International benchmarking with the best : the varied role of the state in the quest for regional education hubs in Malaysia and Hong Kong

The rise of transnational higher education in the Asia-Pacific region has undeniably reflected the growing pace of globalisation and the subsequent pressures imposed by it. Malaysia and Hong Kong, among others, are two notable cases in which states have explicitly declared their intentions to make their country/territory a regional education hub. Hence, we have witnessed rapid development of transnational higher education in these Asian societies in recent years. Apparently the pressing need for transformation into a knowledge-based economy has exceeded the capacity of many states to promptly expand their public institutions to offer sufficient opportunities for higher education to their population. The proliferation of higher-education providers, coupled with the global trends of marketisation and privatisation of higher education, have subsequently created a much diversified ecology of higher education; this development has also fundamentally blurred the line between the public and private. ‘Transnational education’ is being applied here as a term to denote education ‘in which the learners are located in a country different from the one where the awarding institution is based’ (UNESCO/Council of Europe 2001). It could therefore include both collaborative and non-collaborative transnational arrangements, such as franchising, twinning (dual degree) and joint degree programmes in the former, and branch campuses in the latter. Obviously, cross-border education has become a major component of the transformations taking place within the higher-education private-sector environment, as well as a central element of how quality is recognised within higher education (East–West Centre 2010).