(International and Development Education) Christopher S. Collins (Eds.) - University-Community Engagement in The Asia Pacific - Public Benefits Beyond Individual Degrees-Palgrave Macmillan (2017)

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Christopher S. Collins
Editor
University-
Community
Engagement
in the Asia Pacific
Public Benefits Beyond Individual Degrees
Editor
Azusa Pacific University
Azusa, California, USA
International and Development Education

ISBN 978-3-319-45221-0 ISBN 978-3-319-45222-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership

and Directors Deane Neubauer and John Hawkins for their support at the
Emerging Scholars Seminar.
Special thanks to Kasetsart University for hosting the seminar that made
this volume possible.
Images in Chap. 5 used with permission from Professor Harold
Thwaites in the Centre for Research Creation in Digital Media at
Sunway University in Malaysia.
v
CONTENTS
1 Academic Public Good 1

2 Educational Leaders and Partnerships: A Critical

Examination of the GLOBE Model for Higher Education
Contexts in the Asia Pacific Region 11
Chris M. Lucas
3 Cross-Border Higher Education: Engaging East Asian Cities 21

Anh Pham
4 The Challenges and Benefits of Transnational Higher

Education: A Case Study of Sino-Foreign Cooperation
University in China 41
Xiao Han
5 Digital Heritage as a Rhetorical Tool for Cultural

Preservation 57
Shahreen Mat Nayan
6 Thai Higher Education and Local Community Engagement

Toward Creative Tourism 73
Nongluck Manowaluilou
vii
viii CONTENTS
7 University–Community Connections and the Thai Concept

of Sufficiency: The Case of 9 Boworn 87
Benya Kasantikul
8 Continued Learning in an Aging Society: A University–

Community Collaborative Educational Intervention
in Taiwan 103
Wei-ni Wang
Conclusion 123
Index 125
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 2.1 Conceptual framework for new partnership formation

in the Asia Pacific region 16
Fig. 5.1 In the mask room, visitors pan over 24 different masks with
an iPad-augmented reality application to reveal the stories
behind each artifact. (Image used with permission from
the author/publisher) 67
Fig. 5.2 3D scanning of the Mah Meri masks allowed easy archiving,
which would make it possible to “replicate” if the masks
suffered deterioration. This process also made it less
demanding to share copies and information with other
locations or memory institutions. (Image used with
permission from the author/publisher) 68
Fig. 5.3 The Tree to Mask Process section features a large multi-image
high-definition projection showing the process of wood
sourcing to mask carving. Placed to the right of the screen
were two actual finished masks. (Image used with permission
from the author/publisher) 68
Fig. 7.1 The Philosophy of the Sufficiency Economy Framework 89
Fig. 7.2 The 9 Boworn collaboration 91
Fig. 7.3 The outcomes of 9 Boworn project 99
ix
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 The financial resources of eight Sino-foreign cooperation

universities in China 48
Table 7.1 Problems, needs and recommendations from
each subdistrict 95
xi
CHAPTER 1
Academic Public Good
Abstract Public good is generally defined as a benefit to or the well-being

of society. However, articulating the centrality of the public good mission
proves to be an easier task than understanding the degree to which the
mission is being fulfilled. Higher education institutions typically identify a
mission to articulate a purpose and a guiding framework for existence.
There is an ongoing need to describe the aspects of what is public and to
communicate the macro historical impact of higher education that has
eluded a clear definition. This chapter creates a clear framework for under-
standing academic public good and positions each chapter as one perspec-
tive on the impact of university–community engagement. The seven
chapters include education for elderly citizens, digital cultural preserva-
tion, creative tourism, the role of industry, transnational higher education,
and social philosophy.
Keywords social benefits public good knowledge production
C.S. Collins (*)

Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California, USA
© The Author(s) 2017 1

C.S. Collins (ed.), University-Community Engagement in the Asia
Pacific, International and Development Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_1
2 C.S. COLLINS
INTRODUCTION
One of the greatest questions surrounding the increase in the college-
going population is around the cost to governments and individuals.
Cost sharing has been a global trend as societies determine the degree to
which individuals, governments, or a balance between the two should be
the primary source of funding (Johnstone and Marcucci 2011). Although
college is often seen as a benefit to individual degree earners, it also plays an
important role in providing benefits to the public. The public benefits
generated by universities for the surrounding communities include the
distribution of new knowledge and an educated citizenry that tends to
participate in civic activities more frequently and requires fewer public
resources like health care and other forms of government assistance
(McMahon 2009). Accordingly, universities are designing and articulating
the ways in which their programs influence the community.
In the USA, the Carnegie Foundation created an elective classification
for community engagement based on the idea that it is “collaboration
between institutions of higher education and their larger communities
(local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange
of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity”
(New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE 2015).
Furthermore, the purpose of community engagement is defined as partner-
ing university knowledge and energy with public and private sectors “to
enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum,
teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen
democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues;
and contribute to the public good” (NERCHE 2015).
Public good is broadly defined as benefit for all of society. For uni-
versities, articulating the importance of the public good mission is likely an
easier task than assessing the degree to which the mission is accomplished.
According to Bowen (1977),
The outcomes from research and public service cannot be measured with any
precision, and so conclusions will inevitably be subjective and judgmental. It
is possible, however, to describe these activities in some detail. Indeed, a
mere recital of them strongly suggests they yield important benefits. (p. 291)
Higher education institutions need a “larger purpose that underpins their

existence” (Marginson 2012, p. 8). Publicly owned institutions are
1 ACADEMIC PUBLIC GOOD 3
generally more open to democratic policy involvement and are more likely
to practice a collective approach (Marginson 2007). However, private
institutions can also produce public goods and operate with a commu-
nity-engaged mission. Although precise quantitative measures may be
unavailable, there is a great need to articulate what is public and to
communicate the historical impact of higher education for society.
INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL BENEFITS

The saliency and value of a degree in higher education is often measured in
terms of employment. In the USA, some economic models show that
students with a bachelor’s degree earn around 1 million USD more during
their lifetime than their peers who have less than a baccalaureate (Baum
2014). In strict economic terms, this model may be one of the most
concrete and aggregated ways to defend the value of a higher education.
An individual rate of return is a calculation of earnings over a lifetime
compared to the cost of tuition and time away from the job market.
However, an intense focus on individual rates of return will not capture
the greatest benefits that higher education has to offer society. Colleges
and universities generate public good through knowledge production and
by educating the masses. New forms of knowledge that solve social and
economic problems are benefits that the public can accrue without ever
attending a class or earning a degree (see Collins 2012, for a case study
example). Over the previous 30 years, there has been a trend in higher
education to privatize new knowledge instead of making it publicly avail-
able, which may threaten the ability to claim that knowledge production is
part of the public good (see Slaughter and Rhoades 2004, for a full
discussion of the increasingly market-like behavior of postsecondary insti-
tutions). A postsecondary-educated citizenry tends to be more civically
engaged generates income and pays taxes, be healthier, and is less likely to
be incarcerated (McMahon 2009). As a result, educated citizens tend to
be less dependent on public resources and instead contribute to social
progress.
McMahon (2009) made a strong case that under-recognition of the
public good will likely lead to underinvestment in higher education and
defined three types of benefits that can result from higher education: (1)
private market benefits are earned by an individual as income, (2) private
nonmarket benefits are accrued by individual/family in the form of non-
monetary, quality of life improvements, and (3) social benefit externalities
4 C.S. COLLINS
are accrued to all of society. The total benefits of higher education are the
composite of these three categories. The framework of understanding
these benefits was developed primarily using data from developed coun-
tries. Although the results may vary if the same methodological procedure
were used in another region, the conceptual framework remains a valuable
contribution to understanding the role of higher education in any society.
Omitting the nonmarket benefits from the consideration of the value of
higher education has caused and continues to cause narrow estimations of
the overall benefits. The public has a poor understanding of the value of
higher education’s social benefits, even though it is estimated that social
returns constitute a majority of the return on the investment. McMahon
(2009) estimated that “social benefit externalities constitute about 52% of
the total benefits of higher education” and further advocated that this be
used as a guide for public investment (p. 255). Higher education is most
often viewed as a path to secure higher earnings resulting from a degree.
This individualistic perspective weakens any case for public investment in
higher education.
In the 1980s, a fascinating and troubling trend spread through global
higher education. Due to a strict individual rate of return analysis, devel-
opment banks and the donor community considered higher education to
be a poor investment for developing countries. As a result, in order to get
loans for development projects ranging from health care to infrastructure,
nation-states had to consent to a menu of items called Structural
Adjustment Policies (SAPs). One policy called for the disinvestment of
public funds for higher education in lieu of a more robust investment in
primary education (due to the rate of return analysis indicators that
primary education was a better investment). As a result of the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund SAPs in developing countries,
higher education systems suffered (Collins 2011). Years later, a task
force identified the policies and individual rate of return analyses as narrow
and misleading in which they did not account for the social and public
benefits of higher education (TFHES 2000). Although the full story is
much more complex (see Collins 2011), it is remarkable to track how a
simple individual rate of return analysis and subsequent policy had such a
large impact around the world. The magnitude of the impact is enough to
warrant consideration about the importance of how the value of higher
education is framed—not only for individuals but also for the public.
In an era of obsession with precision and measurement, it is critical to
note that social rates of return and the public good are not easily
quantified and there is no agreed-upon approach (although McMahon

2009 has done good work in an attempt to provide greater detail about
the social benefits). Whereas private goods are benefits accrued to an
individual, pure public goods can be consumed by an unlimited number
of people without being exhausted (e.g., clean air or comprehension of a
mathematical theory). The notion of public goods is also associated with
social rates of return (McMahon 2009).
PUBLIC GOOD CONCEPTS

More conceptually, Samuelson (1954) provided a framework for distin-
guishing public and private goods, with special attention to the social
character of the goods. The typical criteria for public goods are that they
are non-rivalrous and non-excludable. Non-rivalrous means that the
resource cannot be depleted no matter what the number of consumers
is. Non-excludable means that benefits cannot be confined to individuals
and are consumed by society. For example, military functions are diffi-
cult to provide for some members of society and not others. Private
goods are neither non-rivalrous nor non-excludable. Samuelson’s theory
is useful in the conceptualization of higher education and public good
because of the mixed nature of the outcomes of the sector. Colleges
and universities produce both public and private goods, regardless of
whether the institution is public or private. The public/private distinc-
tions of higher education are blurred (Marginson 2007), as governments
are heavily funding private institutions through a variety of mechanisms,
while in the USA and other places as well, state governments and other
forms of government are disinvesting in public higher education, leading
to an increased reliance on private funds. In the same vein, private
institutions can contribute to public goods by making knowledge readily
accessible and even free, while public institutions can privatize knowl-
edge and withhold potential public good generated from university
activity.
Marginson (2014) highlighted that the notion of public is drawn from
social and political theory. The relational aspects of higher education and
research are viewed as having an ongoing contribution to public good in
the sense that an equality of opportunity is a shared resource available to
everyone. This conception of the public or collective good is quite differ-
ent from the market-based model because it rests on a “social democratic
political philosophy, in which the common public good is associated with
6 C.S. COLLINS
democratic forms, openness, transparency, popular sovereignty, and grass-

roots agency” (Marginson 2014, p. 26).
In another perspective on public good in Asian/Pacific higher educa-
tion, Neubauer (2009) advocated that quality in higher education is both
a good and a producer of public goods. Neubauer (2009) used the global
credit crisis as an example to highlight how societies should act to preserve
institutions with government intervention. Supporting the banking system
with trillions of dollars around the globe was not ideal, but considered
necessary for a sense of global good. The example highlights how notions
of public good can shift depending on the complex processes of articula-
tion, crisis, and contestation. Higher education has generally been
regarded as a dispersed public good for society and a precondition for
contemporary national development. Though the notion has waned in its
philosophical foundation or its economic application, Neubauer (2009)
advocated that through the instrumentalization of higher education and
the shift to the student as the unit of analysis, the question of quality in
higher education will be intertwined with notions of public good for
degree earners who become job seekers.
CONCEPTUALIZING ACADEMIC PUBLIC GOOD

In general, the college-going population, families sending students to earn
a degree, and business-minded administrators conceptualize the primary
benefit of a college degree as an individual. Students spend time away from
full-time job earnings to be a student, pay for an education, and earn a
degree in hopes of generating more income than if they had not earned
the degree. With a market orientation, when tuition or price increases
and/or individual earnings retract, the value of higher education comes
into question. This is an economically rational response to an education
that has been built around market values.
However, as noted in sweeping policy applications like SAPs enforced
upon developing countries by the World Bank, a strict individual rate of
return is narrow and misleading (TFHES 2000). If it is narrow, it begs the
question, why are governments and university overseers not doing more to
reframe the value of higher education around the public and social benefits
as opposed to the individual economic benefits? The continued imposition
of market values and individualistic perspectives reframe societal under-
standing of the greater value of higher education for society. It is a
mismatch of evaluation criteria and culture. Similarly, if a social setting was

evaluated with market values (e.g., paying a family member for a home-
cooked meal), it would cause asymmetry in the social structure and the
relationships. Or if social exchanges were offered as compensation in a
market setting (e.g., giving a plumber a long embrace for fixing a sink), the
asymmetry would generate animosity and even legal action. Where do
educational values fall in between social and market values? Probably
somewhere in between, but the market perspective is increasingly a domi-
nant and guiding set of norms and rules in education.
Conceptualizing academic public good in this volume starts with draw-
ing from previous work on higher education and public good as well as the
social benefits. The broad category of university–community engagement
includes many forms of outreach ranging from service projects to service
learning. Academic public good is often demonstrated in a historic form of
agricultural outreach and engagement (Collins 2012, 2015). Other com-
ponents of academic public good are generated through public health
programs, counseling services, and any form of knowledge production
that is not patented or privatized in a way that makes the subjects the
knowledge to the forces of academic capitalism as opposed to academic
public good.
The chapters of this volume represent seven unique cases on perspec-
tives of academic public good and community engagement. Each case
offers a perspective on an aspect of higher education that generates value
for society that goes beyond individual degrees. Chapter 2 by Chris M.
Lucas focuses on the conceptual nature of partnerships. Often higher
education is isolated from community with a laboratory mentality and
requires specific initiatives to engage with communities. As a result, effec-
tive partnership frameworks help institutions of higher education deterio-
rate the isolated ivory tower mentality to engage more fully with the
surrounding community to generate and facilitate social benefits. This
chapter uses the GLOBE model of partnerships as a framework and
discusses the components and implications of effective partnerships.
Chapters 3 and 4 provide a unique aspect of the academic public good
notion by discussing cross-border and transnational higher education. The
massification of higher education has generated interest in the establish-
ment of hubs and branch campuses, but in Chap. 3, Anh Pham examines
the academic, industry, and public influence of the presence of these
units in East Asian cities. In Chap. 4, Xiao Han examines one case of an
8 C.S. COLLINS
international branch campus to explore the economic and political moti-

vation and the impact on community.
Chapters 5 and 6 are about cultural preservation. Because higher
education value is so often steeped in the language of economics and
business, the humanities is not often perceived as a discipline that trans-
lates into capital-linked value discussions. In Chap. 5, Shahreen Mat
Nayan explores a digital humanities project that focuses on cultural pre-
servation in Malaysia. The loss of deep, cultural ways of knowing is a
disservice not only to indigenous peoples but also to the society as a
whole. Therefore, cultural preservation, not just in the stagnant museum
sense, can play a role in generating public good. The support of all
populations and ways of knowing contributes to greater societal knowl-
edge and value. Chapter 6 by Nongluck Manowaluilou is about sustain-
able tourism in a way that benefits communities in tourist locations as well
as tourists. In this case, a university works with a destination community to
develop local assets as attractions in a way that enhances rather than
depletes community wealth.
Chapter 7 is a comprehensive community engagement project that was
built around a fundamental philosophy of self-sufficiency. This uniquely
Thai concept emerged from the Thai monarchy following the economic
crisis in 1997 and has subsequently influenced higher education and
society. Benya Kasantikul outlines the 9 Boworn project at Kasetsart
University to show how social philosophy combined with university–com-
munity engagement. Chapter 8 is an important case about education for
an aging population. It is not a case of adult degree completion, but rather
a university creating active aging learning centers to promote the overall
health of an aging society.
CONCLUSION
Individually, the cases in this volume show the progressive and important
work of various institutions and academic departments. Each case gives
important contextual details on the ways in which colleges and universities
are conceptually and practically designing higher education to serve
society. Collectively, these cases represent a set of lenses on how univer-
sities are already engaged in generating public good. As a whole, they
show many avenues in which higher education can exist with a great sense
of purpose and generate value that goes beyond the presumed individual
function leading from matriculation to graduation.
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American higher education. Baltimore MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Collins, C. S. (2011). Higher education and global poverty: university partnerships
and the world bank in developing countries. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.
Collins, C. S. (2012). Land-grant extension as a global endeavor: connecting
knowledge and international d. The Review of Higher Education, 36(1),
91–124.
Collins, C. S. (2015). Land-grant extension: public good and pitfalls in evaluation.
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 19(2), 1–28.
Johnstone, D. B., & Marcucci, P. N. (2011). Financing higher education world-
wide: who pays? who should pay? Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University
Press.
Marginson, S. (2007). The public/private division in higher education: a global
revision. Higher Education, 53, 307–333.
Marginson, S. (2012). The ‘Public’ contribution of universities in an I. G. World.
In B. Pusser, K. Kempner, S. Marginson, & I. Odorika (Eds.) (pp. 7–26).
New York: Routledge.
Marginson, S. (2014). Higher education as a public good in a marketized East
Asian environment. In Y. K. Yonezawa, A. Meerman, K. Kuroda, & K.(Eds.),
Emerging international dimensions in East Asian higher education (pp. 15–33).
New York: Springer.
McMahon, W. W. (2009). Higher learning, greater good: the private and social
benefits of higher education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Neubauer, D. E. (2009). Doing quality as public policy. Redefining public and private
in Asia Pacific Higher Education. In T. W. Bilgake & D. E. Neubauer (Eds.),
Higher education in Asia/Pacific: quality and the public good (pp. 233–246).
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) (2015).
Carnegie classification community engagement. http://nerche.org/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=341&Itemid=92. Accessed Jan 15
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Samuelson, P. A. (1954). The pure theory of public expenditure. Review of
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10 C.S. COLLINS
Task Force for Higher Education and Society [TFHES]. (2000). Higher education
in developing countries: Peril and promise. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Christopher S. Collins is an assistant professor of higher education at Azusa

