The Top Global University Project, launched in 2014 and scheduled to run until 2023, is the most recent of a succession of internationalisation projects proposed by the Japanese government in an effort to foster global jinzai, i.e. global human resources (GHR), and revitalise the higher education system. Yet, the concept of GHR remains vague and…

Global economic exchange and trade have led to the expansion of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in many Asian higher education institutions. A similar demand for ESP course design is observed in the Cambodian higher education context, mainly triggered by the ASEAN economic integration in 2015, which introduced English as the working…

Imposing the policy lessons from higher-performing countries may involve the complex interplays of socio-cultural and institutional contexts. This article attempts to observe Taiwan's progress in higher education from an explicit cultural perspective. It locates Taiwan among the rising group of higher education systems in East Asia. The study…

This project explores racial tokenism in the Japanese academy. It grows out of concerns regarding the low status of foreign university faculty in Japan along with a need to evaluate recent government initiatives aimed at fostering "internationalization" of Japanese higher education. In this three-year case study, I investigated the work…

Socialization as a theoretical concept has been increasingly applied to higher education over the past several decades. However, little research examines international visiting scholars' overseas academic socialization experiences. Rooted in socialization theory, this one-year qualitative study explores 15 Chinese visiting scholars' lived…

Chinese higher education is undergoing fundamental changes to meet the demand of producing high quantity and quality college students. These changes have significantly impacted the work lives of Chinese faculty members. This study investigated Chinese young faculty's job perceptions using four variables: intrinsic motivation, job burnout, job…

The paper examines how the Chinese knowledge diaspora contributes to Peking University's endeavours to become a world-class university through an in-depth study of its implementation of the 111 Project. Based on the participants' personal experiences of international collaboration, the article finds that overseas Chinese scholars have played an…

This article examines one of China's top universities--Renmin University--and changes in faculty life linked to internationalization and the push to build world-class universities. Employing academic culture as a theoretical lens and case-study methodology, the authors highlight several significant changes, as described in semi-structured…

Since the corporatization of national universities, the environment surrounding Japanese universities has dramatically changed in various respects. A series of government-led attempts have intended to support the domestic colleges and universities in gaining a competitive edge by improving the quality of teaching and research as well as…

This article is written in line with the debate on internationalisation in higher education, especially taking into consideration the connections between the rise of East Asia and the need to internationalise the universities in the West. The author focuses specifically on his professional experience as a member of the Expanding East Asian Studies…