night signal lights shine out to let the people know
if all is well with Korea.
One of the most curious Vehicles of the World:
the Unicycle of Korea. Used for High Generals
From Stereograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New
York
A KOREAN LADY IN HER PALANQUIN
If we were in Seoul, we could not see this lady in the palanquin,
because the curtains would be closely shut.
The Korean ladies of the higher classes are seldom seen by anyone
outside of their households, and the middle-class women, if they
have to walk on the street, have a peculiar garment, with long, loose
sleeves, which they put over their heads. The sleeves hang down,
looking like a curious kind of ears, and the cloak is held closely
before the face so that it cannot be seen.
Would you like to take a walk through the streets of Seoul, and see
the crowds of strangely dressed people, the many one-storied
houses and the booths? Perhaps we should meet the water-coolie
who goes about all day carrying water to anyone who wants it. He
has a queer way of carrying it, too: a long pole is fastened cross-
wise on his shoulders by straps going under and around his arms.
From this pole hang two buckets or pails.
There are many beautiful palaces in Seoul, with pretty little lakes and
ponds in the gardens. Some of these lakes are covered with lotus
flowers, and there is usually a tiny island in the centre with a tree on
it, under which one can sit and enjoy the pretty garden. One of the
very interesting things to see in Seoul is an old, old marble pagoda
which has been built so long that the people cannot remember who
built it.
Korean Lady and Maid, in the Streets of Seoul,
Korea. (The Curtain is seldom raised.)
From Stereograph, copyright 1904, by Underwood & Underwood,
New York
 A KOREAN GENERAL IN THE
STREETS OF SEOUL
The Korean general in this palanquin must be a very important
person indeed. See the large number of attendants he has. An
ordinary palanquin is carried by two coolies. Only high officials,
foreign consuls, or legal advisers of the emperor are supposed to
have four, and in the pictures we see at least eight men taking this
general through the streets of Seoul. Only four seem to be really
carrying the chair, so the men at the side are probably not coolies.
See, their hats and clothing are different from those of the coolies.
The streets of Seoul are very wide, but look narrow because the
shopkeepers put up booths in front of their houses, and spread out
their wares before them, on mats or trays, so that there is not much
room left. One very wide street has two rows of houses or booths
down the middle; so it seems as though there were three narrow
streets instead of one wide one.
When the emperor passes through in procession all these booths
are taken down, and the street is swept and decorated in his honour.
The next day the booths are put up again and affairs go on in quite
the usual way.
There is an interesting old bronze bell in Seoul, which used to be
rung in the morning and at sunset. The gates of the city were closed
at dark, and all the men had to stay at home and could not be out on
the street, except at festival times.