Pacific University and an associate director of the Asia Pacific Higher Education
Research Partnership at the East-West Center in Honolulu, HI. He studies the
function of higher education in society and its role in social and economic
progress.
CHAPTER 2
Educational Leaders and Partnerships: A

Critical Examination of the GLOBE Model
for Higher Education Contexts in the Asia
Pacific Region
Chris M. Lucas
Abstract Leading a new partnership in an unconscious, unstructured, or

random manner restricts possible success and subsequent benefits. A guid-
ing question drives this theoretical framework: how can higher education
leaders partner in effective ways with local organizations in the Asia Pacific
region while at the same time, honoring local cultural considerations? The
GLOBE studies will be used as a framework to better understand higher
education leaders’ interests and practices in community partnership crea-
tion. Perhaps productive and effective models of community partnerships
with IHEs can be found in the country clusters that emphasize team-
oriented and participative leadership as opposed to the other behaviors
such as charismatic, humane oriented, autonomous, or self-protective. An
important strength of the GLOBE studies and subsequent data allows
educational leaders from a variety of countries to better understand and
C.M. Lucas (*)

University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, United States

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_2
12 C.M. LUCAS
to collaborate with diverse constituents. A localized and common under-

standing should beget a cycle of more impactful community-based
partnerships.
Keywords Leadership models partnerships
OVERVIEW
The world is shrinking. Ever expanding online presence options continue
to bring people closer together. With proximity, people often naturally
begin to consider many ways to interact, one of which is an opportunity to
work together toward something special. Partnerships, where synergy
exists, represent perhaps the most powerful opportunities (Rapkin 1984;
Chhokar et al. 2013). In this chapter, I define a partnership as having two
key components: (1) a mutual relationship between two or more people,
and (2) a shared set of goals or, at least, goals that benefit each party.
Synergistic partnerships allow for greater communal successes than inde-
pendent efforts and distinguish themselves from basic levels of coopera-
tion or, less so, forced, top-down management practices.
With the recognition that higher education should be deeply rooted in
communities around the world, I use the notion of partnerships as an
avenue to promote community engagement. In this conceptual explora-
tion, I define one side of the partnership as those employed by institutions
of higher education, most often in roles of positional power such as
presidents, vice presidents, or others in high-level administrative positions
and are employed at campuses outside of Asia Pacific region. While con-
necting and adding partners from local institutions would aid on many
levels, it is not discussed directly in this chapter so as to maintain a focus on
new partnership creation and engagement efforts. A second partner type is
a formal business. Examples include hospitals and social welfare organiza-
tions. Lastly, there are informal organizations representative of groups that
collect together and operate temporarily to respond to a particular pro-
blem or perhaps have more fluid membership. A local team of farming
neighbors wanting to partner with institutional leaders to improve crop
yields is one example of an informal group.
I focus on the beginnings of new partnerships for institutions of higher
education and community organizations in the Asia Pacific region. The
origins of a partnership establishes the foundation for how stakeholders
2 EDUCATIONAL LEADERS AND PARTNERSHIPS . . . 13
will engage and sets the tone for how leaders will model behaviors and
inspire others. A poorly established launch to a new partnership creates
discord and typically becomes quickly apparent to all involved.
Leadership is central (Northouse 2016; Avolio et al. 2009), but the
question of how to lead a new community partnership is at large for many
institutions of higher education. What must be considered in terms of
cultural and social norms? What can external institutional leaders do to
mitigate personal agendas during the exploration stage of new partnership
formations? How might highly valued communication preferences and
norms, and other differences between people, impact initiating a partner-
ship? These questions are the backdrop for the subsequent conversation
regarding new partnerships in the Asia Pacific region (DuBrin et al. 2006;
Rapkin 1984; House and Javidan 2004).
Lastly, I feature the Asia Pacific region as the geographical context for new
partnerships. This area, inclusive of such countries as Brunei, Cambodia,
China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, encompasses a wealth of culture and
possibilities for synergy between entities. As communication with many
groups of people in all areas of the world increases, opportunities to create
partnerships also increase. The rich cultural settings in the Asia Pacific region
tend to reflect a collectivistic society where knowledge and concepts of orga-
nizational success or failure are a result of all members and not as competitive
or individualistic in nature (Chhokar et al. 2013). Partnerships in this region
will theoretically take on distinct characteristics and offer a collective richness
that may not be as strong in other regions. Given the focus of this volume and
chapter, I limit conceptual discussion to the Asia Pacific region.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Literature exists related to leading collaborative partnerships, and some
sources locate the discussion in the Asia Pacific region of our world
(Hanges et al.; DuBrin et al. 2006; House et al. 2001; Rapkin 1984).
A few create the link to community organizations, and a couple target
institutions of higher education (House and Javidan 2004; Hofstede
2001). Kezar (2014) noted that, too often, organizational leaders select
a top-down approach as opposed to more shared or collective decision-
making. Northouse (2016) authored arguably the most referenced and
influential leadership text; Leadership: Theory and Practice, currently avail-
able in a seventh edition. Within this text, the chapter Culture and
Leadership summarized research on 62 distinct cultures, representing over
14 C.M. LUCAS
25 years and 17,000 interviews of effort. These endeavors became the well-
respected GLOBE research program in 1991 and continue today.
GLOBE studies articulated a cultural leadership framework inclusive
of four parts: (1) dimensions, (2) country clusters, (3) styles, and (4)
universal attributes. Following more than 160 investigations of managers
in business settings, a core group of nine leadership dimensions emerged:
uncertainty avoidance, power distance, institutional collectivism, in-group
collectivism, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, future orientation, per-
formance orientation, and humane orientation (Hanges et al. 2011; House
et al. 2001; Northouse 2016). For example, the assertiveness dimension
described ‘ . . . how much a culture or society encourages people to be
forceful, aggressive and tough as opposed to encouraging them to be
timid, submissive, and tender in social relationships’ (p. 433). These studies
highlighted the culture persistent in the settings and thus have additive
value for both business and educational ones alike.
GLOBE scholars were also able to outline ten distinct country clusters
where like countries could be grouped together. In alphabetical order the
clusters were: Anglo, Confucian Asia, Eastern Europe, Germanic Europe,
Latin America, Latin Europe, Middle East, Nordic Europe, Southern Asia,
and Sub-Saharan Africa. The two most relevant clusters for this paper were
Confucian Asia and Southern Asia that had six countries, respectively:
China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and India,
Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand.
The third part of the framework encompassed leadership styles. The six
styles of global leadership were: (1) autonomous, (2) charismatic/value-
based leadership, (3) humane-oriented leadership, (4) participative leader-
ship, (5) self-protective leadership, and 6) team-oriented leadership
(House et al. 2001). As partnerships are a focus, I would highlight both
participative leadership and team-oriented leadership. Northouse (2016)
described participative leadership as one that ‘ . . . reflects the degree to
which leaders involve others in making and implementing decisions. It
includes being participative and nonautocratice’ (p. 440). In short, parti-
cipative leadership as a construct highlights a balanced level of participa-
tion among the various stakeholders.
Equally important in connecting to partnership formation, team-
oriented leadership is a viable and useful set of behaviors. Simply stated,
people must work together to meet the definition of partnership. Several
scholars have espoused the importance of teams in contemporary society
coupled with the notion that a single leader, even a highly intelligent,
capable, and hardworking one, cannot alone determine the best decisions
for what partnerships should happen. Many contemporary professions and
job duties are also so specialized now that one person simply is unable to
be a content expert in multiple positions.
The fourth part included the universally desirable and undesirable
attributes and completes the framework (Northouse 2016; House et al.
2001). GLOBE scholars queried thousands of individuals with the ques-
tion: what characteristics or traits do you want in a leader? Twenty two
attributes were categorized as desirable and contained many expected ones
such as honest, coordinative, just, and positive. Many of the undesirable
attributes were equally anticipated: ruthless, egocentric, and noncoopera-
tive. While certainly an important component part of the GLOBE studies,
these two attribute types arguably provide more background information
than applicability to this conceptual model.
The leadership styles of Confucian Asia and Southern Asia are similar
and generally encompass the Asia Pacific region (Northouse 2016). Both
country cluster leadership styles place the greatest emphasis upon self-
protective leadership behaviors and the least emphasis upon participative
leadership behaviors. The remaining four styles are less similarly ordered.
Given the above definition of participative leadership, the creation of new
partnerships in the Asia Pacific region could present several initial chal-
lenges. They are also in stark contrast to Nordic Europe’s cluster that
strongly supports participative and charismatic/value-based leadership
styles. These are important points of departure as next I will outline a
conceptual model for leading new partnerships in the Asia Pacific region
that consists of shifting leadership styles and behaviors, while at the same
time maintaining cultural integrity and competence.
CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR PARTNERSHIP CREATION

The GLOBE studies provide the foundation for this conceptual model.
It is an adaptation that partners with the concept of new collaborations
in the Asia Pacific region of the world. Partners may be of any type:
from within the region and the two GLOBE country cluster designa-
tions to representatives of other regions and country clusters. We must
begin with understanding the cultural context. In short, it shifts to a
much more specific setting and area of focus. And, the narrow focus
becomes more so as it is intended to offer suggestions at the start of
16 C.M. LUCAS
Possible Start of new

partnership partnership
Leadership
style inputs
Fig. 2.1 Conceptual framework for new partnership formation in the Asia Pacific
region
new ventures versus an articulation of the conception to completion of

a partnership. A visual summary exists as Fig. 2.1.
Once a possible partnership is identified by organizational leaders, the
next step is to utilize leadership style behaviors in order to achieve a
successful inception of a new partnership. Initially, the identification of
potential partners can still be made by organizational leaders who best
know the numerable internal nuances of the organization. The solid-
shaded arrow graphic in the figure represents the Asia Pacific context. It
is a simple model by design, yet arguably not simple to master. Application
of carefully considered and selected style behaviors is what can differenti-
ate true success.
Again, the first step of identifying a possible partnership meshes well
with the preferred leadership styles of leaders in Southern and Confucian
Asia. Southern Asia leaders that are ‘ . . . autocratic are more effective than
those who lead by inviting others into the decision-making process’
(Northouse 2016, p. 446) and Confucian leaders should ‘ . . . make inde-
pendent decisions without the input of others’ (Northouse 2016,
p. 443). Individual leaders can then use their best wisdom and experi-
ence to locate opportunities. However, partnerships require a minimum
of two parties.
It is this transition to the second step in the conceptual model that
presents arguably the greatest chances for success or failure. To poten-
tially complicate the start of new partnerships and as shared prior,
Southern Asia and Confucian Asia country leaders tend to emphasize
the self-protective leadership style more than any of the other five types
authored by GLOBE (House and Javidan 2004; Hanges et al. 2011).
Therefore, possibly more cooperation and a top-down approach as
opposed to collaboration occurs.
In relation to forming new partnerships, the self-protective style does

become somewhat mitigated with nearly equal emphases of team-oriented
and charismatic or value-based styles. Leaders in Confucian and Southern
Asia countries can then operationalize behaviors associated with these two
latter styles. Many options are present once a partnership is chosen. The
respective leaders, via impassioned statements, first connect the relation-
ship of the new partnership to organizational values. Second, leaders then
take a less active role and:
1. articulate that team members have the task of discussing available

resources,
2. brainstorm goals for each participating organization, and
3. allow team members to draft a series of steps needed to gain the goals.
These behaviors signal the possibility of a partnership and employ a more

collective form of decision-making. The two behaviors also maintain the
cultural norm indicative of the self-protective style, while at the same time
generating occasions for synergistic conversations.
Collaborative engagement of partners in new efforts is critical in our
diverse and increasingly specialized world (Avolio et al. 2009). At a base
level, it mandates a more team-oriented process and would provide greater
employment of the participative style of leadership which is often the style
used the least in the Asia Pacific region. Partnerships indicate mutual
benefit and an organic process not like that of mere cooperation or a
top-down leadership style (Kezar 2014; Rapkin 1984).
The third part of the conceptual model is the actual start of a new
partnership and is generally symbolic in nature. Often signified by a formal
and published announcement, a new partnership becomes public. The
announcement is often coupled with symbolic gestures of togetherness:
verbal sharing of communal benefits, balance of speaking time between
key stakeholders, visual presentation of important parts, and physical
embrace or handshake. This conceptual framework does not include
what happens once the partnership begins.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

It is important to consider new partnership formation in the Asia Pacific
region (Rapkin 1984; DuBrin et al. 2006). Aside from boasting many of
the most populace countries in the world, the Asia Pacific area industries,
18 C.M. LUCAS
knowledge bases, and outstanding quality emphasis, create numerous

opportunities for both local and more secondary settings.
Beyond consideration, we should be intentional with how new part-
nerships begin. It is helpful to follow through the three steps of the
conceptual model as well as honoring the cultural norms of the relevant
contextual settings. Truly, few things exist in our realities that could be
described as a part of our complete control. Yet, we can control much
of what we seek to know; our own knowledge base. Additionally, we
can become familiar with the prevailing cultural norms and preferred
leadership styles of prospective partners (House and Javidan 2004).
And, we certainly control what we choose to do with the knowledge
we gain. Too often in the past, people chose assimilationist strategies;
creating impressions, often intentionally, that one’s own perspectives are
superior to those of another. We can build commitment and then some
expertise of important cultural norms and styles of potential interna-
tional partners.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Understanding cultural contexts are a prerequisite for partnering with an
organization in the Asia Pacific region (DuBrin et al. 2006). Failure to do
so creates an immediate mismatch. Consider a leader from the GLOBE
country cluster of Anglo that ‘ . . . believe{s} it is ineffective if leaders are
status conscious or prone to face saving’ (Northouse 2016, p. 445) and
seeks to initiate a partnership with an organization from Indonesia, or in
the Southern Asia country cluster. An Indonesian leader tends to place
most value upon the style of leadership that the Anglo places the least.
In the prior example, one, then, can too easily tread into the thinking
that her or his own style is the ‘right’ style and the other style is somehow
‘wrong.’ Combined with a heavy dose of competitive behaviors often
associated with the Anglo cluster leaders, especially males, the mismatch
moves quickly from possible to quite likely (Northouse 2016). Mismatches
are both incomplete and can limit even the formation of a partnership,
much less the relative success.
The GLOBE framework targeting the intersection of culture and
leadership is a powerful tool for use and adaptation. Even though the
GLOBE framework is no panacea for every possible scenario, it has been
vetted through a multitude of research efforts (Hanges et al. 2011;
House et al. 2001; Northouse 2016). GLOBE studies frame our under-
standings of how to view and to appreciate the various cultural differences
associated with leadership. When linked to careful and intentional thought
considerate of cultural norms and social standards, the suggested conceptual
model expands the scope of collaboration in partnerships. All team mem-
bers then become responsible in step two for how the partnership might
function operationally, while maintaining the leaders’ responsibility to lead.
REFERENCES
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research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421–449.
Chhokar, J. S., Brodbeck, F. C., & House, R. J. (2013). Culture and leadership
across the world: the GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. New York:
Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
DuBrin, A., Dalglish, C., & Miller, P. J. (2006). Leadership: 2nd Asia-Pacific
edition. New York: Routledge.
Hanges, R. J., Javidan, P. J., Dorfman, P. W., & Gupta, V. (Eds.) (2011). Culture
leadership, and organizations: the GLOBE study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institu-
tions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
House, R. J., & Javidan, M. (2004). Overview of GLOBE. In R. J. House,
P. J. Hanges, M. Javidan, P. W. Dorfman, & V. Gupta & Associates
(Eds.), Culture, leadership, and organizations. the GLOBE study of 62
societies (pp. 9–28). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
House, R. J., Javidan, M., & Dorfman, P. (2001). Project GLOBE: an introduc-
tion. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(4), 489–505.
Kezar, A. (2014). How colleges change: understanding, leading, and enacting
change. New York: Routledge.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. 7th edition. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rapkin, D. P. (1984). Leadership and cooperative institutions in the Asia-Pacific.
Pacific cooperation: building economic and security regimes in the Asia Pacific
region. St. Leonard, NSW: Allen and Unwin, AUS.
Chris M. Lucas worked in various residence life positions and served as a part-
time instructor prior to becoming a full-time faculty member at the University of
Hawaii, Manoa, in 2014. He views higher education as both a choice and an
option to improve service to students and future generations.
CHAPTER 3
Cross-Border Higher Education: Engaging

