Table Of ContentFROM DEPENDENCE TO AUTONOMY
From Dependence to Autonomy
The Development qf Asian Universities
edited by
PHILIP G. ALTBACH and VISWANATHAN SELVARATNAM
A number of the articles in this book
were previously published in Higher
Educafioll. Volume 1X . No. I.
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
From dependence to autonomy : the development of Asian universities
edited by Philip G. Altbach and Viswanathan Selvaratnam.
p. cm.
Inc 1 udes index.
ISBN 902473777X
1. Education, Higher--Asia--History. 2. Universities and
colleges--Asia--History. 3. East and West. I. Altbach, Philip G.
II. Selvaratnam, V.
LA1057.F76 1989
378.5--dc19 88-24076
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-94-010-7658-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-2563-2
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-2563-2
Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
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All Rights Reserved
© 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1989
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v
Table of contents
Preface vii
List of contributors ix
Introduction xi
1. Twisted roots: The Western impact on Asian higher education
Philip G. Altbach
PART ONE: THE NON-COLONIAL EXPERIENCE
2. China's universities and Western academic models 25
Ruth Hayhoe
3. Looking west and east: Thailand's academic development 63
Keith Watson
4. Independence and choice: Western impacts on Japanese higher
education 97
Shigeru Nakayama
PART TWO: THE EUROPEAN COLONIAL TRADITION
5. The Western impact on Philippine higher education 117
Andrew Gonzalez
6. The origin of modern Indonesian higher education 143
William K. Cummings and Salman Kasenda
7. Indian higher education: Colonialism and beyond 167
Aparna Basu
8. Change amidst continuity: University development in Malaysia 187
Viswanathan Selvaratnam
9. University education in Singapore: The making of a national
university 207
S. Gopinathan
vi
PART THREE: THE JAPANESE COLONIAL IMPACT
10. The emergence of the modern university in Korea 227
Sungho Lee
11. The development of higher education in Taiwan 257
Wen-hsing Wu, Shun-fen Chen and Chen-tsou Wu
Index 277
vii
Preface
This book is an example of an international editorial enterprise. The two
editors, located in the United States and Singapore, coordinated a team of
authors in ten countries. Linked by common concerns, the lengthy process of
preparing such a complex volume proved to be a pleasantly cooperative task
- proof that there is a kind of invisible college of colleagues working on similar
topics in different countries. This book is also an indication that scholars from
the Third World and the industrialized nations can work together in a spirit
of equality and understanding.
This project has an interesting origin. It was first discussed at a conference
on ASEAN - American higher education held in Malaysia in 1985, sponsored
by the Regional Institute for Higher Education and Development, then headed
by V. Selvaratnam and funded by the Asia Foundation and the Lee
Foundation. At the time, geographical coverage was to be limited to the
ASEAN nations. We also sought external funding, without success, to assist
us in developing the project. Due to lack of funding, the project languished
for a year. When one of our original participants, Andrew Gonzales of the
Philippines, produced an essay, we decided to proceed without funding. We
also decided to add several additional key Asian nations that we felt would
provide additional analytic scope to the book. The result of this somewhat
unusual collaborative effort is this volume. It is testimony to the fact that high
quality research can be done sometimes without external funding and based
solely on the dedication and concerns of the researchers!
We are especially indebted to the authors of the essays in this volume. They
were unfailingly cooperative and helpful, conforming to our original outlines
and deadlines. We also appreciate the help of Professor Alec Ross, the coordinat
ing editor of Higher Educatio/l which published several of the chapters in this
book, and of Peter de Liefde of Kluwer Academic Publishers who worked with
us on both this book and the journal issue.
Philip G. Altbach
Stanford, California
Viswanathan Selvaratnam
Singapore
ix
List of contributors
Philip G. Altbach is professor and director of the Comparative Education
Center, State University of New York at Buffalo. He is author of The
Knowledge Context and other books. During 1988-89, he is a Visiting
Scholar, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Aparna Basu is professor of history at the University of Delhi, India. She is
author of Education and Political Development in India, 1898-1920.
Shun-fen-Chen is associate professor in the Department of Education, Nation
al Taiwal Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
William Cummings is lecturer on education at the Graduate School of Edu
cation, Harvard University, USA. He is author of Education and Equality
in Japan.
S. Gopinathan is head of the Department of Comparative Studies, Institute
of Education, Singapore. He is author of Toward a National System of
Education in Singapore.
Andrew Gonzalez is president of De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines.
Ruth Hayhoe is associate professor of higher education at the Ontario Institute
for studies in Education, Toronto, Canada. She is co-editor of China's
Educational System and the Industrialized World.
Sungho Lee is associate professor and associate dean in the School of Edu
cation, Y onsei University, South Korea.
Shigeru Nakayama is professor of history of science at the University of
Tokyo, Japan. He is author of Academic and Scientific Traditions in
China, Japan and the West.
Viswanathan Selvaratnam teaches in the Department of Sociology, National
University of Singapore. He was formerly director of the Regional Institute
for Higher Education and Development, Singapore.
Keith Watson is reader in the School of Education, University of Reading,
England. He is author of Education and Development in Thailand.
Chen-tsou Wu is associate professor in the Department of History, National
Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Wen-hsing Wu is professor and chairman of the Department of Education,
National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Ph.G. Altbach & V. Selvaratnam (eds.), From Dependence to Autonomy, pp. xi-xiii
© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht - Printed in the Netherlands.
