Books in the Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects series

This book provides a comprehensive and in-depth description of the education system in Lao PDR. It covers pre-school, primary, secondary general, secondary technical and vocational, post-secondary non-higher education, and adult non-formal education and training.

This book argues that academic freedom in higher education in East Asia, the U.S. and Australia is under stress. Academic freedom means freedom to teach, research, and serve in multiple political and social roles based on professional principles. It is closely linked to shared governance, in which academics participate in and influence decision making in core academic concerns such as choosing new faculty, faculty promotion, tenure decisions and the approval of new academic programs.In different countries and regions, the duress confronting academic freedom may come from different directions, and the ability of faculty to share power can vary greatly. In authoritarian mainland China, it is mostly political and ideological controls that greatly affect academic freedom, and shared governance is very much limited. In semi-democracies like Hong Kong and Macau and democracies like Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the U.S. and Australia, corporatization and commercialization have had great impact on both academic freedom and shared governance. The result is that the roles professors play within academia are continually being diminished and the academic profession is struggling to maintain its ground. Similar developments are also occurring in Europe. These developments should cause great concern to educators, researchers and policymakers everywhere. The authors collected here present attempts to learn from current practice in order to move policy into directions that will help protect higher education as a common good. This book highlights the importance of academic freedom and provides insights into the ways it is being infringed both by commercialization and corporatization on the one hand and political repression on the other. It vividly illustrates detailed case studies and empirical data that make it a compelling read.- Professor Ruth Hayhoe, University of Toronto, Canada Academic freedom is as important today as at any time in the last century. The authors point out the challenges that academic freedom faces on a global scale. The import of the book is in its comparative perspective steeped in data and analysis. Thoughtful. Cogent. Compelling. - Professor William G. Tierney and Professor Wilbur-Kieffer, University of Southern California, United States

It explores various ways in which belief systems are part of the fabric of higher education - either implicitly or explicitly - and pursues a deeper understanding of the role of belief practices as it plays out in both private and public higher education.

This open access book presents contemporary perspectives on the role of a learning society from the lens of leading practitioners, experts from universities, governments, and industry leaders.

This book deepens readers' conceptual understanding of and provides practical insights into Vietnam's higher education reforms. At the same time, the book explores local demands on Vietnamese higher education, and deciphers how higher education institutions are responding to globalisation, internationalisation and local demands.

This open access book analyzes the main drivers that are influencing the dramatic evolution of work in Asia and the Pacific and identifies the implications for education and training in the region.

This open access book presents contemporary perspectives on the role of a learning society from the lens of leading practitioners, experts from universities, governments, and industry leaders.

In order to produce active, healthy, and productive aging citizens, the experiments showcased by this book highlight how adaptive action is needed across many policy areas, with emphasis on shaping structural differences in the composition and organisation of higher education systems that can better foster lifelong learning among elderly citizens.

This book focuses on English as a Medium of Instruction practices in higher education in Vietnam, addressing institutional, practitioner and student perspectives. It presents theoretical standpoints and empirical experiences of how institutional policies are enacted in the offering of English as a Medium of Instruction programs in universities in Vietnam, and how the disciplinary content is taught and learned through English. The book showcases the enactment of curricular and pedagogical practices in the classroom, drawing on a range of different disciplines central to university education. It also explores the roles of mother tongues in the construction of disciplinary knowledge in English as a Medium of Instruction programs and courses. This book provides guidance and practical information for university English as a Medium of Instruction policy makers, lecturers and student support teams in English for academic purposes across disciplines, as well as to the theoretical framing of the English as a Medium of Instruction field itself.