East Asian Cities
Anh Pham
Abstract Higher education crossing national jurisdictional borders is not

a new phenomenon. However, it has been rapidly developed in Asia in the
last few decades. Notably, the heart of cross-border mobility is from and
into East Asian cities and it concerns the ongoing public and academic
debate on the presence and significance of various forms of international
higher education provision in these cities. This chapter examines cross-
border higher education (CBHE) in the forms of international education
hubs and/or branch campuses to discuss the engagement and capabilities
of these in promoting CBHE in this region. It reviews the literature of the
hubs and campuses, the global and national rationales in relation to these,
and the policy implications and their impacts on capacity building and
preferred graduate attributes. It concludes with some remarks on the urge
of addressing the gap in the literature of CBHE, mutual relationship
between CBHE and urban workforce development, and the importance
A. Pham (*)
School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Asia Graduate Center,
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_3
22 A. PHAM
of further research on CBHE graduate outcomes from employers’ per-

spectives in East Asia. Mobility and workforce development help define
community engagement with a broad, regional perspective.
Keywords Students Cross-border Partnerships
INTRODUCTION
Higher education is increasingly crossing borders and bringing new waves
of mobility, including students, programmes, and providers. All of this has
come with the emergence of international education hubs (IEHs) and/or
international branch campuses (IBCs). Significant in this contemporary
context are the changing needs of knowledge and skills and its impact on
international higher education, contributing to transforming policy and
practice and leading to emerging frameworks of the provision of higher
education across borders. Based on the evolution of international educa-
tion in the past 50 years and the analysis of the changes in language and
key concepts used to describe the international dimension of higher
education, Knight’s framework focuses on different types, modes, ratio-
nales, and providers (Knight 2012). In this framework, higher education
activities that cross borders are interchangeably referred to in the literature
as offshore, transnational, borderless, and cross-border higher education.
Knight observes that the movement of students, professors, knowledge,
and values has been part of higher education for many decades but only in
the past 20 years has there been significant growth in the mobility of
programmes, providers, and services. Critical to her observation are inter-
national education hubs and international branch campuses (Lane 2011a),
which facilitate development promotion and capacity building when
higher education crosses national jurisdictional borders (Knight 2006).
This chapter examines cross-border higher education (CBHE) in East
Asian cities in the forms of IEHs and/or IBCs to explore the engagement
and capabilities of promoting CBHE in the region.
EDUCATION HUBS VS BRANCH CAMPUSES

Governments may often view IEHs and IBCs similarly. However, they are
incomparable entities. Although a hub is more of a concept and rhetorical
tool rather than an actual entity, an IBC is an actual academic institution
3 CROSS-BORDER HIGHER EDUCATION: ENGAGING EAST ASIAN CITIES 23
which governments may use to help them develop educational hubs and,
as such, an IBC is an international activity mediated between a home and a
host institution located in different countries (Lane 2011b). This current
research adopts the following detailed definitions of IBCs and IEHs:
An international branch campus is defined as an entity that is owned, at least

in part, by a foreign education provider; engages in at least some face-to-face
teaching; and provides access to an entire academic program that leads to a
credential awarded by the foreign education provider.
(Lane 2011a, p. 5)
An education hub is a planned effort to build a critical mass of local and

international actors strategically engaged in cross-border education, train-
ing, knowledge production and innovation initiatives in response to the
increased demand for post-secondary education.
(Knight 2011)
There have been many different hubs; however, the differences between hubs
are clearer when they are situated in the context of different kinds of cross-
border mobility. Knight (2014) classified CBHE into three main types:
student mobility, programme and provider mobility, and education hubs.
Student mobility refers to the movement of the students who are taking a full
degree abroad, or those who are participating in a semester or a year-abroad
programme as part of their academic programme at their home university, or
students who are enrolled in collaborative degree programmes such as dou-
ble/joint franchise, twinning or sandwich programmes. Programme and
provider mobility refers to the movement of programmes or institutions or
companies across jurisdictional borders for delivery of education and training
in a foreign country. This movement is characterised by articulation arrange-
ments, joint/double degrees, and massive open online courses.
However, the representative status of the hubs for a wider and more
strategic configuration of actors and activities is noted to demonstrate that
each hub is described as a concrete and planned effort by a country or zone
or city to build a critical mass of local and international actors to strengthen
the higher education sector, expand the talent pool, and contribute to the
knowledge economy (Knight 2014). Three main hub models include stu-
dent hubs, talent hubs, and knowledge or innovation hubs (Knight 2013).
The first hub model, namely, the student hub is the most popular with the
key activity of training local and international students. The rationale of this
hub demonstrated here, according to this author, is to attract foreign higher
24 A. PHAM
education institutions and encourage them to offer franchise and twinning

programmes or establish branch campuses as a means to (1) expand access to
higher education for local students, (2) generate revenue from student fees,
(3) build the capacity of local higher education institutions, (4) internatio-
nalise the domestic higher education system, and (5) enhance profile, brand-
ing, ranking of higher education institutions and the country.
The second hub model, the talent hub, shares almost the same princi-
ple, of inviting international higher education institutions to provide
academic programmes and professional development opportunities
aimed at international, expatriate, and national students as well as local
employees. However, this hub model, as noted in Knight (2013), has a
different overarching goal of human resource development for a skilled
workforce with specific objectives of expanding the talent pool of skilled
workers, building a service-based or knowledge-based economy, increas-
ing economic competitiveness and influence in the region and beyond,
and strengthening the quality and relevance of labour.
The last hub model, as described in Knight (2013), is the knowledge or
innovation hub, which goes beyond education and training to include the
production and distribution of knowledge and innovation. The focus of
the rationale is shifted, as explained by the author, to attract not only
universities but also research institutes and companies through favourable
business incentives to establish a base in the country and to collaborate
with local partners to develop applied research, knowledge, and innova-
tion with the objectives of building a knowledge-based economy, attract-
ing direct foreign investment, building the capacity of local research and
development centres, and enhancing ‘soft power’ for economic growth.
GLOBAL–NATIONAL RATIONALES OF HUB STRATEGIES

In an effort to explain the rationales of education hubs from the viewpoint
of national economic benefits, Mok (2012) stated that education hubs can
be designed for the purpose of extending the soft power of the imported
nation to enhance national competitiveness in the global market. This
suggests a myriad of economic, social, cultural, and political consequences
on societies, especially related to national workforce development.
International partnerships and/or IBC initiatives are started as one of
the hub strategies in order to keep the graduates within the regional
and/or national boundaries (Knight 2014). As the governments of the
host countries have well acknowledged the risk of the loss of young talent
overseas from the first generation of cross-border graduates (Mok 2011;
Welch 2011), the presence of IBCs is not only to keep local students from
studying abroad but also to attract foreign students to come to study
within the host country (Lane 2011b) to demonstrate educational aspects
of the hubs.
Hub strategies, therefore, go beyond the aim of the importation of
programmes and/or providers to prevent the negative effects of a
possible international ‘brain drain’ towards the aspiration of regional
‘brain gain’ for sustainable economic development. Government edu-
cational initiatives, according to Mok (2011), are for capacity building
with a firm focus on enhancing regional cooperation in higher educa-
tion. This explanation supports what was observed in Lane (2011b)
that the shared interest of governments in developing IBCs is primarily
economic.
Although education hubs may be scaled as regional education hubs with
the engagement of IBCs, the means of integrating the international dimen-
sion in higher education is another matter of debate. Lane (2011a) raised
managerial and leadership challenges in the global expansion of CBHE,
particularly concerning the capacity of a transnational provider’s educational
leadership and management to deal with the demands of the host-country
environment when providing institutions seek to extend their academic
presence and/or operations with representative offices, joint degree pro-
grammes, and branch campuses. The host-country environment may have
cultural differences and be full of regulatory ambiguities, so it is important
to understand local conditions and cultural impact on the operations of
CBHE institutions. He also warns those responsible for managing and
leading IBCs in developing countries, in environments very different from
their home campuses, about challenges they most likely will not have faced
elsewhere. He suggested examining differences in local conditions to adapt
existing policies and practices to best meet local demands, while still
respecting the standards and ethos of the home campus.
To minimise the risk of fraudulent CBHE, Lane et al. (2013) raised the
issue of regulating CBHE activities for both importing and exporting govern-
ments. They use the USA as a case study of how governments regulate the
import and export of public colleges and universities. They identified the
primary areas of state regulation as approving expansion, mandating adminis-
trative requirements, providing comparable programmes, and protecting
domestic sector from unnecessary competition with very limited control on
26 A. PHAM
quality. They point out that there are more extensive regulations for state
oversight of CBHE for importing than exporting activities to highlight the
areas of future research. They questioned the regulations of Southeast Asian
countries regarding both their importing and exporting of foreign colleges
and universities, and ‘the diversity inherent in multiple regulatory regimes in
the transnational education environment’ (p.169), where regulations on the
importation of private higher education have kept changing (McBurnie and
Ziguras 2007).
The needs of taking into account local government expectations of
public purposes are discussed in Lane and Kinser (2011), where they
highly recommended reconsidering the ‘sometimes public nature of pri-
vate activity’ of CBHE (p. 255). On one side, CBHE represents the
privatisation of international higher education, and conversely, host coun-
tries may expect education hubs to achieve their public aims. They exam-
ined the concept of privatisation through CBHE initiatives to argue that
CBHE’s dual nature, namely, both public and for-profit private, can only
be fully understood by considering the relationships with the home and
the host countries based on their comparison of how foreign education
provision is utilised by governments in Qatar and the Malaysia state of
Sarawak to support their goals of state development. The practice of using
foreign education providers to support government goals is characterised
in their study as ‘seemingly public’ to show how their ‘in-between’ nature
might be problematic for traditional concepts of privatisation. These
authors’ analysis of data from their fieldwork in the two locations proves
that ‘activities interpreted as private in nature from the perspective of the
home government can be interpreted as public from the perspective of the
host country’ (p. 271). These findings, according to the authors, challenge
the conventional belief that CBHE provision does not fulfil public pur-
poses. The conceptualisation of private CBHE activities must take into
account local government expectations of public purposes. This leads
logically to an examination of the aspirations of local government in
their CBHE engagement.
Welch (2011) expressed concern at the stretching of capacity in
response to endlessly increasing demands for higher levels of education in
his analysis on the blurred borders between public and private higher
education. He showed that the aspirations, ambitions, and constraints of
constructing knowledge economies in many countries may put even
greater pressure on institutional practice. The pressures are all the more
concerning given the ‘ongoing scholarly neglect’ of research due to the fact
that transnational education, in many cases, is treated as peripheral, and is

left in the margins, through misunderstanding local practices when making
changes in higher education is fraught with risks (Ziguras 2011). At the
same time, it undercuts the effectiveness of efforts of governments to find
possible solutions for expanding access to higher education and enhancing
the international competiveness of their national institutions. Notably in
the academic debate of previous research (Altbach and Knight 2007; Jon
2013; Leask 2009), the rationales and policy for the internationalisation of
higher education in Southeast Asia are discussed that are increasingly
important and integral to the internationalisation of higher education.
Host-Country Regulations and Institutional Innovations

This section discusses the impact of the regulations on international
education provision as CBHE operations, when extended into other
countries, are bound by the regulations of the host countries (Stella and
Bhushan 2011). Vincent-Larcin (2007) argued that the achievement of
the capacity-building benefits of CBHE requires a suitable national reg-
ulatory policy for its sustainable delivery and practice. He suggested look-
ing at local government regulatory policy to better understand the ways
that local regulations can affect cross-border educational partnership
arrangements. He explained that such a national policy would encourage
and initiate investment into educational projects. In turn, the investment
via financial partnerships among local and international donors can con-
tribute greatly to financing modern infrastructure and equipment.
Reviewing current literature in regulating CBHE in Southeast Asia,
Ziguras and McBurnie (2011) reflected on case studies in Malaysia and
Hong Kong to demonstrate that local governments have used regulatory
frameworks as a means to filter out substandard programmes and provi-
ders as they deal with a growing presence of cross-border education
provision. In an effort to protect students from importation of pro-
grammes considered of low quality, various regulations set out conditions
for entry and rules of conduct of transnational provision, which have
stimulated debate about quality assurance in cross-border education pro-
vision, and debate about the relationship between education as a public
good and education as a tradeable service in an international market.
In the case of Hong Kong, for example, the key rationale for regulating
trade in transnational education, as discussed in these authors’ earlier publica-
tions, was consumer protection (McBurnie and Ziguras 2001). Accordingly,
28 A. PHAM
the procedure set for registration requires that all providers must apply for
registration except those in the partnership arrangements between foreign
providers and one of the 11 government-recognised Hong Kong higher
and post-secondary institutions; an application for ‘exemption from registra-
tion’ is required for the providers working under the relevant partnership
arrangements. The information required for both registration and exemption
covered up-to-date details of course content, delivery modes, entry require-
ments, staff profiles, facilities, and support services. Other details on quality
procedures in relation to course design, student admission, course delivery,
assessment arrangements, and management of local arrangements were also
required for the application. The reason for requiring such information was
to make it publicly available to students and other stakeholders in order to
assist them in making informed choices. However, it is worth noting that
Hong Kong did not attempt to directly regulate the quality of transnational
higher education, or shape the content, level, or cost of courses offered by
foreign providers, but rather left these decisions to the market. The role of
government is confined to ensuring that all participants in the market have
been provided with necessary information for informed choices by the con-
sumers (McBurnie and Ziguras 2001).
In the case of Malaysia, according to McBurnie and Ziguras (2001),
government legislation for cross-border education provision was strictly
regulated. Maintaining governmental control over the emerging private
higher education sector required that institutions meet what the govern-
ment considered as the cultural and economic needs of the nation. The way
that regulation operated may be summarised in the four steps required for
an application from private higher education institutions: submission of
application to the Ministry of Education to gain approval for establishing a
private higher educational institution by foreign providers; incorporation
of a company locally after being invited by the Minister; registration
application to the Department of Private Education after being granted
establishment approval; and application to the Ministry of Education for
permission to conduct each course of study or training programme once
the institution is registered. The wider conclusion drawn about Malaysian
regulation of the provision of cross-border education is that the host
government’s regulatory framework can affect the scale and scope of
provision in particular countries (McBurnie and Ziguras 2001).
The preceding discussion of the host-country regulation of CBHE sug-
gests the usefulness of looking into existing literature of the adaptation of
learning by onshore international providers to identify the gap in current
debates of internationalising higher education (Jones and Killick 2013;

Leask and Bridge 2013; Leask 2009, 2005) and the importance of institu-
tional innovations for offshoring higher education. Among these authors,
Leask (2005) demonstrated the responsibility of universities in preparing all
graduates to live and work in a global society, and focused on the importance
of curriculum design of identifying and integrating the range of knowledge,
skills, and attitudes needed for students to contribute to current and future
global knowledge societies. The importance of taking a holistic approach to
the internationalisation of curriculum stresses that content alone is insuffi-
cient. The principle of engaging with the relevant curriculum is highlighted
through her demonstration of an international and intercultural dimension
to the preparation, delivery, and outcomes of learning as well as the learning
and teaching processes and support services of a programme of study (Leask
2009). Different layers of local, national, regional, and global impacts on the
theory and practice of internationalisation of the curriculum across the
disciplines are considered (Leask and Bridge 2013).
However, it is worth considering that Leask (2009) also noted a
common misconception of the process of adapting a curriculum to be
taught offshore. She pointed out that the process of modifying the curri-
culum to ensure students are provided with appropriate opportunities to
develop the desired learning outcomes in the local context is a process of
contextualisation or localisation rather than one of internationalisation
because the purposes of internationalising curriculum are differentiated
to clarify effective processes for effective curriculum design (Leask 2009).
While internationalisation of higher education is basically defined as the
process of putting international dimensions into higher education activ-
ities (Knight 2010, p. 205), contextualisation or localisation within trans-
national education provision is, accordingly, seen as part of a bigger
picture of the internationalisation and, as such, suggests looking at the
customisation of transnational academic offerings in its specific market to
understand the extent that CBHE provision contributes and/or responds
to local human capacity-building needs.
Concurrent with the discussion of internationalisation of curriculum is
the adoption of a global outlook as a graduate attribute (Jones and Killick
2013). These authors described the process of developing, defining, and
embedding a global outlook as one of the three main graduate attributes;
it entails a focus on course content and classroom pedagogy in the process
of internationalisation of curriculum of a particular institution. Based on
the holistic approach developed by Leask (2009), they provide detailed
30 A. PHAM
descriptions of the application of Leask’s concepts in their work with

academics across an institution, to design and implement learning out-
comes at modular and programme levels to support student achievement
through a continuous process of constructive alignment of curriculum
with the requirements of the world of work. This work suggests possible
methods for investigating how modifications of transnational curriculum
may work at different institutional levels, from university to programme
and through to each unit or module, and it suggests the voices which
should be included in the investigation.
Furthermore, the inclusion of interactions between international students
and domestic students in both formal and informal curriculum development
can enhance the language competence of all students. Such inclusion, and
the internationalisation of curriculum approach, provides the foundation for
understanding students’ intercultural competence as discussed in Jon
(2013). Both authorities suggest that current research might look more
deeply at graduate language and intercultural competences. Research from
the perspective of adaptation for offshore transnational education is almost
entirely absent in existing body of literature. This tightens up further
research in the implications of host-country policy of internationalisation
of higher education and their impacts on the potential of capacity building
through CBHE and the types of preferred CBHE graduate outcomes.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND IMPACTS ON CAPACITY BUILDING

