Asian universities 'must overcome political tensions'
Asian universities must overcome old hostilities between their countries to forge new partnerships that will benefit their students and institutions, a leading Hong Kong education expert said this week.
Cheng Kai-ming, the University of Hong Kong's pro-vice-chancellor, said that unlike in Europe, there was 'minimal' collaboration between universities in Asia, partly due to the legacy of political tensions.
'There's a big difference between Asia and Europe. Asia has diversity but there's no harmony,' he told Education Post after addressing a workshop in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. 'What Asia can learn from Europe is how we can achieve harmony amid hostility or diversity.'
Professor Cheng said Asian countries needed to move on from past political problems, such as China's hostile relationship with Japan following the second world war and border problems between China and Vietnam, and India and Pakistan.
'The Asian society and the Asian culture has a competition ethos which explains a lot of the competitive edge in economic development but it also causes barriers in terms of collaboration and harmony in Asian societies,' he said, adding that there was even competition between various cities in China and India.
Professor Cheng said greater collaboration could help Asian researchers tackle some of the major challenges facing the region.
'There are some commonalities among Asian societies and Asian environments. For example in medicine, there's bird flu, liver problems, ageing problems,' he said.
While there is a well-established trend of Asian nations sending their best students to Western countries to study, Professor Cheng said this was based on the assumption that Asian universities were still lower in the global 'pecking order'.
Statistics compiled by Unesco show that of the 2.75 million undergraduate students who study overseas, about two thirds went to North America and Western Europe, while only 19 per cent went to East Asia and the Pacific. Nearly 30 per cent of overseas students came from East Asia and the Pacific.
'China is the greatest sender of students abroad,' Professor Cheng said. 'At the undergraduate level it's not a culture in western countries to send their children abroad. There's a Chinese phenomenon here.'
He said Asian universities would need to boost their reputations before Asian students looking to study abroad would begin enrolling in greater numbers.
Professor Cheng said there had been a big increase in the number of students taking part in exchange programmes.
Of the 2,800 students admitted to HKU each year, about 700 complete an overseas exchange programme, with Australia attracting the highest number of students.
Professor Cheng said European initiatives such as the Erasmus Programme and the Bologna Process, which focus on helping students study in other countries and encouraging institutions to develop joint degree programmes, demonstrated how countries and institutions could work together.
'We have a lot to learn from the European process,' he said.
The two-day workshop on student mobility, joint degree programmes and institutional development was organised by the European Commission as part of the EU-Asia Higher Education Platform, which aims to promote co-operation in higher education between Asian and European countries.
