The rise of transnational higher education in Asia : student mobility and studying experiences in Singapore and Malaysia

In recent decades, trade in higher education services has become increasingly popular in Asia. Realizing the importance and the economic potential of higher education not only for generating national incomes, but also for asserting soft power in the highly competitive world, the governments of Malaysia and Singapore have put serious efforts in questing for the regional education hub status, engaging overseas partners to diversify transnational higher education (TNHE) programmes catering for local citizens' and foreign students' pressing education demand. In this context, this article aims to examine TNHE degree students' evaluation of their studying experiences in Singapore and Malaysia in a way to apprehend the progress, achievement and difficulties of these two potential education hubs in Asia.