AND GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
This section discusses policy implications on CBHE provision in host coun-

tries as it has shown from the literature that local governments’ policy would
greatly affect international provision of higher education in the importing
countries (McBurnie and Ziguras 2007; Vincent-Larcin 2007). The wider
policy implications of the rapid expansion of transnational higher education
should not be underestimated (Mok 2012), and the process of educational
policy evaluation and formation that is ongoing in many developing coun-
tries is often neglected in the various debates within international higher
education (Hirosato 2009). Also, there have been surprisingly few studies
about cross-border education conducted from the developmental perspec-
tives of receiving countries except those on the public policy of international
higher education (Lane and Kinser 2011; Marginson and McBurnie 2004).
The following section, therefore, explores further in this direction.
Policy Implications
The idea of a policy instrument to advance the internationalisation of
higher education and research was aired by Marginson and McBurnie
(2004) as a means to make international higher education accessible,
available, and affordable for the public good. The debate on the possible
role of cross-border education provision in a country’s capacity-building
strategies for tertiary education was initiated by Vincent-Larcin (2007),
who described the role of CBHE as a developmental tool to support both
the domestic tertiary education system and the labour market. This role
was named in Knight (2007) as a human resource development tool and
specified in Ziguras (2011) as a means of human capacity building.
Looking at cross-border provision of higher education in the Asia-
Pacific region, Ziguras (2011) held the view of ‘capacity building through
transnational education’ (p. 179). He emphasises the significance of the
mobility of students, educational programmes, and institutions in the
region and demonstrates local government power in accelerating access,
equity, and capacity building for their domestic higher education. His
argument is based on the fact that although international education in
the region seems destined to be overwhelmingly self-funded in the near
future, there is still much that government can do to broaden access. He
also stresses that for internationally mobile students, it is quite clear that
access to scholarships and subsidised tuition is important for the fortunate
minority, but for the majority who are self-funded, access to student loans
and the ability to work in the host country are crucial to enable those
without privileged backgrounds to study overseas.
The question raised here focuses on the characteristics of provision in
each providing site, and how foreign providers, entire countries as well as
higher education institutions adapt to cope with national capacity buil-
ding. As capacity in higher education is ‘inherently reflexive and co-varies
with purposes’ (Neubauer 2011, p. 44), one of the most critical issues that
needs to be addressed is the quality and relevance of CBHE services. The
central part of this study is the level of supply that cross-border education
can contribute to higher education in the receiving countries in the
region, and the institutional adjustment to capacity-building strategies of
those receiving countries that is needed. As Singapore, Hong Kong, and
Malaysia are among the key actors in cross-border education, the literature
on international education in these countries acknowledges the important
role of CBHE in their capacity building. Exploration of CBHE provision
32 A. PHAM
in these countries is likely to provide useful lessons. The key point to be

drawn from these countries’ regulatory mechanisms is that the way those
governments regulate CBHE can have a significant impact on their con-
tribution to capacity building. Singapore and Malaysia have encouraged
high-quality foreign universities to enter, often in partnership with local
private providers, and have built up their private sectors as a result.
However Hong Kong, with a consumer protection approach, has not
been able to generate the building up of local capacity. Hence, for limited
aim of this chapter, the discussion relating to regulating CBHE focuses on
the purpose of regulatory policy, and whether it actually supports or
prevents the provision of CBHE, and the question of its impact on foreign
education providers.
Impacts on Capacity Building

McNamara (2013) identified five different categories of possible impact at
the national, institutional, and individual levels in his analysis on the impact
that CBHE is making to the capacity-building strategy of local host cities.
He analysed the ways that one of the major categories of impact—human
resource development—contributes positively to the human capital of
receiving countries, and asks whether or not cross-border education may
provide a better-trained workforce for a receiving country and effectively
respond to labour market needs and skill gaps. The impacts of transnational
education on human resource development in the case of China are weak
because CBHE provision in China focuses on business-related subjects, for
the best and highest paying jobs, rather than addressing areas of skill short-
falls in the economy. At this point, individualising the benefits and potential
risks for each country raises questions about the effects of quite different
political and economic mechanisms, the national skill strategy, and the types
of skill required for specific urban knowledge society. The following section
discusses impacts of host-country policy on CBHE graduate attributes in
detail.
Impacts on Graduate Attributes

This section considers the embedding of particular knowledge, skills, and
attitudes required for graduates’ work readiness in institutional innova-
tions for offshoring higher education. Reviewing of available CBHE lit-
erature shows that recent research studies are mostly about quality
provision of CBHE services from the perspectives of the providing coun-

tries (Albach and Knight 2007; Stella and Bhushan 2011; Ziguras and
McBurnie 2011). The fact that higher education services have moved
across national borders, and offshore education sites are considered as
‘remote outposts’ when it comes to teaching and learning practices
(McBurnie and Ziguras 2007, p. 47), might have motivated these authors’
interest in how to ensure degree programmes delivered offshore are of the
same quality (in regard to their graduate attributes) as those provided
onshore for international students. The pertinent matters—and they are
missing from the literature—are in-depth discussion of student learning
and graduate outcomes. As the scale and array of offerings in international
education have expanded and the arrays of both onshore and transnational
educational delivery have grown, and concerns about CBHE graduate
outcomes are increasingly questioned.
Cuthbert et al. (2008) presented an overview of what is known about
the outcomes of Australian international education. These authors argued
that although Australia has been a significant provider of international
education in the Asia-Pacific region since the 1950-inception of the
Colombo Plan, and in the last decade, the ‘Endeavour Scheme’, very little
is known about the education outcomes for the graduates of Australian
international higher education. Even less-sustained research has explored
the links between higher education and capacity building. To go beyond
the Australian research context, the authors discuss other research con-
ducted by major philanthropic and non-government providers of scholar-
ship assistance such as AusAID and the World Bank to argue for the need
to rethink what is meant by outcomes. They emphasised the need for
research into the medium- to long-term outcomes of Australian-educated
international graduates. Little is known about the value, relevance, and
outcomes of international graduates of Australian education over time,
and further research on the international students’ Australian study experi-
ence is needed to ensure that Australian universities are providing educa-
tion of quality and relevance to the many thousands of students from all
over the world now studying within Australian institutions.
Concerning the market relevance of generic skills and attributes that
international students obtain from overseas study with an international
education curriculum, Campbell (2010) questioned whether the skills
and attributes defined by Western society are relevant for returning grad-
uates. He argued that the process of skill development occurs in the
influence of the cultural, ideological, economic, and political context to
34 A. PHAM
suggest exercising some degree of caution before assuming that Western

generic skills are globally relevant. Prior research confirmed that it is the
experience of studying with students from diverse backgrounds in an
environment that models the generic skills that the university aims to
develop, rather than university policy, makes the difference in developing
generic skills. Drawing upon these findings, he indicates the minor con-
tributor to the development of generic skills and/or attributes among
international students of Australian universities. He also demonstrated
the impact of social and political context, culture, opportunity, and indivi-
dual status within the Australian community on the relevance of these skills
and/or attributes to the professional careers of international students.
Cai (2013) developed a conceptual framework, which this author notes
is still at an early stage of development, for employers’ understandings of
the value of graduates with similar educational credentials in the work-
place. This framework relates to the development of employers’ beliefs
about graduates’ employability and how to foster the development of
proactive interactions between universities and employers. To detail grad-
uate outcomes of international students in Australia, an Australian
Education International (2010) report on international graduate out-
comes and employers’ perceptions of graduates of Australian institutions
shows that Australian-educated international graduates have positive
employment outcomes after graduation and contribute a valued source
of labour for both Australian and offshore employers. They satisfy employ-
ers’ expectations in terms of their performance at work and consequently
become the preferred choice for most employers.
Looking through regional perspectives, Koda et al. (2011) explored
whether publicly funded CBHE programmes yielded their expected out-
comes regarding graduate employment over the past 10 years in the
rapidly changing Malaysian economic and higher education landscape.
Using data on a CBHE programme between Malaysia and Japan, namely
the Higher Education Loan Project, these authors claim this programme’s
intended outcomes in terms of post-graduation employment were
achieved, and that graduates have been absorbed into the manufacturing
sector in line with the intent of the programmes’ and graduates’ inten-
tions. The study revealed no significant differences in the labour market
outcomes of different models of CBHE delivery in the two countries.
However, a limitation of this research is that it reflects outcomes of
CBHE programmes in electronics and mechanical engineering, which
are not popular and very small in scale. The research identifies the
responsiveness of graduates to industry demands by Japanese firms that

operate in the Malaysian manufacturing sector, indicating that this kind of
CBHE is successful in developing human resources for the intended local
industries.
In relation to returning graduates, as cited in an AEI’s report (AEI
2010), there are more than one-half of the major Chinese employers
interviewed prefer overseas graduates for management positions over
students graduating within China. Major reasons cited included
English proficiency, effective communication skills, and creative ability.
This report also describes a strong and growing demand for internation-
ally educated, English-speaking Thais with qualifications from English-
speaking countries in another research conducted in Thailand. However,
here too the research literature presents only part of the evidence of
employers’ satisfaction with graduates from the onshore education pro-
grammes of international education providers—the satisfaction of these
employers with the performance of the group of offshore graduates is
somewhat lower. The differences in employer perceptions of the two
graduate groups bring into question the differences in institutional
operational, planning, and teaching between onshore and offshore pro-
grammes, the factors that employers consider important, and which
attributes graduates think potential employers seek when employing
graduates. Results from this report show a surprising mismatch between
graduates’ views of the most important attributes that employers look
for, and those that employers actually value. In sum, the ‘relevance’ of
CBHE programmes and their impact on graduate outcomes remain
problematic in the literature of CBHE.
To date, there has been little research on the experience of transna-
tional learning by foreign researchers, the ‘outsiders’, as the emphasis has
been on transnational student voices (Chapman and Pyvis 2012; Dunn
and Wallace 2008; Hoare 2012). Central to the discussion of Dunn and
Wallace (2008) is the differentiation of transnational learning experi-
ences between Asian students at home, with wide exposure to the educa-
tional traditions of their own culture, and those who relocate to another
country to undertake a Western degree. The need for further research
about the identity formation and cultural capital accumulation of these
two groups is thus demonstrated. Chapman and Pyvis (2012) drew upon
the results of a case study of Singaporean students in Australian offshore
programmes and referred to offshore students as ‘subject to culture
shock’ and identified stress indicators that affect their learning, but this
36 A. PHAM
is not more of a problem than for onshore international students (p. 6).
This indicates that learning experiences offshore should also be incorpo-
rated into discussion of the nature, effects, and consequences of culture
shock for international students. However, little is actually known about
the culture shock facing ‘returnees’ from overseas study, or the ‘second
chance learners’ of transnational education programmes (Robertson
et al. 2011), as they struggle to apply the knowledge and skills acquired
from their international education experience to their local working
environment. The question raised here is whether there exists a gap
between the learning outcomes that institutions and students target
and the expectation of employers, and whether student voices are differ-
ent from those of institutions and employers regarding this concern.
A longitudinal ethnographic study of one programme in Singapore
investigated the experience of transnational students (Hoare 2012).
Findings of adaptations made, including those by ‘second chance’ stu-
dents and those in lifelong learning, show results at odds with the negative
press about transnational education at the time of writing. The graduates
are reported as achieving high-level positional outcomes and developing
transformative learning habits. The author did not claim to measure the
outcomes of transnational education as a whole, but the findings do attest
to students’ positive perceptions of relevance, usage, and endurance of
learning through transnational education programmes. It still remains
unclear that these positive results are shared at other sites of transnational
education provision. Negative responses are reported in Robertson et al.
(2011) for the participants’ Australian qualifications and for the roles they
take in career advancement. Unanswered questions include whether
employers nominate differences, if any, between degree and professional
capabilities in describing graduate employment satisfaction. If so, what are
employers’ perceptions of the knowledge and skills that international
students gained from the various types of international education pro-
grammes? This leads to the urgent needs of exploring employers’ perspec-
tives of the graduate attributes of CBHE students in local host cities.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
CBHE provision through IEHs and/or IBCs displays a mutual relation-
ship between urban development and CBHE (Wilmoth 2013). However,
there is a question of mutual recognition, which calls for more research on
employers’ perspectives of the graduate attributes of CBHE students in
local labour markets to see whether the high prices of CBHE programmes
are consistent with market value, given graduates’ preparation for high-
value job. As such, to what extent CBHE graduates with the same level of
domestic higher education degrees serve the same or higher value-adding
jobs?
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40 A. PHAM
Anh Pham is a university lecturer with over 15 years of experience in tertiary

education, especially in internationalization of higher education in Vietnam. Her
recent doctoral research at RMIT focused on the contribution of transnational
higher education to workforce development in Ho Chi Minh City. She has worked
for RMIT University and Deakin University, Australia, HCMC University of
Technology and Education, Vietnam, Heriot-Watt University, UK, Tyndale
Education Group, Singapore, and in a voluntary capacity with organizations in
Vietnam and Australia including Don Bosco Vocational and Settlement Project
and UNESCO Cultural Exchange Programs in Vietnam. She has presented a
number of papers at international conferences and has begun publishing her
research work as book chapters and journal articles.
CHAPTER 4
The Challenges and Benefits

of Transnational Higher Education: A Case
Study of Sino-Foreign Cooperation
University in China
Xiao Han
Abstract Transnational higher education (TNHE) has been developing

in China since the 1980s due to the positive disposition of the central
government and the strong financial/political support from local autho-
rities. This chapter analyses the local governments’ motivation and the
benefits generated through establishing Sino-foreign cooperation univer-
sities. It begins with the brief introduction about TNHE in the context of
Chinese economic and political context and then turns to the discussion of
the strong support from the subnational governments. The following part
explores a case of the benefits one Sino-foreign cooperation university on
the surrounding community. The chapter concludes with policy implica-
tions and recommendations for future studies.
X. Han (*)
The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_4
42 X. HAN
Keywords Transnational higher education Sino-foreign cooperation

university Local governments Surrounding community
INTRODUCTION
Globalization and Internationalization: The Rise
of Transnational Higher Education
The ever-increasingly connected world and the ensuing intensified competi-
tion among countries jointly compel the national governments to emphasize
more on education sector and higher education institutions (HEIs) to ‘pre-
pare students for living and working in a more connected, interdependent,
and globalized world’ while ‘the research and scholarship need to contribute
to national and international issues’ (Knight 2004, p. 14). The global fever for
higher education (HE) and the changing nature of HE, from public good to
private commodity, stimulate the trade of HE services. HE export/import has
developed not only in local markets but also in the global market. For
example, developed nations with world-renowned HE systems including the
USA, the UK and Australia are actively selling their HE services crossing the
national boundaries to the relatively underdeveloped/developing ones, espe-
cially in Asia-Pacific region. Transnational higher education (TNHE) has thus
become a widely popular phenomenon throughout the world. China is one of
the receiving countries who are eager to import high-quality HE resources for
the purpose of improving domestic research and teaching quality.
TNHE, according to the definition proposed by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is ‘all types
of HE study where the learners are located in a country different from the one
where awarding institution is based’ (UNESCO/Council of Europe 2001,
http://www.cepes.ro/hed/recogn/groups/transnat/code.htm).
Researchers may employ other terminologies such as cross-border education,
offshore education or borderless education and use them interchangeably in
describing the same cross-boundary education trade. However, as borderless
education weakens the sense of border and thus generates difficulties in
clarifying the regulatory and quality assurance responsibility (Knight 2006),
in this chapter I adopt the term transnational higher education to denote all
the equivalent terminologies in different countries except borderless education.
TNHE has been developed rapidly worldwide in the recent few dec-
ades. The number of mobile students increased from 238,000 in the
1960s to 4.1 million in 2010 and is expected to double in 10–15 years
4 THE CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS OF TRANSNATIONAL . . . 43
(Knight 2014), indicating the continuous expansion of TNHE both in

scope and scale in the foreseeable future. By 2024, it is anticipated that the
number of international students will surge to 3.85 million, from 3.04 mil-
lion in 2011 (British Council 2012). The top sources of the international
mobile students will be the Asia-Pacific region. Pursuant to the report
‘Education Indicators in Focus’ promulgated by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the major source
countries of international students are China, India and Korea, and the
proportion of Asian students account for 53% of all the mobile students
globally in 2011 (OECD 2013). The British Council went further to
predict that India and China will contribute 35% of the number of mobile
students during the forecast period (namely, from 2011 to 2024) (British
Council 2012).
TRANSNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION IN CHINA: POLICY