Introduction
PHILIP G. ALT BACH 1 & V. SELVA RATNAM 2
1 Comparative Education Center, Baldy Hall, SUNY-Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA; 2 Dept.
of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore 0511, Republic of
Singapore
This book is concerned with the complex impact of the West on higher
education in Asia. Our concern is not only with the historical influence of the
colonial past but with contemporary interactions between Asian higher edu
cation and the industrialized nations of Europe and North America. Our
purpose is to present a range of experiences, to show the variety of Western
impacts and to contribute to an understanding of higher education by high
lighting a key facet of reality - the interaction of higher education systems.
We posit no overarching theoretical position and the contributors to this
book reflect a variety of viewpoints. It is, however, fair to state that the
relationships with which we are concerned are, particularly in the historical
context, ones of inequality, with Western influences holding the dominant
position. Even in the contemporary context, Asian academic systems are still
influenced by Western research, institutional patterns and models and not the
other way around. Japan is only a partial exception to this center-periphery
paradigm.
This book does suggest new ways of looking at Asian higher education. It
is first of all clear that East-West educational relations, even during the
colonial period, were never unidirectional. Asian nations played a key role in
shaping their own educational realities from the beginning. In the period since
World War Two, Asian higher education systems have developed impressively
- and in a variety of directions. The impact of the West remains in all the
countries considered here, but academic system is basically independent. It is
clear that the Western impact is multifaceted and operates in quite different
ways in different countries. It is no longer the dominant force in any of the
nations considered here.
We have chosen countries for this analysis that reflect a range of experience.
The majority have had experience with colonialism which was crucial in
shaping the development of higher education and which still plays a role.
India, Malaysia and Singapore were British colonies and other higher edu
cation systems reflect British models. The Philippines was first a Spanish and
then an American colony and American influence remains strong. Korea and
Taiwan were Japanese colonies for the first half of the 20th century and were
xii
strongly influenced by the United States in the post-World War Two period.
Indonesia was under Dutch colonial rule for three centuries but jettisoned the
Dutch model in the post-colonial period. Three of our case study countries:
Japan, Thailand and China, were never under formal colonial rule, although
they were strongly influenced by the West. Thus, the nations considered in this
volume reflect a range of Western impacts, and it is possible to compare the
various impacts.
One of our main concerns in this book is to examine the contemporary
impact of Western academic systems in Asia. It is clear that Third World's
universities continue to be influenced by the major metropolitan universities
of the industrialized nations - now including Japan to some extent. Some call
this relationship dependency, while others argue that current relationships are
the result of natural interactions among academic systems. The essays in this
volume seem to indicate that Asian universities have a great deal of autonomy
to set policies and priorities but the power of Western research and publication
systems as well as the English language remain key influences.
The varieties of national experience reported in this book do not yield to
easy generalization; yet, it is possible to point to several points of common
concern.
All of the higher education systems considered here have Western roots and
use basically Western models. In Asia, as in the rest of the world, the
contemporary university is a basically Western institution, tracing their roots
to the medieval European universities and shaped by the particular Western
power that was the colonial ruler. In the case of Japan, China and Thailand,
foreign influences were chosen with more independence, but the models were
foreign nonetheless.
The imprint of colonialism remains strong in a number of our case study
countries. Basic colonial models remain powerful even where modifications
in the organization of higher education have been made. India is probably the
country least changed in the post-colonial era, while Indonesia has eliminated
most of the trappings of Dutch higher education.
Language is a key issue in Asian higher education. All of the countries in
this volume operate their universities in their national language except for
Singapore and the Philippines, which use English exclusively and India, where
English is used in some institutions along with regional languages and Hindi.
However, access to research materials (now mainly in English), the preparation
of textbooks and the development of journals has necessitated the use of
European languages. Communication among the academic systems takes place
largely in English.
There has been a decline in the influence of the traditional academic powers
(mainly Britain and the Netherlands) which has been accompanied by the rise
of the United States as the major external academic influence. In the case of
xiii
China, Soviet influence was supplanted by a "go it alone" policy for a time,
and, in recent years, there has been an opening to the West and especially to
the U.S.
Despite impressive gains, and with the partial exception of Japan, Asia
remains scientifically dependent on the West in most areas. There has been
impressive indigenous development in most of the nations represented in this
volume but the fact remains that in most fields, Asia remains a scientific
periphery. The major Asian scientific "power," India, has only a limited
impact on the other countries in the region.
Asian nations, in quite different ways, have moved to develop indigenous
approaches to higher education. While basic Western institutional models have
not been altered, they have been significantly modified so that Thai universities
are distinctively Thai and there is a specific Malaysian orientation to higher
education.
Some Asian higher education systems remain quite elitist, enrolling under
4OJo of the relevant age groups. Typically these systems have rigid entry
requirements and are very selective. Taiwan, Singapore and China are ex
amples of this approach, although China is currently expanding the size of its
higher education system. India, the Philippines and Japan have very large and
quite diverse academic systems, with both highly selective and mass-based
universities. Malaysia and Indonesia stand in between these poles. Thailand,
with its mass-based open universities, is also somewhat of an exception.
The large majority of the world's foreign students are Asian. Most study
in the Western industrialized nations but there is a significant intra-Asian flow,
notably to India and the Philippines, with smaller numbers going to Japan.
The impact of overseas student flows in terms of the importation of foreign
models and ideas, the "brain drain," research orientations and other factors,
is significant. Without question, the issue of overseas study looms as a key
issue in Asian higher education.
These are some of the themes suggested by the chapters in this volume. It
is, of course, impossible to summarize this rich array of data and analysis.
These essays deal, for the most part, with an aspect of higher education not
previously analyzed. It is our hope that by bringing together the experiences
of key Asian nations with the impact of the West, we have added an important
dimension to the study of higher education in the Third World.
