The role of higher education institutions gent issues and challenges to the develop- (HEIs) has historically been recognized as ment of HE engagement. Future possibilities IV.4 a public good, with unique social responsi- for HE engagement in the Asia-Pacific region KNOWLEDGE, bilities in producing knowledge for societal will be discussed at the end of the paper. ENGAGEMENT development and sustainability. In Asia, a AND HIGHER region with so much disparity between rich EDUCATION IN ASIA and poor, between rural and urban, and with INTRODUCTION such diversities in religion, language and AND THE PACIFIC culture, inequality, poverty, insecurity, social HEIs play a critical role in creating educated exclusion and impropriety, the re-emphasis and responsible citizens. With diverse http://www.guninetwork.org/. Carol Hok Ka Ma and of principles of community engagement and characteristics in the Asia-Pacific region, Rajesh Tandon participation should become the priority including inequality, poverty, insecurity and agenda for existing education. exclusion amidst abundance and prosperity, website However, the increased attention being more HEIs have been pressured to develop their paid to principles and strategies of community partnerships and co-create knowledge that on engagement and participation has occurred in serves humanity. Thus, education is merely [email protected]. a context in which universities are no longer no longer transference and learning, but the only producers of knowledge, and where also emphasizes how teachers and students contact they appear to be more focused on private gain engage in the community through various Innovation rather than community benefit, on research learning methods, such as community partici- for rather than on teaching, and on raising private patory research, civic engagement activities please revenue (Boyer, 1990; Colby et al., 2003; and service-learning programmes, to build a Calhoun, 2006). In addition, competition for better community. Network world-class excellence has propelled HEIs into entrepreneurial institutions commoditiz- permission, ing knowledge for commercialization rather NEEDS FOR KNOWLEDGE AND than the service of humanity. Over the past ENGAGEMENT IN THE NEW ECONOMY University decades, global development agendas and the AND SOCIETY request to initiatives of civil societies have increasingly Global challenged HEIs to develop partnerships and Education is undoubtedly a key for develop- wish co-create knowledge for addressing social ing human capital. With rapid economic The you by issues in the community. development in Asia, a sustainable social and If welfare system is demanded by the public. In order to understand knowledge, only engagement and higher education (HE) in However, corporatization and competition for the Asia-Pacific region, this paper provides world-class excellence have propelled HEIs use an overview of the current practice of HE into becoming entrepreneurial institutions, for engagement, with reference to the need commoditizing knowledge for commer- infringement. for civic education in the new economy cialization, and training students for the of the Asia-Pacific region. The concept demands of a globalized capitalist economy. authorised and discourse of engagement in relation to Throughout Asia, including China, techno- is copyright outreach/service, knowledge transfer and logical advancements have become a priority a is knowledge co-creation are then summarized, for universities since the turn of the millen- followed by a delineation of the various nium, and by default human developments or document frameworks and approaches for HE engage- positions of morality tend to be neglected. A posting ment in the region. An examination, with good example is the rapid adoption of human or This illustrative examples, of the policies and reproductive technologies (for example, sex structures or mechanisms that have emerged selection) without mindfully considering the GUNI. Copying to support HE engagement is also presented future ramifications on society. The former © in order to understand more about the emer- President of Lingnan University, Professor 196 HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE WORLD 5 Edward K.Y. Chan (Chan et al., 2009), mentioned that these exported their university ideas to Asia. Those the modern world is facing a new economic situation, universities with colonial administration and emerg- which can be characterized by digitization, globaliza- ing economic interests became more popular than tion and a monopolization of capitalism, implying our the historical academic institutions in Asia (Altbach, eager preparation to face the new economy. 2004). For non-colonized Asian countries, too, West- Rapid economic growth in the region has made ern culture was introduced into their education system, some communities, regions and households substan- examples being via the Meiji Restoration in Japan and tially improve their economic status over the past two the Hundred Days’ Reform in China. These marked the decades. Yet the region is also home to half the poor of era of Western-style HE development in Asia. the world (living on less than $1.25 per capita per day) In the 20th century, new educational philosophies as well as half of those who are illiterate (nearly five evolved in the region. Nobel Laureate Rabindranath hundred million people in the region). There is also Tagore established Shantiniketan University to empha- great diversity in the region in terms of basic indicators size that HE must promote universal understanding http://www.guninetwork.org/. of health, education and access to drinking water, sani- and peace, and Mahatma Gandhi established Gujarat tation and secure livelihood. Rapid economic develop- Vidyapith to link HE to village industry and agricul- ment has also resulted in rapid urbanization as first- ture. The societal linkages of HE were widely manifest website generation youth come to the cities from rural areas. in their educational philosophies. Serious challenges of environmental degradation afflict With the Western cultures spreading in Asia, Chris- their on many parts of the region today. As a result, inequalities tian missionaries played a significant role in educa- [email protected]. characterize the region. It is in this scenario that the tion. Although these missionaries had less success in development of HE and community engagement has to converting people to Christianity, Christian organiza- be situated. tions set up many colleges and universities in India, contact Innovation China, the Philippines, Korea, and so on. Christian for universities and colleges remain important in some please HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE parts of Asia. Since 1922, the United Board for Chris- ENGAGEMENT IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION tian Higher Education in Asia has been working with HEIs in 13 countries and regions of Asia to express Network Asian societies are very old settled communities; the values such as justice, reconciliation and harmony permission, economic, technological and educational development between ethnic and religious communities, gender in these Asian societies goes back several millennia, equity, care for the environment and civil society. University the oldest residential universities having been located The United Board has so far shown great passion in request in the Indian sub-continent. community engagement and works in partnership with to Global Takshila in Western region (now Pakistan) was a over 80 HEIs in Asia. wish residential university with nearly ten thousand students In addition, religious influences on HEIs have The you and two thousand faculty between the sixth century been found in Indonesia since the middle of the 19th by If bc and the fifth century ad. Likewise, Nalanda, in the century. Unlike the private Christian universities in only eastern region of India, was a residential university China (nationalized in 1949), the Islamic universities between the fourth century bc and the sixth century in Indonesia are public HEIs. In 1945, the year of use ad, with several thousand students and half a dozen independence for Indonesia, the Sekolah Tinggi Islam for specializations. These universities were set up with (Islamic College) was set up by the government, and infringement. extensive community support, and their students and the Islamic University of Indonesia was then estab- faculty returned to their communities to engage with lished in 1947 (Assegaf et al., 2012). them (Tandon, 2008). With their government and religion background, authorised is copyright Without doubt, most Asian countries had their Islamic HEIs often have the vision and mission of a own traditional educational systems, for example the contributing to the community. One of the objectives of is Confucian academies in China, the traditional pathsha- the IAIN Sunan Ampel institute is to conduct research las or madrasahs in India, and similar institutions in in Islamic, social and humanities studies relevant to document posting Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. In the 19th century, the needs of the community and to promote commu- or This changes in the educational systems were fundamentally nity empowerment based on religious values. Similar influenced by the colonial powers, especially during the approaches are reported by UIN Sunan Kalijaga GUNI. Copying modernization period. At that time, most of the Asian Yogyakarta: ‘Developing research, either quantitative © region was colonized by a few European countries, and or qualitative, and contribute to