BACKGROUND AND THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT
Education plays an increasingly important role in the global world, which
forces the policymakers in nearly every country to create more education
opportunities for their citizens, hoping to produce high-quality labour and
thus meet the demand of the global market. However, there is a paradox
under this situation. Globalization has created the need for HE, while at the
same time the fierce competition among nations due to the impact of globa-
lization compel governments to cut tax rates to attract more overseas invest-
ments. They are often incapable of providing sufficient financial support for
domestic HEIs. The phenomenon of globalization has been inevitably linked
with an emphasis on markets and a reduction of state interference in the light
of neoliberal theory (Larner 2000), leading to the decrease of government
expenditure. For many countries, globalization also can involve a debt crisis.
Governments have to deal with the budget deficits, interest payments, and use
tax incentives to attract foreign investments (Stewart 1996). On the basis of
the World Bank Educational Sector Policy Paper (1996), Carnoy (1998,
p. 25) has summarized the recommendation to the governments:
• Shifting public funding for education from higher to lower levels of

education
• Expanding secondary and higher education through increased
privatization
44 X. HAN
• Reducing public spending per pupil in countries with ‘high’ teacher

to pupil ratios
• In primary and secondary education (less than 1:40) through
increasing class size
• Increasing quality of education through relatively costless ‘efficiency’
reforms, such as decentralization
The dilemma national governments confronted gave rise to a worldwide

trend of decentralization and marketization during the last half century. HE
is not immune from this tendency (Bennett 1997; Oxhorn et al. 2004;
Ahmad and Brosio 2006; Bardhan and Mookherjee 2006). Just like other
governments in the developing world, the Chinese government has adopted
the two methods, decentralization and marketization as coping strategies to
respond to the increasing pressure brought by globalization (Robertson
1992). The decentralizing and marketizing trends are obvious in HE,
since it is the most sensitive area to the impact of globalization (Scott
2000). As the integral part of Chinese HE system (State Council 2003),
the influences of education reform in the 1980s have great impact on the
development of TNHE and shaped the central government’s attitude.
The insufficiency of Chinese tertiary education system created obstacles
for sustainable economic growth. The central government became keen to
encourage democratic parties, people bodies, social organizations, retired
cadres and intellectuals, collective economic organizations and individuals
to create more HE opportunities (Wei and Zhang 1995). Minban colleges,
second-tier colleges and transnational cooperations have emerged and
become increasingly popular. Ever since its first appearance in the mid-
1980s, TNHE developed quickly in China as in other parts of the world.
The number of cooperation activities has increased from 2 in the mid-1980s
to 745 in 2004 (Huang 2010), and to 1110 in 2015 (Mok and Han 2015).
This rapid increase is largely due to the gradually standardized national
policies and the active participation of local governments.
The first national policy regulating TNHE was the Notice on Cooperation
with Foreign Institutions and Individuals in Running Schools in China,
issued in 1993, followed by the release of the Provisional Stipulation on
Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools by the Ministry Of
Education (MOE) (once named as the State Education Commission from
1985 to 1998) in 1995. As Mok and Han (2016) stated, the documents,
especially the Provisional Stipulation, ‘demonstrated one significant step of
the Chinese government in regulating TNHE since it formally included
transnational cooperation activities into the Chinese HE system’ (p. 23). In

line with national policy, TNHE was labelled as Zhongwai Hezuo Banxue
(Sino-foreign cooperation in education area), which meant the foreign HEIs
had no choice but to launch academic programs by collaborating with
Chinese institutions. As Mok and Chan (2012) suggested, ‘foreign partners
are now allowed to secure a majority ownership of TNHE institutions, yet
they remain prohibited from establishing and running an institution on their
own’ (p. 117). In other words, it is important to recognize that ‘the wider
context’ in China, ‘despite a certain degree of liberalization in education
system’, still remains ‘state planning’, which ‘imposes the leadership of the
Chinese Communist Party upon its President and the management team’ of
universities (Mok and Chan 2012, pp. 122–126). TNHE in China is also
subject to the will of Chinese government.
Failing to recognize the fact that the main purpose of those education
export countries such as Australia, the UK and so forth, has already
changed from ‘assistance’ to ‘trade’ (Mok and Chan 2012, p. 115), the
1995 document disallowed profit generating through transnational coop-
erations. According to Mok and Chan (2012), ‘before China joined the
WTO, the government adopted TNHE as a policy tool to help create
additional higher education learning opportunities for local high school
graduates, instead of conceiving of it as a form of trade’ (p. 115). The
following 1996 paper, Notice on Strengthening the Management of Degree-
granting in Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, reinforced
the illegalization of profit-seeking activities.
After joining WTO in 2001, a new policy, the Regulations of the People’s
Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, was
issued by the Chinese government in September 2003. This regulation
openly recognizes the changing nature of HE, from public to private or
semi-private good, and thus treating TNHE as a profitable commodity. In
addition, the Chinese government clearly demonstrated its intention to
improve the quality of teaching and learning and offer local universities
foreign educational resources by encouraging collaboration with presti-
gious overseas HEIs to operate advanced academic programmes (State
Council 2003). The newest policy, the National Medium and Long-Term
Educational Reform and Development Planning Outline in 2010, has
reinforced the emphasis on importing high-quality educational resources
for the purpose of improving the domestic education systems and to
cultivate students capable of dealing with the international business and
global competition (MOE 2010).
46 X. HAN
In short, the development of TNHE, with reference to the changing

attitude and policies of the Chinese government, could be divided into
three stages (Wang 2005, pp. 189–190):
• Laissez-faire exploration, i.e. before the promulgation of the

Provisional Stipulation on CFCRS in January 1995
• Progressive standardization initiated by the state, i.e. from 1995 to
the promulgation of CFCRS Regulations in March 2003
• Progressive legalization and regulation advanced by the state, i.e.
from March 2003 to the present
TNHE developed rapidly in China not only in terms of the number of

activities but also in terms of the cooperation types. With reference to the
MOE, the cooperation activities which are entitled to issue the degrees
of/above undergraduate education can be divided into three patterns:
Sino-cooperation programmes (zhongwai hezuo banxue xiangmu); Sino-
foreign cooperation second-tier colleges (zhongwai hezuo erji xueyuan)
and Sino-foreign cooperation universities (zhongwai hezuo daxue), which
can be defined as:
• Sino-foreign cooperation programmes: An agreement between

Chinese public universities and foreign tertiary education institu-
tions, whereby students share Chinese university facilities with both
local and foreign teaching staff and adopt combined overseas and
local learning materials.
• Sino-foreign cooperation second-tier colleges: Second-tier colleges
are run by private companies or individuals, and are affiliated to the
Chinese public universities whereby students access independent
facilities offered by the colleges with both local and foreign teaching
staff and combined overseas and local learning materials.
• Sino-foreign cooperation universities: Joint higher education institu-
tions are involved with local and foreign participants with teaching
staff mainly appointed by the ‘home’ universities and adopt nearly
pure foreign learning materials.
The first category of TNHE is the Sino-foreign cooperation pro-

grammes. With the surging number from 2 in the mid-1980s to 756 in
2013, this category represents the largest part of transnational coopera-
tion activities in China. Another cooperation type was thus developed
and some scholars take it as the transitional mode of TNHE (Wang

2005). The establishment of Yanbian University of Science and
Technology in 1992 was the first appearance of this new cooperation
type in China, the Sino-foreign cooperation second-tier colleges (even
the official website of Yanbian University of Science and Technology
claims the identity of joint university, which is categorized to the second-
tier colleges by the MOE). As of 2015, there are 52 Sino-foreign
cooperation second-tier colleges in China, most of which are located in
the eastern coastal areas.
The 2003 regulation and 2010 outline emphasized the ambition of the
central government in improving national teaching and research quality
through developing TNHE. The positive encouragement further spurred
the transnational cooperation as some presidents in public universities take
the level of internationalization as their political achievement (zhengji).
However, the rigid regulation that requires the Sino-foreign cooperation
programmes and second-tier colleges to affiliate to a specific HEI has led
to a series of problems. The Chinese government has gradually recognized
that introducing world-class educational resources not only demands the
input of tangible and intangible assets but also calls for more autonomy
and the tolerance for more autonomy. A new cooperation type, the Sino-
foreign cooperation universities, marked by the foundation of University
of Nottingham Ningbo in 2004, therefore received the strong support
both from the central and the local governments in China. According to
the MOE, Sino-foreign cooperation universities have the status of legal
person/cooperate bodies (duli faren), thus permitting more autonomy in
recruiting both teaching and administrative staff and establishing their
own campuses. After the establishment of University of Nottingham
Ningbo, seven other Sino-foreign cooperation universities have been
built or under preparation, which are as follows: Xi’an Jiaotong
Liverpool University, New York University Shanghai, Wenzhou-Kean
University, Duke Kunshan University, United International College
(jointly founded by Beijing Normal University and Hong Kong Baptist
University), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (Table 4.1). All eight of the
Sino-foreign cooperation universities are concentrating in the prosperous
coastal areas in China, and the local governments have played pivotal roles
during this process.
My recent study has revealed the active participation of local govern-
ments in supporting eight Sino-foreign cooperation universities, acting as
48 X. HAN
Table 4.1 The financial resources of eight Sino-foreign cooperation universities

in China
Name Province/ Financial resources
municipality
University of Nottingham Ningbo Zhejiang 150 million at the beginning and

(2004) province 170 million in Phd program from
local government
Wenzhou-Kean University (2014) Zhejiang 1.5 billion
province
Shanghai New York University Shanghai No investment from New York
(2013) University or East China Normal
University, mainly from the local
government
Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool Jiangsu 1.6 billion in building north campus
University (2006) province from local government
Duke Kunshan University (2013) Jiangsu Mainly from local government,
Province around 5 billion
United International College Guangdong Mainly investment from Hong
(jointly founded by Beijing province Kong Baptist University and
Normal University and Hong sustained by tuition fees
Kong Baptist University) (2005)
The Chinese University of Hong Guangdong 1.5 billion
Kong (Shenzhen) (2014) province
Cheung Kong Graduate School Beijing Mainly from Li Ka Shing
of Business (2003) Foundation
Source: Data generated from field interviews conducted in 2014
both the major investor (also see Table 4.1) and the protector. Six out of
eight universities have gained strong financial support from the local
governments, except for United International College (jointly founded
by Beijing Normal University and Hong Kong Baptist University) and
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (majorly offer graduate edu-
cation such as MBA and EMBA). Except for cash input, most local
governments permit the participants to use land for free or establish
campuses for the Sino-foreign cooperation universities. For example, the
University of Nottingham Ningbo was endowed nearly 0.6-km2 land and
the north campus of Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University was built accord-
ing to the requirements of the university by the local government.
It is widely accepted that HEIs are considered to make a positive

contribution to innovation and to generating or transforming knowledge
with potential positive effects on local economy (Garrido-Yserte and
Gallo-Rivera 2010; Pastor et al. 2013). According to Goldstein et al.’s
(1995) summary, university economic impact is generated through the
following non-mutually exclusive activities: knowledge creation and its
infrastructure, creation of human capital, transfer of technology and
know-how technological innovation, investment in capital goods and
increased local demands. Specifically, some studies found that the research
and development expenditure, including goods and services as well as
salaries/wages paid to employees, represents the main reason why HEIs
could positively affect local economic growth (Jaffee 1989; Varga 2000).
Other studies focused more on the actual economic contribution of the
graduates (Riddel and Schwer 2003; Martin 1998). There are two primary
sides to HEI benefits: the demand side, including expenditure and invest-
ments made by university through the daily activities, and the supply
perspective including increased human capital (Pastor et al. 2013),
which grow with higher degree levels (Wang 2010).
The following part of this chapter is a study of one Sino-foreign
cooperation university as that explores local community. Although impact
is often seen as measureable economic growth from increased human
capital, taxation revenue or increased consumption, these variables are
notoriously difficult to measure with precision. As a result, this case
study focused on cultural preservation and scientific innovation.
METHODOLOGY
University X was chosen as my case study for its successful operation for a
relatively long period (referring to the limited history of TNHE in China)
and tight connection with the local government and community. In the
data collection process, two major methods were adopted: document
analysis and in-depth interview. Documents included mass media articles,
college journals or any other local articles regarding the topic of this
dissertation and the official website of University X. In addition, four
staff from the local community (including government officials or staff
from nearby local organizations) and one respondent from University X
were chosen for in-depth interview.
50 X. HAN
CASE STUDY: THE BENEFITS GENERATED FROM LOCATING

ONE SINO-FOREIGN COOPERATION UNIVERSITY
University X is an international university jointly founded by one of the
prestigious Chinese universities and overseas world-class HEI. As a Sino-
foreign cooperation university, it enjoyed the status of legal person/
cooperate bodies (duli faren) and it is entitled to award both its own
Chinese degree and a degree from overseas partner.
Located in one of the most developed cities in China (consistently
among the top five cities in China in terms of GDP), University X enjoys
the favourable social, economic and geographic conditions surrounded by
a cluster of World Top 500 companies, transnationals and R&D centres. It
is amidst this superior economic environment and the desire of the local
governments to sustain the economic growth, the local government was
willing to invest a huge amount of money and political protection to
introduce and establish a high-quality university (for a more in-depth
version of the study, see Han 2016).
CULTURAL PRESERVATION
Employing English as the language of instruction and introducing many
world-renowned faculty members were two important attractive features
used by Sino-foreign universities. University X was not an exception.
Nearly 80% of the faculty came from overseas, which not only complied
with a national policy for importing world-class educational resources but
also opened the door for foreigners to better understand the Chinese
culture. The ancient Chinese city, where the university is located, also
presented a unique opportunity to preserve the heritage, while developing
the area for economic growth. This challenge has become the focus of
experts and students from University X.
The World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia
and the Pacific Region (WHITRAP) aims to protect world’s natural and
cultural heritage under the auspices of UNESCO and was a key partner
for University X. As the hosting city of University X enjoys a long
history and is thus rich in heritages, the local government has paid
great heed to the protection of its natural/cultural prosperity. It
entrusted the experts and students from University X to conduct a
research survey in a certain village (affiliated to the city). Their target
was to design a balanced development plan for the county using
Historic Urban Landscape (exploring the management of heritage

resources in dynamic and constantly changing environments). After
the formal survey and interviews and informal communication
with the villagers, the researchers offered a preliminary proposal includ-
ing the introduction of new types of agricultural products, the protec-
tion methods of the current resources and cultural heritage, and the
further development of eco-environment-friendly tourism.
The researchers broadened their scope from focusing on tangible
heritage like physical buildings to the metaphysical/spiritual level,
including values and lifestyles protection/preservation. The expansive
definition of heritage protection was not only important for the balance
between local social/economic development and preservation of cul-
ture but also provided an experience for the further popularization of
the approach of Historic Urban Landscape, both domestically and
internationally.
SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION
Positioning itself as a research university committed to the economic and
social development of the area of China, University X developed its 5-year
research strategy, focusing on: research programmes, setting up a research
infrastructure, strengthening research activities, nurturing a spirit of enter-
prise, facilitating the generation of intellectual property and promoting
knowledge transfer. It also claimed to focus on applied research to
enhance the city’s research infrastructure, and act as a bridge to research
collaboration between China and the partner country. According to its
official website, University X will serve ‘both as a portal for research talents
entering China and a showcase for local research potential to the world at
large’. However, even the interviewees from the local community con-
firmed that University X indeed contributed to the economic transforma-
tion of the locating city (Interview 2015), even though its impact cannot
be easily quantified.
There are 15 research institutes/centres/labs covering a diversified scope
of scientific topics such as biopharmaceutical sciences, big data analytics,
industrial design and 3D printing, sustainable materials and environment,
operations and supply chain management, smart and green cities, quantita-
tive finance, leadership and educational advanced development, economic
integration, urbanization, ageing and society, research design, broadband
wireless access technologies, new energy and environmental protection
52 X. HAN
techniques, and nano-micro fabrication and reliability. During the past

decade, they have developed a tight connection with various partners.
Taking the Research Institute of Big Data Analytics as an example, formed
by IBM software (donated by IBM, China) and the IBM® PureData™
System (high performance big data analytics platform), the research institute
and IBM as well as another local strategic partner would establish collabora-
tions on software and big data processing technology based on internet,
integrate and employ both local/domestic and international resources in
computer science, thereby positioning itself as the leading force in devel-
oping big data technology and academic centre with international fame
(official website of University X).
Receiving strong support from the local government, University X has
established close connection with the surrounding community and
emphasizes its research on solving the local problems and promoting the
indigenous economic development. The key lab for the supply chain
technology study and the centre for math and finance research are all co-
founded by the local governments and University X. These research
centres/labs not only focus on the technology upgrade and the academic
outputs but also offer training courses and consultations for the working
staff in supply chain and finance areas, thereby promoting the labour
force’s competitiveness and building strengthening connection with the
practitioners.
However, most of the projects in the university are at their beginning
stages and thus the available data about their achievements are scarce.
Even so, the perception of University X from the local community is
apparent. As pointed out by the respondent from local community, ‘the
introduction of University X not only produced additional tertiary educa-
tion opportunity for local students but also brought updated technology,
world-renowned experts. The strong support of the local government has
also demonstrated our intention to transform the local economy through
improving teaching and research quality as well as the highly competitive
talents. It may be one reason why we could then attract so many HEIs to
set up “branch campuses”’ (Interview 2015). By far, there are 19 educa-
tion institutions in the local community, 17 out of them are HEIs. The
locating district has been highly prized by the Ministry of Education
(MOE) and it is now considered as a demonstration zone for internatio-
nalizing higher education system and improving global communication in
China (Interview 2016; MOE 2012).
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

There has been rapid development of TNHE in China during the past few
decades and it may be too early to evaluate impact on the Chinese HE
system or on the local community. The superior autonomy enjoyed by
Sino-foreign cooperation universities (Mok and Han 2016) and the intan-
gible benefit produced from introducing and supporting the world-
renowned university could be perceived both from the new reports and
the field interviews. Even the history of TNHE, especially for the Sino-
foreign cooperation universities, is relatively short and most of their
research programmes/cooperations are at the beginning stage, like
University X, the positive impacts of introducing and hosting a world-
class university are obvious: It has evidently produced more HE opportu-
nities for both the local citizens and candidates nationwide; the local
scientific research level has been improved and the local problems could
obtain more attention; the international communication has been sub-
stantially promoted and the surrounding workforce has more access to
vocational training (Interview 2016). We recommend further studies
emphasizing the scientific innovations and visual value of such universities
to be conducted on the belief that TNHE, especially Sino-foreign coop-
eration universities, will bring more benefit to both the local community,
in particular, and the nation, in general, accompanying their further
development.
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CHAPTER 5
Digital Heritage as a Rhetorical Tool

for Cultural Preservation
Shahreen Mat Nayan
Abstract Extensive research has been conducted on community engage-

ment in the context of cultural heritage. Similarly, research linking digital
humanities and cultural heritage has also been explored. Typically
research in these areas is done through a social science lens or with
technical detail (e.g., three-dimensional (3D) imaging). To add a new
lens to the literature, this chapter explores community–university
engagement and cultural/digital heritage from a humanistic perspective.
In particular, this chapter considers digital heritage as a rhetorical tool.
Following Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical theory of identification, which
focuses on human desire to seek common ground, this chapter illustrates
the ways in which identification in community–university engagement
and digital heritage occurs at two levels: (1) at the university, where
different faculties (e.g., computer science and anthropology) collaborate
to produce digital heritage artifacts or exhibits, and (2) at the university–
community level, where universities engage with communities to pre-
serve cultural heritage (a common goal) for the benefit of society.
This essay looks at the Mah Meri Unmasked project at the University of
S. Mat Nayan (*)

