Crouching tigers ready to pounce

THES has a short report on a speech given by the president of Yale about Asian countries' efforts to create 'world-class' universities. The focus is on China. This is because higher education in the US and UK have great hopes that they will be able to 'export' HE to China, with its huge population. The main obstacles will be, however, cultural and language barriers. Still, in the face of a bleak economic outlook in developed countries around the world, many people, including university presidents, is putting great hope on the current expansionary economic boom in China (i.e., bubble).

Read the entire THES article at the link, excerpt below. 

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=410266&c=1

Crouching tigers ready to pounce

4 February 2010

By Phil Baty

Yale boss welcomes 'audacious' ambitions of emerging Asian nations.

excerpt:

>>    [Richard C. Levin, president of Yale University] said that the economic development of Asia in the past 60 years had "altered the balance of power in the global economy", and that the rising nations of the East "all recognise the importance of an educated workforce as a means to economic growth and the impact of research in driving innovation and competitiveness".

The lecture focused on China, which has seen student enrolments more than quintuple from 1 million in 1997 to 5.5 million in 2007. It now has the largest higher education system in the world, but still has a gross enrolment rate of only 23 per cent, compared with 82 per cent in the US.   <<

Kyodo News reports an 'Erasmus' scheme for E. Asia in the works

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091017b2.html

Asia student exchange program eyed

SEOUL (Kyodo) South Korea, Japan and China are seeking to create a student exchange program modeled on Europe's Erasmus scheme that would allow their university students to study in each other's country without extra tuition fees, Yonhap news agency reported Friday, citing diplomatic sources.

Under the Campus Asia program, all credits earned by the participants in other countries would be recognized at their home institutions, the report said.