Are China and the ASEAN ready for a Bologna Process? – Factors affecting the establishment of the China-ASEAN higher education area

Abstract

This paper explores the possibility and significance of higher education convergence within the China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Free Trade Area (CAFTA) in terms of its economic, social, cultural status and external pressure. Existing studies on the Bologna Process show that due to economic, social and cultural diversity, different regions have interpreted the Bologna Process differently. For the CAFTA, higher education is facing more severe challenges compared to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The lack of strong regional identity, enormous outflows of students and consequent high opportunity cost all suggest that higher education convergence may not simply be desirable but also essential for the CAFTA. Moreover, the common mission of increasing the tertiary education enrolment rate and the similarity of higher education structure could aid the facilitation of this process in the early stage. Although the current situation indicates that the CAFTA should launch such an educational reform, concrete steps and innovative policy are needed to make it happen.

Keywords:

• Bologna Process
• China-ASEAN Free Trade Area
• higher education
• system convergence

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my two supervisors and co-authors whose encouragement, guidance and support from the very beginning to the completion of this paper enabled me to convert new ideas into this academic work.

I also would like to thank the Yunnan University of Finance and Economics and Chinese Scholarship Council for providing me with the opportunity and funding to conduct this research in the UK for one year, and Edinburgh Napier University for hosting me as a visiting scholar and facilitating my research.

Lastly, this research was supported by the Social Science and Humanity Research project (11YJC880154) for Young Scholars supported by Ministry of Education, P.R. China. I offer my regards to all of those who supported us in any respect during the completion of this work.

Notes

1. China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) includes 11 countries, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.

2. The 3rd EUA Convention, Strong universities for Europe, 31 March to 2 April 2005 in Glasgow.

3. Yunnan Province: located in the southwest part of China, Yunnan Province is adjacent to Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. It is an important gateway to ASEAN.

4. From Open Doors 2009 Figure 1A: International Student and US Higher Education Enrollment, 1948/49–2008/09, Institute of International Education, November, 2009.

5. Catharine Stimpson, in Academic Cooperation Association Conference, Hamburg, 2004.

6. A sea route starting from southeast part of ancient China in Eastern Han Dynasty, stretching out through the Malacca Straits to Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India, and then on to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea kingdom of Axum and eventual Roman ports.

7. In ancient China, the tribute system provides both an administrative means to control their interests, as well as a means of providing exclusive trading priorities to those who paid tribute from foreign regions.

8. Lapus, J.A. vice chairman of the ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting. http://www.deped.gov.ph/cpanel/uploads/issuanceImg/may4-asean.pdf

9. See ASEAN official website: http://www.aseansec.org/19600.htm [latest access on 15 March 2011]

10. The Matthew effect (or “accumulated advantage”): in sociology, it refers to the phenomenon that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.

11. American sociologist Martin Trow (1926–2007) classified tertiary education systems into three forms – elite, mass and universal – marked by the enrolment rate of the tertiary education rate of 15% and 50% in an OECD seminar paper in 1973.

12. The Economic Benefits of International Education to the United States for the 2008/09 Academic Year: A Statistical Analysis, Association of International Educators NASFA, http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/eis09/Utah.pdf

13. Global Employment Trends 2011: The challenge of a jobs recovery, International Labour Office, 42, 45. Geneva: ILO.

14. Global Employment Trends 2011: The challenge of a jobs recovery / International Labour Office, 42. Geneva: ILO.

15. Labour and Social Trends in ASEAN 2007 Integration, Challenges and Opportunities, International Labour Office Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific 2007, 72.

16. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint, Chapter III: Implementation and Review of the ASCC Blueprint, 24. At the 13th ASEAN summit, 20 November 2007, in Singapore.