University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_5
58 S. MAT NAYAN
Malaya (Malaysia) as a prime example. Cultural heritage is an important

link between universities and communities, continuing to value and draw
deeply from cultural roots.
Keywords Digital humanities Indigenous knowledge Culture
INTRODUCTION
In the 1980s, a science-fiction comedy film entitled, Back to the Future,
starring Michael J. Fox, won multiple awards, for not only its narrative but
also its technical execution. In the film, Fox played a teenager named
Marty McFly who was sent back in time and encountered all sorts of drama
and emotions, which he then had to mend to ensure his future parents and
family life did not turn out a disaster. Fast-forward to 2016, time travel
and the idea that we can bring something from the past to our current
state of living (think Jurassic Park), has always been a source of inspiration
for humans. Cultural heritage is one method or “package” in which we
bring the past to the future. We see this not only in museums but also in
our folk songs, folk tales, traditional dress, history books, and other places.
Writer Michael Crichton (Thwaites 2013, p. 328) stressed that history
is not just about events, people, and places of the past. Rather, “The
purpose of history is to explain the present, to tell us why the world
around us is the way it is. . . . It tells us why things we value are the things
we should value and what is to be ignored or discarded” (italics my own)
(Thwaites 2013, p. 328). Of course, history or the past cannot be recre-
ated literally. Cultural artifacts or heritage, however, has the potential to
be explored and recreated for a community to learn and appreciate.
In relation to the Crichton quote about history, this chapter explores
digital/cultural heritage as a rhetorical tool for cultural preservation.
I specifically used the Mah Meri Unmasked project at the University of
Malaya (UM), and Kenneth Burke’s theory of identification and other
rhetorical ideas to discuss the ways in which digital/cultural heritage can
serve as a “rhetorical tool” in community–university engagement. The first
part of the chapter provides a general overview of important concepts and
definitions, while the second part of the chapter will focus on applying a
rhetorical lens to understand digital/cultural heritage.
In terms of methodology, although not directly involved in the Mah
Meri Unmasked project, I was able to obtain relevant materials and
information via informal interviews with the researchers behind Mah
5 DIGITAL HERITAGE AS A RHETORICAL TOOL FOR CULTURAL . . . 59
Meri Unmasked. Permission to use images in this chapter was also

acquired from one of the principle researchers. Since information was
obtained during informal, conversational interviews, no predetermined
structured questions were set. Instead, I was able to conduct a secondary
analysis. I chose informal interviewing for data collection because this
approach in research was practical for gaining access to the participants
(or in this case, researchers’) experiences. Interviewing also allowed room
for flexibility and gaining of information according to the flow of the
conversation (Turner 2010).
Research on community engagement in the context of cultural heritage
is not new. Examples of previous research on this topic include those
conducted by Aas et al. (2005), Hampton (2006), as well as Mydland
and Grahn (2012). Similarly, studies relating to digital humanities or com-
putational methods and heritage have also been done (e.g., Pavlidis et al.
2007). The studies generally take a social scientific or technical approach
(e.g., three-dimensional (3D) imaging). To explore the topic further,
I will look into community–university engagement and digital/cultural
heritage from a rhetorical perspective and will provide the definitions for
three main terminologies discussed in this chapter.
Digital Humanities
The definition of digital humanities is wide ranging from media studies to
geographic information systems, and everything in between. According to
Kirschenbaum (2014), digital humanities is a social undertaking, and “it
harbors networks of people who have been working together, sharing
research, arguing, competing, and collaborating for many years” (p. 2).
It is about scholarship and pedagogy. Aligned with Kirschenbaum (2014),
digital humanities for Burdick, Drucker, Lunenfeld, Presner and Schnapp
(2012) is “born of the encounter between traditional humanities and
computational methods. . . . This changes the culture of humanities work
as well as the questions that can be asked of the materials and objects that
comprise the humanistic corpus” (p. 3). For the purpose of this chapter,
I interpret digital humanities as an interdisciplinary field of study, a
method, and pedagogy that merges the humanities with technology.
Numerous benefits are associated with the application of digital huma-
nities. Leroi (2015, p. 1) wrote, “texts are living things” in that
“Digitization transforms them from caterpillars into butterflies.” Leroi
(2015, February 13, p. 1) claimed that humanities scholars often perceive
60 S. MAT NAYAN
themselves to be lesser in the academic ecosystem because when budgets

are slashed, the humanities are usually the first to feel the sting. However,
efforts to digitize cultural heritage has given the humanities a second
opportunity for all to access, in both the material and intellectual sense.
This in turn has grabbed the attention of funders and university adminis-
trators, which is essential in keeping the humanities in academia. Cohen
(2011) shared a success story of a professor and her students who used
digital tools to learn about Shakespeare and theater. Simply put, students
showed excitement when the content was made more accessible and
relevant. Because of this, more educators and administrators are beginning
to pay attention to the digital humanities. Specifically, how it can be used
for pedagogical purposes. This tool gives new meaning to the process of
learning and knowledge interpretation.
Although the digital humanities may have its own followers or enthu-
siasts, it is not lacking in criticism. Criticism of digital humanities includes
accusations that it is ‘elitist and exclusive’ (Pannapacker 2013, p. 1). This is
because, according to Pannapacker (2013), more often than not, an activity
that incorporates the digital humanities requires a great deal of resources
from a university. Resources may range in terms of faculty involvement,
infrastructure, and finance. Due to these assumptions, many smaller institu-
tions, especially those that focus more on teaching rather than research, may
have a preconceived notion that the digital humanities is not for them.
Despite existing concerns about digital humanities, one cannot deny the
potentials that this tool may offer to academia as well as the larger public.
The possibilities offered by the digital humanities may perhaps be fitting
with the aim of community–university engagement, which seeks to give
more power to the public. One objective of this chapter is to promote a
better understanding of what exactly constitutes digital/cultural heritage
and its potential as a rhetorical tool in preserving a community’s narratives.
I explore these possibilities by focusing on a project involving an indigenous
group of people native to the western part of Peninsular Malaysia known as
the Mah Meri. Mah Meri Unmasked is the name of the project involving a
group of researchers tasked at preserving the Mah Meri’s cultural heritage.
Cultural Heritage
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), cultural heritage includes both tangible and
intangible legacies. Examples of tangible cultural heritage include artifacts
such as paintings, coins, monuments, and shipwrecks (What is meant by

“cultural heritage”?, n.d.). These artifacts can be both movable and
immovable. Intangible cultural heritage includes oral traditions, perform-
ing arts, and rituals. Other forms or heritage outlined by UNESCO would
be natural heritage and heritage in the event of armed conflict. Mah Meri
Unmasked would be an excellent example of an effort to conserve tangible
and intangible cultural heritage. It is considered tangible because it
involves the digitizing of indigenous masks. Concurrently, it is an effort
to conserve the intangible because it incorporates narratives from the
community. Ultimately, engaging the community in cultural heritage is
important because communities that value heritage will continue to care
for heritage (Thurley 2005).
Digital Heritage
UNESCO defines digital heritage (in Thwaites 2013, p. 329) as the
“cultural, educational, scientific and administrative resources, as well as
technical, medical and other kinds of information created digitally,
or converted into digital form from existing analogue resources.”
These resources may vary. It includes not only texts but also images,
audio, software, and websites. For the purpose of this chapter, I will use
the term digital heritage because it aligns nicely with first two definitions
(digital humanities and cultural heritage), which I feel will make easy the
following discussion. Hopefully, this will make it less demanding for
those who are newcomers to digital humanities and cultural heritage,
such as myself.
MAH MERI UNMASKED, RHETORIC, AND COMMUNITY–

UNIVERSITY ENGAGEMENT
Cultural heritage is more than a museum piece. It involves people’s native
living system and way of life. Perspectives on development and civilization
are not always aligned with communities that live in a more traditional
setting such as the Mah Meri. Including the Mah Meri in this discourse is a
win-win situation. While the indigenous community discovers a more
sustainable method to preserve their heritage, the university community
is given the opportunity to learn about an alternative civilization, worthy
of conservation and disseminated to the public.
62 S. MAT NAYAN
Mah Meri Unmasked was initiated by a group of scholars from the UM

to digitize 108 masks kept by the museum of Asian Art in the said uni-
versity. Researchers associated with this project were mainly from the
Centre for Creative Content and Digital Innovation (3CDI) and the
Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, UM. The research project, headed
by Professor Harold Thwaites (Executive Producer) and Associate
Professor Dr. Faridah Noor Mohd Noor (Research and Linguistics),
included various experts in creative production and data collection/
research. The group began by gathering stories behind the masks by
interviewing the Mah Meri people of Carey Island. During the research
process, the researchers managed to gather 62 stories, although there are
reportedly over 100 stories from the community. The respondents (des-
cendants of Pion), in the Mah Meri community, could only recall 62 of the
stories. The research group’s efforts somehow made the community realize
the need to continue the tradition of storytelling. Ultimately, the project
aimed to archive images and narratives of the Mah Meri by digitizing their
masks into two-dimensional (2D) and 3D images while collecting the
stories for each available mask (Faridah Noor 2015).
The Mah Meri people are an indigenous group of people who live in the
coastal areas in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Two communities of the
Mah Meri live in Sepang and Carey Island, respectively. The mask carvers
are currently the third generation of carvers where only seven are still active
and live on the island. According to Faridah Noor (2015), the Mah Meri
people are one of only two indigenous communities who still have the
carving tradition, and each mask is said to be named after a spirit or moyang
(ancestor) and can be grouped into stories about animals, humans, and
spirits. They are used primarily for traditional healing and ceremonial
dances. Given the significance of the masks, the goal to keep an archive
was fitting and crucial for future generations to appreciate and continue.
This was important due to various reasons such as loss of interest and lack of
awareness; these stories were not being passed on to the younger genera-
tion (Faridah Noor 2015). Digitally converting the research content meant
storytelling was made virtual and digital archiving was placed in the Cloud.
In other words, converting the content to a digital format made it possible
for future generations to easily access, share the information with other
museums or memory institutions, and make it available and rhetorically
appealing for the larger public to learn and appreciate.
When discussing Rhetoric as a field, digital heritage in Mah Meri
Unmasked would fall under visual rhetoric because it has the capacity to
persuade an audience. While the field of rhetoric is often linked to the

study of speech, argumentation, aesthetics, and persuasion, visual rhetoric
as an area of study is characterized by its focus on the visual advantages.
This is applicable whether it is to change people’s attitudes, their beliefs, or
even as a tool to call for action. In Unmoored, DeLuca (2008) claimed that
many rhetorical scholars prefer to cling to words and have a tendency to
ignore visual elements in our everyday lives, while continuing to believe
that images can be plainly explained by captions. At the same time,
however, he acknowledged a growing trend of rhetorical scholars who
engage with images, transforming the landscape of rhetorical studies. This
is an important trend to acknowledge because images have the capacity to
affect viewers when they are viewed closely and deciphered (Sturken and
Cartwright 2005). For instance, in the environmental movement some
groups such as Greenpeace relied on images as a means to engage the
audience with the aim to change attitudes as well as initiate action. Handa
(2004, p. 377) confirmed this when she said, “culture, along with images,
sounds, and space, work together rhetorically to convince an audience.”
Mah Meri Unmasked is a beautiful representation of visual rhetoric
because it contains all these elements which are capable of making the
audience stop, look, experience, and hopefully come to the realization of
the beauty and significance of preserving heritage. In a nutshell, by packa-
ging the Mah Meri masks and narratives in a visual-rhetorically appealing
manner, viewers of the exhibition (whether from the public or the Mah
Meri themselves) were given the opportunity to appreciate the Mah Meri
heritage in an innovative way.
Mah Meri Unmasked also plays a role in community–university engage-
ment. Farrar and Taylor (2010, p. 255) defined community–university
engagement as,
A process in which universities identify and nurture partner groups and

organizations among all the constituencies they seek to serve (in their
locality, nationally and abroad). In a process of dialogue with partners,
universities initiate activities in line with their core values and respond
appropriately to initiatives arising from those constituencies. Engagement
with these various partner “communities” is based on clear understanding of
each party’s values and goals, and engagement activity results in mutual
benefit and enrichment for both partners. The principles which underlie
these engagements are mutual respect, reciprocity, transparency, and equal-
ity of status.
64 S. MAT NAYAN
University-community engagement serves the society in multiple ways

(Farrar and Taylor 2010, p. 252). Some of the ways the collaboration
assists a community includes—employment opportunities, knowledge
transfer, lifelong learning, support local businesses, urban regeneration,
student volunteering, produce active citizens, and last but not least,
contribute to university museums, galleries, and theatres. This last con-
tribution is uniquely significant because in addition to providing research
and employment opportunities, community–university engagement that
involves cultural heritage helps the community maintain their cultural
pride and provides a creative outlet for the younger generations. In this
age of media saturation, mindless entertainment, and cultural imperial-
ism, it is critical that the younger generation be taught to value their
heritage and preserve their own voice. Engaging/providing for the next
generation leads to the following section on common ground.
IDENTIFICATION AND AUDIENCE

Establishing a common ground between speaker and audience is paramount
in order to make a message clear. Rhetorical theorist, Kenneth Burke
referred to establishing common ground as identification (Herrick 2005).
Burke (in Herrick 2005, p. 223) affirmed, “you persuade a man only insofar
as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image,
attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his.” For Burke, humans do not
just experience disconnection; individuals are prompted/motivated by hier-
archy. At the same time, guilt is felt about the differences between humans
because it causes division. To overcome this challenge, humans look for ways
to create commonality. These commonalities may include our personal
interests, attitudes, values, experiences, perceptions, and even material prop-
erties (Quigley 1998). Quigley noted that Burke’s view on identification is
broad. In his essay, Quigley further discussed Burke’s identification via four
dimensions: (1) Identification as semiconscious (it may happen without our
full awareness), (2) Identification through self-persuasion (the process of
persuasion will not be accomplished unless we act upon ourselves rhetori-
cally), (3) Identification through the mundane and recurring (it is not
necessarily one particular address or incident and it can occur repeatedly in
everyday life), and (4) Identification through representation (messages are
more persuasive when a person is easily relatable by the audience).
While not trying to sideline Quigley (1998), for the purpose of this
chapter, identification in the context of Mah Meri Unmasked can be
understood from two dimensions: (1) The university-faculty level where

different faculties collaborate to produce digital heritage artifacts and (2)
The university-community level, where the university engaged with the
public and the Mah Meri community to preserve carved masks along with
their stories (a common goal) for the benefit of society. In this context, the
Mah Meri and the society or public at large can be termed as the audience.
An audience, in rhetoric, is just as important as the speaker. Keith and
Lundberg (2008) noted that rhetoric is not limited to transmitting infor-
mation persuasively. The audience or “public” must also be examined,
beginning with questions such as—who is in the audience? What situation
are they in? How does timing affect the persuasiveness of the message? In
other words, to appeal to a given audience we must consider saying the
right thing, to the right people, in the right situation, and at the right time
(Keith and Lundberg 2008). All this must be considered, while not
forgetting the ethical conditions. Although we can claim that the public
is part of the audience in Mah Meri Unmasked, the indigenous commu-
nity as an audience requires us to take a closer look at the ethical condi-
tions, which required the researchers to be sensitive to the needs of the
Mah Meri. Further, unlike other forms of communication, Keith and
Lundberg put forth two characteristics of rhetoric that make it distinct—
contingent and strategic. Contingent refers to the element of dependency.
Specifically, a rhetorical message is highly dependent on the reaction of the
audience. Each reaction is unique. During data collection, it was reported
that the respondents from the Mah Meri people realized that, although
the community has more than 100 stories in their heritage, only 62 were
still remembered and shared with the younger generation. This realization
made it possible for the researchers to set their agenda and aim to not only
archive but also share the stories to the larger public. The statements by
the public at the Mah Meri exhibition also illustrated their positive reac-
tion to the artifacts and interactive tools on exhibit. Some responses from
the public audience as recorded in the program book (Thwaites and
Khairul 2014, p. 29) included the following statements:
The use of technology is startling and exciting the content is alive and
accesses and stimulate the senses. Really enjoyed it!
To Mahmeri Exhibition, CONGRATULATIONS! Taking a walk
through the exhibition transported me to Pulau Carey. The atmosphere was
almost magical. It’s also very inspiring to see a first well-executed digitally
interactive exhibition made in Malaysia and UM. This shows that UM &
66 S. MAT NAYAN
Malaysia has the capability to bring knowledge to the masses in a most

interesting light. This is a first step in becoming something as awesome as
The Natural History Museum :) Hoping to see more!
Comments of warm approval were received from both local and foreign
visitors/audience, such as the ones noted below.
We are from India and took a chance to look at this installation. What
incredible luck! You have curated such a beautiful national treasure, and in a
manner that is itself very, very aesthetic. Look forward to many more. This is
a model!
Fascinating, impressive and really enjoyable. I like that the exhibition has
creative, archival and documentary aspects. Imaginative and historically
important. Thank You!
Very creative exhibition! A marriage of the traditional and the modern :)
The audience noted the creative ways in which the old and the new were
merged.
Great combination of technology & artifacts! Very informational! A++
Interesting & fresh way of exhibition :)
The statements listed above clearly revealed the audience’s positive reac-
tion to the Mah Meri Unmasked exhibition. The second characteristic of
rhetoric put forth by Keith and Lundberg (2008) is strategic. Because
rhetoric depends on the reaction from its audience, a rhetorical message
must be designed and presented strategically. In other words, before
making a message public, one must ask how the message can be designed
to achieve a positive response.
Thwaites (2013) discussed the issue of audience in similar terms when
he quotes other scholars in the digital humanities (Rahaman and Tan
2011; Russo and Watkins 2007). According to Thwaites, work concerning
digital heritage focused mostly on the process and product. Not enough
attention was given to the receivers or audience. For instance, how does
the audience understand or perceive the content of a particular project?
The well-executed exhibition at the university managed to gather a good
crowd from the public as well as the Mah Meri people, the engaging
exhibits and artifacts on display allowed the audience to experience and
further appreciate the cultural heritage. This helped built a common
ground between the university and the community.
Professor Kim Sawchuk’s foreword (in Thwaites and Khairul 2014, p. i)
offered details on how the Mah Meri exhibition was presented to the
audience. This gives the ability to readers to imagine how identification
between the university and public/community was established. It offers
details and level of engagement between the “rhetor” (researchers and

content producers) and the “audience” (community). Images from the
exhibition can be seen following Sawchuk’s observation.
Mah Meri Unmasked is an exquisitely designed research–creation exhibition

that takes the visitor on a journey from tree to mask. . . . The division of the
exhibition into discrete well-designed sections allows visitors time to explore
and wander through different facets of the mask-making process. As one
travels through the exhibition, a narrative unfolding of the central theme of
the movement from tree to mask invites visitors to stop, look, listen, touch, to
engage with the information being so artfully presented. . . . The use of media,
in exhibition design, demands that one finds an appropriate balance between
content and interaction (Fig. 5.1). This is a delicate business. Too much
gadgetry will foreground the technology and displace the content. Mah
Meri Unmasked deploys digital media technologies, form iPads to touchsc-
reens, effectively, judiciously, and with wisdom (Fig. 5.2). We cannot touch
the original masks on display, but through the use of media, we are allowed to
interact, virtually, with the objects. We become connected (Fig. 5.3).
Fig. 5.1 In the mask room, visitors pan over 24 different masks with an iPad-
augmented reality application to reveal the stories behind each artifact. (Image
used with permission from the author/publisher)
Fig. 5.2 3D scanning of the Mah Meri masks allowed easy archiving, which would
make it possible to “replicate” if the masks suffered deterioration. This process also
made it less demanding to share copies and information with other locations or
memory institutions. (Image used with permission from the author/publisher)
Fig. 5.3 The Tree to Mask Process section features a large multi-image high-definition
projection showing the process of wood sourcing to mask carving. Placed to the right
of the screen were two actual finished masks. (Image used with permission from the
author/publisher)
DISCUSSION: DIMENSIONS OF IDENTIFICATION/RHETORIC

