Positioning as regional hub of higher education : changing governance and regulatory reforms in Singapore and Malaysia

With strong intention to enhance the global competitiveness of their university systems, the Singapore and Malaysia governments have made attempts to develop their societies into regional hubs of education. Specifically, they have invited foreign universities to set up their campuses to offer academic programs or to establish private institutions creating more opportunities of higher learning. In the last decade, reforms have been introduced to the higher education sectors in Singapore and Malaysia, particularly when corporatization and incorporation strategies are adopted to transform national (public) universities. This article discusses, first, what major strategies the governments of Singapore and Malaysia adopted to reform their university governance and, second, how their aspiration to become a regional hub of education is realized.