Higher Education in Asia – Moving Ahead
Governance and Corruption in East and Southeast Asian Higher Education: Close Cousins, Close Encounters
Speaker: Professor Anthony WELCH The University of Sydney
Chair: Professor Gerard POSTIGLIONE The University of Hong Kong
Discussant: Professor Rui YANG The University of Hong Kong
Date: December 1, 2021 (Wednesday) (HK Time)
Time: 15:00-16:15
Registration: Click here
Abstract
No analysis of governance in East and Southeast Asian higher education could be complete without treatment of its close cousin, corruption. Most of the countries of East Asia, including China, Korea, and Japan – and Southeast Asia (the 10 member states of ASEAN), all suffer from the taint of corruption, albeit to very differing degrees. The selected examples in the presentation reveal often pervasive cultures of corruption in regional higher education that are closely linked to system and institutional governance. Too often, however, the proffered solutions go no further than the development of various ‘Guidelines’ to inhibit or prevent corruption, including in higher education. The presentation goes further by setting out different qualities of good and bad governance, and also by delving in detail into specific forms of corruption in regional higher education, together with examples. Ways to address corruption are treated, within a wider argument that, beyond issues such as limited state capacity, and low public sector salaries, the prevailing, resilient cultures of governance in the region remain one of the key barriers to reform.
Bio of speaker
Professor Anthony Welch specialises in national and international policy and practice, principally in education, and cross-cultural analysis and research. He has extensive experience in many countries, including in the Asia Pacific, and has published widely, contributing numerous analyses of issues such as cross-cultural interactions; rural education, comparative research methods in education; and practical reform affecting multiculturalism, indigenous minorities, international students, higher education reforms, internationalisation of higher education in the Asia Pacific, and changes to the academic profession.