IN MAH MERI UNMASKED
The discipline of digital humanities or digital heritage is intriguing because it

does not privilege one field over another. Scholars from the sciences and arts or
humanities are able to, and even encouraged to, collaborate toward a common
goal. This writing’s mission was to further the conversation on digital huma-
nities, heritage, and community–university engagement using a rhetorical lens.
The study of rhetoric is vast. For pragmatic reasons and to stay relevant to the
topic of this book, only a few rhetorical concepts were incorporated, namely
Burke’s identification and the idea of audience, contingency and strategy.
Mah Meri Unmasked was made possible when researchers from the
Centre for Creative Content and Digital Innovation (3CDI) and the
Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, UM, collaborated to collect data
from the Mah Meri people, and later translated their findings into an
exhibition for the public, and archived the information in the Cloud for
future generations to access.
This praiseworthy effort clearly illustrated the dimensions of identifi-
cation, which sought to create common ground between the university
faculties and the university–community. This effort is particularly
impactful for the Mah Meri and the university because it offered a
venue for dialogues, keeping an open space for discourse about cultural
heritage while helping to create/maintain positive emotions with regard
to one’s place in a community. This sense of belonging to a culture/
community or emotional appeal is known as pathos in rhetoric. This
particular case study is merely one example of many to illustrate the
ways in which digital heritage can be used as a rhetorical tool in
community–university engagement.
Despite criticisms that digital heritage only benefits elitist/research
universities, one cannot and should not ignore its potentials as well. In
relation to community–university engagement, this conversation is impor-
tant because as scholars it would be beneficial if the image of the university
as ivory tower is erased. University research and the digital humanities
should not be seen as elitist. Cultural heritage efforts can be inclusive and
engaging. It does not have to be only for a select few such as anthropol-
ogist or historians. In short, in the task of preserving any form of dying art,
digital heritage offers the possibility of doing research, pedagogy, and
community–university engagement in innovative ways. It is worth exploring
further to suggest more ways to make it both tangibly and intellectually
70 S. MAT NAYAN
accessible for academics and the public alike. Last but not least, the huma-
nities offer great intellectual resources for our students. Unfortunately, with
universities being more driven by corporate and profit objectives, the exis-
tence of this area of scholarship is threatened. Digital heritage offers an
avenue to keep the humanities alive. Perhaps the greatest benefit of huma-
nities is learning to appreciate and differentiate between what is meaningful
and what is not. What is the purpose of a university if it does not contribute
to a community to make people’s lives more meaningful?
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Shahreen Mat Nayan is a senior lecturer at the Department of Media Studies,

University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Her research interests include areas concern-
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social injustice and promote healthy dialogues. Shahreen received her PhD in
communication (rhetoric) from the University of Denver, Colorado.
CHAPTER 6
Thai Higher Education and Local

Community Engagement Toward
Creative Tourism
Nongluck Manowaluilou
Abstract Higher education can assist the local community by exploring the
needs and wants of tourists in a way that sustains and preserves culture.
Creative tourism in this study examines the travel motivations and behavior
of Thai tourists in order to appropriately promote local tourism, in this case,
in the Trat Province. This mixed methods study involved using qualitative
and quantitative strategies. Questionnaires were used to collect data from
294 tourists over 20 years old. In addition, 30 in-depth interviews were
conducted to gain the perspectives about Trat creative tourism.
Research findings from this study show that the principal travel motiva-
tions of sampled tourists were sightseeing, resting, and relaxation. The
majority of respondents had traveled to Trat more than once and intended
to revisit in the future. The creative tourism activities that interested general
tourists were either sightseeing, and visiting beautiful sea views, and scenery.
Keywords Creative tourism Community engagement
N. Manowaluilou (*)
Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_6
74 N. MANOWALUILOU
INTRODUCTION
Many cities are introducing a creative tourism to its local places due to its
uniqueness of tourists’ authentic experiences. According to UNESCO
(2006), a definition of creative tourism is a “travel directed toward engaged
and authentic experiences, with participative learning in the arts, heritage,
or special characters of a place, and it provides a connection with those who
reside in this place and create this living culture.” Therefore, creative tour-
ism encourages tourists to participate or engage in local activities. It also
relates to the creative economy in the way that it can transform the roles of
tourists and help the economy by uplifting the standard of living of the local
community (Thailand Investment Review 2009). This paper describes the
concept of creative tourism in global perspectives and features of Thai
creative tourism perspectives. Thailand is one of the most popular tourist
destinations because of a common historical identity and many beautiful
scenic beaches. Tourism is recognized as one of the most competitive and
effective ways to elevate a countrywide economy. Therefore, in a depressed
economy, it is one of the quickest ways to improve the local economy after a
crisis.
In addition, the creative economy has increasingly become a major
part of country development, Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former prime
minister announced in 2009, “I don’t want tourism to languish market-
ing. From now on we must focus on developing destinations in line with
the creative economy.” Since then, the major development was gearing
toward creative identity approach. In supporting the government initia-
tives, the local community and other partners adopted the concept.
Tourism industry also included. The tourism industry draws a major
income to Thailand; however, we are trying to convince tourists to
cherish the local treasures, the wealth of the cultures, and embrace the
cultural heritages. The entrance of creative tourism is aligned with the
new direction.
OBJECTIVES
Understanding the Thai tourists’ travel motivations and behavior is essential
for tourism industries that can enhance the competition for the travel
businesses (Crompton 1979). Numerous research has been conducted to
study the tourist’s behaviors, attitudes, and motivation in order to under-
stand the tourists and serve them better. Little attention was focused on
6 THAI HIGHER EDUCATION AND LOCAL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT . . . 75
understanding tourists toward creative tourism traveling in Trat. This

study attempts to examine the travel motivations and behavior of the
Thai tourists in Trat in which it can facilitate local community interaction
with a way to develop sustainable tourism that can benefit the lives of the
surrounding community. In addition, the true cultures of the local com-
munity will be cherished. Higher education can assist local people by
attracting the tourists with various kinds of creative tourism activities.
Additionally, higher education programs can promote the concept of
ecological diversity in the local communities, which is one of the key
attractions of the Trat Province and can help maintain sustainable
tourism.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Creative Tourism: Ways to Integrate into Thai Style
The concept of creative tourism is relatively new to Thai tourism industry.
Therefore, the definition or concept of creative tourism was defined in a
variety of ways. Only a few articles attempted to narrow the concept of
creative tourism down and defined a creative tourism as a new product of
innovation that goes beyond just visiting several attractive places. The
tourists, therefore, change their roles from sighting or seeking adventure
and transform themselves into a more active role in courses and learning
experiences, which will be a unique appeal of this type. Tourists desire to
take part in learning local crafts, arts, festivals, gastronomy, and other
activities developing a close relationship with the local community and its
cultural heritage.
Creative tourism is, therefore, sustainable and contributes to social inclu-
sion, economic growth, job creation, small, medium-sized enterprises
(SME) development, environmental and cultural heritage preservation.
The learning process will occur and allow tourists to learn by doing. In
addition, creative tourism also has an important factor to help stirring
economic perspectives of the community by participating in the community
activities and attending the local courses. However, “it does not conform to
one single model or perspective, but is rather open and flexible in its
adaptation to local context” (Richards and Marques 2012). “The networks
are important in the sense that they join together (global) partners with
different interests, in this case from the tourism field, the cultural and
creative industries and government” (Richards and Marques 2012).
76 N. MANOWALUILOU
The Thai Government has introduced the creative economy into Thai
people for the next 5–10 years, the focus has shifted to selling the concept
globally by introducing the concept ideas on the digital market. However,
the basic concept of creative tourism is still based on the attempt to change
the way tourists travel by focusing on the historical features of the places,
transmitting the knowledge or skills into tourists’ experiences, which is a
relevant direction in creative tourism as well as creative economy.
The creative economy is “an evolving concept based on creative assets
potentially generating economic growth and development” (Howkins 2001).
Creative economy is a transformation of intangible products (knowledge,
transformation, tourism, imagination, etc.) into tangible products that can
generate revenue for Thailand. The Thai Government announced a commit-
ment to creative economy in National Economic and Social Development
Plan 11th from 2011–2015. A recent study by the Fiscal Policy Research
Institute and the Kenan Institute Asia shows that “creative industries” have
contributed about 10 % of Thailand’s economy and could grow quickly with
strengthened value chains and better protection of intellectual property
rights.
Creative tourism is a form of creative community’s development stimu-
lating the attraction of talented professionals belonging to the creative class
(Richards and Marques 2012). The tourists can acquire their own knowl-
edge and develop their own skills by participating in the local communities
(Wisudthiluck and Sangnit 2014). Florida harnessing creative entrepreneur-
ship and innovation introduced the creative tourism concept that is appro-
priate to the Thai society by giving the virtuous circle that providing beyond
the profits from tourism. Tourism development that stresses on advantages,
through value creation for a sustainable tourism is based on Thainess, way of
life, local wisdom (Singsomboon 2014), art, crafts, culture, and history. This
distinguish way will link to economic development by extensive activities
that tourists can involve and the local do not need to push or hard sell their
product, instead the local communities allow the tourists to learn to sew
straw hats, cook Thai food, plant mangroves, etc. These activities could
generate even more income than sightseeing and selling food and beverages
alone. These are Thailand’s existing tourism capital, which is inexhaustible.
Benefits can even be reaped from the successful conservation of the assets.
However, it must be admitted that creative tourism is new for the Thai
society, and true understanding has to be created on what creative tourism
development is, and how to achieve it. Therefore, the objective of the
creative tourism project is to be the starting point for the development of a
model for a creative tourism development toward sustainable tourism, by

seeking pattern, creating the body of knowledge, establishing a network of
creative tourism; while using creative tourism as a tool for the community to
claim ownership of the area. Members can thus set the direction for tourism
development, put the limit on the number of tourists, and most importantly,
create tourism activities by themselves, bringing more equitable benefits to
all, ‘while creating understanding among tourists and communities to jointly
manage tourism in the form of a Social Responsible Tourism.’ Nalikatibhag
Sangsnit, Director-General of DASTA has given a guideline for the admin-
istration of creative tourism.
Thailand Creative Tourism

According to Richards and Raymond (2000), the creative tourism concept
was first introduced in their research studies. Creative tourism is concerned
with the development of the individual. Tourism which offers visitors the
opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation
in their own learning experiences. Tourism can be used as a magnet for
creativity: insights for creative class attraction in a tourism-based region
(Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), DINÂMIA’CET-IUL,
Lisboa UNCTAD, UNESCO (2006)). Creative tourism has gradually trans-
formed the cultural tourism where tourists often explored the past orienta-
tion, in order to conserve, prolong the history, and make sense of its
structures. Sometimes, local community who took major parts of integrating
tourism with the local tourist attractions lacks knowledge and know-how of
creative tourism. The process of meanings and interpretation come to play in
a large part of tourism process. However, the limitation of this type of
tourism is the inability to attend or participate and most likely tourists are
treated as the passerby (DASTA 2015). Also, it requires high involvement
between local community and tourists to create the creative tourism activ-
ities. Creative tourism transforms the roles of tourists from a passive side into
an active learner. Tourists are encouraged to learn, attend, participate, and
value the local community. By doing so, the cocreation of local experiences is
presented (Tourism and the creative economy, OECD 2014).
The report on current travel situation in Thailand showed the number of
tourists visiting Thailand has increased drastically since 1950–2007, to
approximately 694 million. Mostly, the Thai tourists have concepts of
tourism as broad and general and perform themselves as general tourists
in which they visited the places and roughly go through interesting places,
78 N. MANOWALUILOU
take pictures and leave the sites. Thai tourists often lack interest of the
historical backgrounds, arts or crafts, ethnographic identity of the local
people. This reflects the opposite continuum of the creative tourism.
Higher Education Roles in Creative Tourism

Higher education was under scrutiny after many crises occurred in
Thailand such as major flooding that broadly effect the life and economy
of many Thais. Thai social critics and higher learning communities contend
that emerging global issues require human creativity which must be fos-
tered in a creative environment. A creative economy is the starting point
toward the sustainable development of the country; however, the society
will harvest on individual creativity which the holistic dimension of socio-
cultural, economic and political aspects will be affected. The pathway to a
sustainable development of Thailand is partially developed through tour-
ism, which create the majority of the income to the nation.
The development of creative tourism industries is not alone adequate
enough to develop and support a creative society and community. To
develop a truly creative society and community, it is essential to develop
individuals and local communities to acknowledge its own potential and
capability to lead and function. Higher educators also inevitably help to
develop individuals’ creativity and balance between economic and tourism
growth and daily routines and behaviors. The local communities are play-
ing a vital role in developing creative tourism; therefore, higher educators
encouraged the local community to fully adjust themselves or find the
balance between what they can offer and what tourists expect of them.
They are having a difficult time to present what they have because they have
no visions of what the tourists want. Therefore, the intervention from the
higher education which can find the counterpoint where the needs of
tourists and what cultures or local products the local communities have
to offer (Richard and Wilson 2006).
The importance of public and private partnership, especially higher
education institutions, in developing Thailand to become a creative econ-
omy hub in ASEAN was highlighted under “the Role of Thailand the
ASEAN economic Community,” in Bangkok. University or higher educa-
tion’s missions aim to alleviate the well-being of the people and local
communities. By doing so, the higher education has changed its role
from solely educating the undergraduate and graduate students and trans-
forming them to be service researchers. The undergraduate students would
conduct extensive services to the poor people in rural areas such as provid-
ing knowledge to local people so they can be economically dependent.
METHODOLOGY
This research was carried out through a three-stage process. First, an
intensive review of local Trat tourists’ attraction and exploration of the
places for readiness and creative tourism activities that can be introduced
to tourists. Also, the motivation, travel behavior and activities frequently
cited in literature were studied in order to design questionnaire items.
In the second stage, a questionnaire survey was developed to collect
data. The questionnaire instrument consisted of three parts as shown in
the Appendix. The first part dealt with personal characteristics of the
respondents. The second part included questions of travel behavior and
trip characteristics. The last part was designed to gather opinions toward
travel motivations. Tourists were asked to rate the opinions, attitudes, and
expectations toward creative tourism of Trat Province on the 5-point
Likert scale (1—strongly disagree and 5—strongly agree).
These data were collected at Trat museum, Wat Bupparam, Chang
Island, and ferry in Trat Province. Data were gathered from a sample of
274 Thai tourists who traveled to the sites during December 2014 to
January 2015. A questionnaire was used to collect data regarding traveling
objectives, traveling needs, behaviors, perception of creative tourism, and
opinion on creative tourism in Trat Province. Lastly, aside from question-
naire survey, in-depth interviews were conducted to further investigate the
tourists’ attitudes toward Trat Province and creative tourism activities. The
in-depth interviews focused on the readiness of tourists, activities, problems,
or obstacles that could prevent them from participating in creative tourism
activities. The questionnaires were tallied and analyzed the behaviors and
needs of tourists toward creative tourism in Trat Province, Thailand.
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The 274 questionnaires are good quality, reliable, and can be further analyzed
to draw a conclusion for the study. Quantitative analysis of the survey
sampled shows that majority of the respondents were females (57 %), aged
between 25–45 years (60.58 %), and held bachelor degrees or equivalent
(37.96 %). Most of them were employees and students (22.26 %) with an
average income below US $550 a month. The respondents were mostly single
80 N. MANOWALUILOU
(58.03 %) and stayed in Trat Province for about 3 days (33.94 %), the
information was gathered from family members or friends (59.49 %),
or acquired traveling information from the Internet or websites (53.65 %),
respectively.
A majority of the tourists did not have a vivid concept of the creative
tourism, nor the places to stopover in Trat Province. Most tourists reported
the indistinct information of travel attractions or signs. The new role of
creative tourism tourists was under scrutiny since the tourists would be
required to shift to new roles and act as active tourists participating or
engaging in local activities. According to the study, most of the respondents
did not have a mind-set to engage in any local activities, which mostly
required lengthy amount of time to join. Some of the local activities were
not what the tourists were normally interested in. Research findings showed
that the principal travel motivations of sampled tourists were sightseeing,
resting, and leisure. The majority of respondents had visited Trat at least
once and expected to revisit again if the chances allow. Three major require-
ments of tourists toward creative tourism were cleanliness of the sites
(56.93 %), safety while traveling (47.08 %), and surrounding ambience
(45.53 %). Most tourists had a perception toward creative tourism of Trat
Province by which they wanted the local community to maintain their local
identity ðX ¼ 4:39Þ, and the Trat travel attractions that were well known

