Project Title: The Development of Master’s Education and Its Quality Assurance in East Asia: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan.
- Funding Scheme: RIHE Open-type research: Joint Usage and Collaborative Research, Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE), Hiroshima University
- Principal Investigator: Dr Jisun Jung
- Abstract:
This project aims to address the issues of expanding master’s education and its current challenges for quality assurance in East Asia, focusing on Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. Although the massification of higher education at the undergraduate level has been discussed in many Asian countries for the past three decades, the expansion of postgraduate education has rarely been studied. Master’s education has experienced unprecedented expansion and diversification across the world including Asia. The rapid expansion of master’s education has caused several challenges of quality assurance, however, there is a lack of discussion how to assess and improve the quality of master’s education in both programme and institutional level. Structurally, the project begins by describing the key changes in the higher education environment in relation to master’s education locally, regionally, and globally, and highlights how master’s education has been developed in each of case countries in East Asia. Finally, the project aims to explore the notion of quality in master’s level and strategies for quality improvement in selected Asian countries. The objectives of this project are as follows:
- To identify current figures of master’s education including different types of master’s degrees, programmes, and the number of institutions and enrolled students in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan
- To explore major government policies and their impacts in regard to master’s education in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan
- To compare the historical backgrounds and key characteristics of master’s education in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan
- To address the major quality assurance issues of master’s education in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan