Hello Everyone! 🙂
For this last post, I wanted to tie in this week’s article with our earlier (way earlier) discussion of where the next leading university in Asia will be. In CJ’s presentation [link:Â https://prezi.com/ch9l6zynilgb/copy-of-mind-mapping-template/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy], it was concluded that Singapore and the ZhuJiang Delta Area of China (including Hong Kong) would be among the top spots for a leading university.
The World Economic Forum summarized Times Higher Education’s identification of 53 “international powerhouses” – those “institutions that have the best chance of catching up with (and even overtaking) the world’s best universities.” Here is the listing and the article link:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/universities-overtake-harvard-cambridge-oxford?utm_content=buffer3ecda&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Of the Asian countries, Singapore is listed first according to current world ranking, followed by China, and then three schools in Hong Kong. This lines up well with CJ’s predictions in her presentation.
Additionally, HSBC does a yearly expat survey. Over 26,000 expats were surveyed on most of the factors CJ identified as important contributions to a leading university in a given country. I think the connection between expats and universities, even if the expats did not attend a university in the country they reside in, is important. If there is a large, healthy, and productive expat community in a country and/or metropolis, it shows promise for the future for the development of the next “international powerhouse.” Singapore, unsurprisingly at this point, is number 1. Hong Kong is number 13. Here is the link their comparison. The second link is to the home survey which is super neat to explore!
https://www.expatexplorer.hsbc.com/survey/country/singapore/hong-kong
https://www.expatexplorer.hsbc.com/survey/
Based off of what I’ve learned in this class including lecture, presentations, readings, and my own research for this blog, I think I can declare with confidence that the next leading university will be in Singapore (pending any significant changes from other countries and their universities of course!)
What do you think of the connection between expat satisfaction and leading university location? Where have you concluded that the next leading university in Asia will be?
Thanks, Kendall, for re-mentioning this interesting and important topic at the end of the semester.
Prof. Everett S. Lee has a famous push-pull migration model. Education is a very important factor in this theory. Migration and education are indeed intertwined in many dimensions. Education and skill acquisition play an important role at many stages of an individual’s migration. The migration may also affect educational decisions in the home country. Migrants and their children may also create externalities that influence educational outcomes of non-migrants in the destination country. Very complicated but interesting theory to explain the connection between expat satisfaction and leading university location in some extent.
Back to the topic of the next leading university in Asia, the US News gave another interesting ranking of Best Global Universities in Asia: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/asia. The University of Tokyo surpassed the National University of Singapore. And, the score gap is very close. Because of the small gap, the change of one tiny measure can lead to changes in ranking. I agree that Singapore will lead for years maybe, but China has a huge potential (and market) to catch up. Anyway, at least one thing I am convinced by this class, “Asian universities can legitimately challenge the traditional Western elites of the US and the UK.”
Hi Chaoyi! Thank you for pointing out the push and pull model (here is a link I found with a summary in case others are interested: http://cgge.aag.org/Migration1e/ConceptualFramework_Jan10/ConceptualFramework_Jan105.html). I agree that it is an interesting theory to explain the connection, but I don’t think it takes into consideration today’s relative ease of relocating. For some, these days there seems to be relative ease to relocating to a different country with little “push” needed. Although, the “pulls” do appear to be relevant, such as job availability and pleasant environment. In regards to education though, a student in the US could be “pushed” to a foreign university by cost, lack of diverse environment/student body, curriculum, etc. So the question is the same as it’s been all semester: how to develop and inform students of the “pull” opportunities provided by Asian universities in particular? It can be answered in so many ways!