ðX ¼ 4:34Þ; clearly, the perception of the Thai tourists misalign with the
creative tourism. The higher education should intervene by providing
accurate information toward creative tourism and giving a workshop to
the local community to convince tourists to learn, participate, and engage
in local activities that can easily show the uniqueness of the local community
and could lead to create a bonding between tourists and local people.
Essentially, with the use of the Internet for trip planning, higher educators
can assign the local Trat community by designing a website or a homepage
that maps out the local activities such as cooking local food or learning arts
and crafts; so, the tourists can easily access the information in advance and
can plan for participating.
Essentially, the tourists expected the creative tourism of Trat Province as
the potential response to resolve economic slowdown and uplift the socio-
economic background of the local people, which also confirmed that the
Thai tourists misunderstood the concept of creative tourism. Most Thai
tourists still did not have a clear understanding about creative tourism since
they visualized the creative tourism to be as similar to creative economy, the
result confirms the study of Wisudthiluck and Sangnit (2014).
The strengths of Trat Province are the scenery, infamous history, and
multitude of cultural differences. The creative tourism activities that inter-
ested them were either sightseeing, and visiting beautiful sea views, and
scenery. Three major requirements of tourists toward creative tourism con-
cern with safety of the destinations, scene of the travel attractions, and
participation in local activities. The usual creative tourism activities that
most tourists were likely to engage in were sightseeing and photo taking
which were the early adoptions of tourism evolution (Richards and Marques
2012). Therefore, the creative tourism destinations that most tourists rated
appropriate were merely a reflection of the potential of creative tourism
would likely develop. The popularity of the creative tourism activities lies
in the area of sightseeing and tourism attractiveness; however, the majority
of the respondents were willing to contribute to the local creative milieu if
the activities did not require extensive time or extra expenses. Tourists were
unable to plan the trip in advance due to the ambiguous information of the
interesting local activities or the knowledge of the cultural heritage.
It becomes a higher educator’s responsibility to intervene by educating the
general public about creative tourism. After the conceptual analysis of the
respondents, there is possibility for Trat Province to become a creative tourism
destination. It requires a strong communication for Thai tourists about the
concept and also provides the accurate information to the local community
activities that they can generate. Also, if the people are educated about creative
tourism, it can be an integral part to preserve Trat history through the
transferring of knowledge to the tourists, similar to those in Santa Fe,
France, and other creative tourist destinations (Richards 2010; Wurzburger
2010) and therefore leads to an effective tourism in Thailand. Providing
the knowledge and short courses about the creative tourism especially in
historical, gastronomic, and ethnographic sites can allow local Trat community
to engage and be attentive toward their own national heritage. Since the Trat
Province has a long historical background, the higher educators can help
educating the long history of Trat Province and promoting as an additional
creative hotspots. In addition, with the extensive knowledge and background
of higher educators could help the local communities by motivating the
tourists to participate, learn, or engage in local art and crafts activities that
might interest or urge tourists to bond with the local community and preserve
the long historical background of Trat Province altogether, which will lead to
sustainable development of Trat Province. This could be commercially pro-
moted as a tourism product. The uniqueness of tourists’ experiences would
draw tourists into Trat Province; however, it would only be possible if the
82 N. MANOWALUILOU
tourists have enough information for planning their trip aside from the sea,
sand, and sun that DASTA promoted.
Although creative tourism is often thought of as a form of cultural
tourism, the respondents reported that they did not know the differences
nor understand the concepts. In order to help community where the
tourists will visit and take learning crafts and arts, the higher educators
will need to change the mind-sets of the tourists, provide alternative travel
motivations, and find the methods to change the tourists’ behaviors
especially in traveling. The local communities have a limitation of how
to preserve their true natural heritage, cultures, and environments into
meaningful messages that can attract tourists. Since most local people
reside in the communities do not have the basic ideas of the creative
tourism or what to embrace in their own community, educating the
community of what and how to serve the tourists is a part of the higher
educators. Creating a clear concept for local community to distinguish the
differences between general tourism and creative tourism could also be
used to inform the local community as well as the tourists as the pathway
to successful tourism promotion. While cultural tourism, focused on
“viewing” “contemplating,” or “seeing” (e.g., historic building city
tours, museum visits, dance performances, etc.) and it is linked directly
to physical places; whereas creative tourism is based on “experiencing,”
“learning,” and “participating” involving the satisfaction of a higher need
of self-actualization and skill development and involves resources that are
processes (immaterial) like promoting historical backgrounds, cooking
local Trat recipes, local religious festivals and traditions, performing
domestic arts and crafts, Thai martial arts, etc. Therefore, the higher
educators and local community will sort out the outstanding activities
that can easily attract tourists and later expand the activities to create the
possibilities for Trat becoming a creative tourism destinations. This will
eventually lead to sustainable development, as the samples envision Trat
creative tourism to be the way to help Trat economy.
APPENDIX
General Information Survey
1. Gender
( ) Male ( ) Female
2. Age
( ) Below 25 years old ( ) 25–45 years old ( ) 45 years old or more
3. Occupations
( ) Government officer ( ) Personal business
( ) Housewife ( ) Office employees
( ) Students/university students
( ) Merchant ( ) Others (Please specify………………)
4. Education
( ) Elementary ( ) Secondary ( ) Vocational ( ) Undergraduate
( ) Graduate
5. Income
( ) Below 20,000 ( ) 20,001–30,000 ( ) 30,001–40,000
( ) 40,001–50,000 ( ) 50,001–60,000 ( ) More than 60,000
6. Marital status
( ) Single ( ) Married ( ) Widow/Divorced/Separated
Survey of objectives to travel to Trat Province

Attributes (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Places
1. To visit various places in Trat Province
2. To find interesting places in Trat Province
3. To visit historical places
Nature, wildlife, and plants
4. To study nature and wildlife
5. To study ecotourism
6. To study low-carbon ecology
Religious
7. To pray for luck
Cultures/History
8. To learn the way of living of the local community
9. To learn local cultures
10. To visit historical sites
11. To study history of Trat Province
84 N. MANOWALUILOU
Attributes (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Work
12. To work (i.e., meeting, seminar, fieldtrips, company
activities)
Local products
13. To buy local products
14. To choose gem stones
1. Do you want to revisit Trat in the future?

( ) Yes because................................................................................
( ) No because................................................................................
2. Do you want to visit and participate in any Trat creative tourism?

( ) Yes because................................................................................
( ) No because................................................................................
Do you want Trat Province to improve any of the following?

( ) Facilities ( ) Cleanliness of the places
( ) Safety ( ) Natural resources
( ) Environment
( ) Officers ( ) Signs and guide signs
( ) Others, please specify…………………………………………….
Survey of attitudes toward creative tourism

(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Places
1. Expect easy access to tourist attraction
2. Maintain uniqueness and remarkable
features of Trat
3. Creative tourism must be famous
and well known
Products
4. Interested to buy local products
5. Interested in local products that are famous
6. Interested in local arts and crafts
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Community
7. Create the bonding with local people
8. Create the value added of cultural heritage
and way of life that tourists can participate
9. Desire to engage with local community rather
than just visiting
10. Creative tourism can improve local community
Natural resources and environment
11. Study nature
12. Study wildlife and plants
REFERENCES
Crompton, J. L. (1979). Motivations for pleasure vacation. Annals of Tourism
Research, 6(4), 408–424. doi: 10.1016/0160-7383(79)90004-5
DASTA. (2015). Creative tourism. Bangkok, Thailand: Cocoon Publisher.
Epstein, M., & Vergani, S. (2006). Mobile technologies and creative tourism: the
history unwired pilot project in Venice, Italy. Proceedings of the Twelfth
Americas Conference on Information Systems, Acapulco, Mexico 4–6, 2006.
Howkins, J., (2001). The creative economy. London: Allen Lane. Lash, S., and TCS
Sage.
OECD. (2014). OECD tourism trends and policies 2014. doi:10.1787/tour-2014-en
Richards, G. (2010). Creative tourism and cultural events. http://www.docstoc.
com/docs/68264727/Creativetourism-and-cultural-events
Richards, G., & Raymond, C. (2000). Creative tourism. ATLAS News, No. 23,
16–20.
Richards, G., & Marques, L. (2012). Exploring creative tourism: editors introduc-
tion. Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice, 4(2), 1–11.
Richard, G., & Wilson, J. (2006). Developing creativity in tourist experiences: a
solution to the serial production of culture? Tourism Management, 27, 1408–1413.
Singsomboon, T. (2014). Tourism promotion and the use of local wisdom
through creative tourism process. International Journal of Business Tourism
and Applied Science, 2(2), 32–37.
Thailand Investment Review. (2009). Creative Thailand. Shaping Thailand’s
economy with creativity, from learning centers to crab condominiums.
UNESCO. (2006, October 25–27). Towards sustainable strategies for creative tour-
ism. International Conference on Creative Tourism. Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
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Wisudthiluck, S., & Sangnit, N. (2014). Creative tourism in Thailand: problems

and obstacles case studies of ceramic and cotton quilt making. Thammasat
Review, 17(1), 167–179.
Wurzburger, R. (2010). Introduction to the Santa Fe & UNESCO international
conference a Global conversation on best practices and new opportunities. In
R. Wurzburger (Ed.), Creative tourism a Global conversation how to provide
unique creative experiences for travelers worldwide: at present at the 2008 Santa
Fe & UNESCO international conference on creative tourism in Santa
Fe (pp. 15-25). New Mexico.
Nongluck Manowaluilou is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education,

Kasetsart University, Thailand. Her interest is in the fields of vocational education,
creative tourism, and business. She graduated her PhD in curriculum and instruc-
tion in vocational education from the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA.
CHAPTER 7
University–Community Connections
and the Thai Concept of Sufficiency:
The Case of 9 Boworn
Benya Kasantikul
Abstract Universities have a historical connection to food production and

agriculture, as exemplified by the establishment of the land-grant institutions
in the USA. Kasetsart University (KU) in Thailand is known as a source of
strength for national and regional advancement in agriculture, and has
facilitated many projects to diffuse innovation from research to the commu-
nity. One primary example that builds on KU’s long history of engagement
is the 9 Boworn project, which focused on community, culture, and sustain-
ability. In Thailand, home, school, and temple are the three most important
places for learning. So, the 9 Boworn project included KU and 16 villages,
temples, and schools in one district to promote a sustainable community
development (SCD) by integrating the Philosophy of the Sufficiency
Economy (PSE). The chapter explores the effectiveness of the engagement
between the community and the KU for promoting sustainable develop-
ment in food production, physical health, education, and spirituality.
Keywords Community outreach Sufficiency
B. Kasantikul (*)
Kasetsart University Kamphaengsaen Campus, Nakornpathom, Thailand

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_7
88 B. KASANTIKUL
INTRODUCTION
In response to the economic crisis in 1997, King Bhumibol Adulyadej
suggested that greed was complemented by traditional capitalism, of
which the International Monetary Fund was perceived to be an usher.
According to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the country could have worked
to avoid the crisis by following his economic outlook. As he put it, “To
become a tiger [economy] is not important. The important thing is for us
to have a self-supporting economy. A self-supporting economy means to
have enough to survive. Each village or each district must have relative
self-sufficiency” (Handley 2006, p. 414).
KU is widely known as the University of Agriculture and is located in
Kamphaeng Saen (KPS) Community. During 2011–2015, the KU-KPS
and KPS had a common goal to make KPS as sustainable community
development (SCD). 9 Boworn, the number 9 derives from the first of
nine subdistricts of KPS that are involved in the project, by connotation,
the number 9 is a big step forward; and Boworn is the acronym for the first
letters of the Thai words home, school, and temple stands, which form a
new word, which means excellence so that the definition of the project
represents a step forward for excellence. This project was run by KU-KPS
and KPS based on the community needs. The 9 Boworn’s objective was to
integrate the Philosophy of the Sufficiency Economy (PSE), a philosophy
that stresses appropriate way of life while incorporating moderation due
consideration in all modes of conduct, and the need for sufficient protec-
tion from internal and external effects, local wisdom, and university
knowledge to develop a successful SCD. This chapter shows the results
from the 9 Boworn project in three aspects: community people, economy
and environment, and how the continuous cooperation from both the
KPS and KU-KPS run the SCD strategy in the 9 Boworn effectively.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The development of sustainability is a contemporary global trend. In parti-
cular, the role of higher education organizations can facilitate education
about sustainability. For example, the UN Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development (DESD) 2005–2014 (UNESCO 2004) stated
that “Universities must function as places of research and learning for sustain-
able developments” (p. 24). The UK’s new sustainable development strategy
Securing the Future: Delivering UK Sustainable Development Strategy (2005)
7 UNIVERSITY–COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS AND THE THAI CONCEPT . . . 89
(HM Government 2005) emphasized the role that education can play in
both raising awareness among young people about sustainable development
and giving them the skills to put sustainable development into practice. It
argued that “sustainable development principles must lay at the core of the
education system, such that schools, colleges, and universities become show-
cases of sustainable development among the communities they serve” (p. 37).
According to the Eleventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan
(Economic and Board 2012) (National Economic and Social Development
Board Economic and Board 2012), Thai higher education is a source of
knowledge to solve national critical problems and to recommend how to
sustainably develop Thailand including its regions based on the PSE.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej proposed the PSE to people of Thailand
on December 4, 1997 (Prasopchoke Mongsawad 2010). The philosophy
guides people in living their lives according to the middle path. The
concept of PSE can be applied to the individual level, the community
level, and the national level. Figure 7.1 demonstrates that the “Sufficiency
Economy” philosophy focuses on the middle path of moderation, self-
immunity, and reasonableness based on knowledge and morality, which
The Sufficiency Economy Philosophy

“The Middle Path”
Moderation
Resonable- Self-immunity
ness
Application of knowledge Application of moral principles

(knowledge, wisdom, prudence) (honesty, diligence, sharing,
tolerance)
Harmony Security Sustainability
(in peaple’s lives, economic and social conditions, and the environment;
in the context of globalization and its’ impact)
Fig. 7.1 The Philosophy of the Sufficiency Economy Framework
Source: Adapted from Prasopchoke Mongsawad 2010

90 B. KASANTIKUL
means sufficiency level depends on different context of each person, com-

munity, and/or organization. Sufficiency is based on the suit conditions of
each social; therefore, the result will be harmony, security, and contribu-
tion to sustainability.
A common misunderstanding is that the sufficiency economy relates only
to farmers in remote areas. In fact, people of other occupations such as
those in business, civil service, and clerical work can apply the concept to
their work as well. Even though the PSE seems easy to understand, there
are some aspects that are not readily digestible for the mind. Therefore,
the National Economic and Social Development Board (2012) noted that
the “Sufficiency Economy is a philosophy that stresses the middle path
as an overriding principle for appropriate conduct by the populace at all
levels.” It explained that term of “Sufficiency” means moderation, rea-
sonableness, and the necessity of self-immunity mechanism for sufficient
protection from impact arising from internal and external changes. To
achieve this, the application of knowledge to the consideration and due
diligence is required. In particular, great care is needed in the utilization
of theories and methodologies for planning and implementation at every
stage. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the moral fiber of
the country so that all people, especially government officials, academics,
and businessmen, at all levels, first and foremost, adhere to the principles
of honesty and integrity. This way of life is based on patience, persever-
ance, diligence, wisdom and prudence in balancing, and the ability to
cope appropriately with critical challenges arising from extensive and
rapid changes in the socioeconomic and cultural environment in the
world.
THE CASE OF 9 BOWORN

According to the Eleventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan
(2012–2016), Thai higher education has a critical role to sustainably
develop the communities according to the PSE. In addition to the mission
of learning and instruction, research, and preservation of national arts and
culture, KU-KPS provided academic services for local communities to
incubate social networks through organizations including government
and local agencies in the communities (see Fig. 7.2).
The 9 Boworn project was established by KU-KPS in order to join the
celebration of His Majesty the King’s Eighty Fourth Anniversary of
Birthday aiming to have KU-KPS as a source of knowledge transfer bodies
Villages
Government Sectors Private Sectors
KU.KPS.
Schools Temples
Fig. 7.2 The 9 Boworn collaboration
of knowledge to neighboring communities. The 9 Boworn project which

was expected to be a prototype of SCD recruited 16 villages, 16 temples,
and 16 schools across the Kamphaeng Saen District. Then, community
leaders comprising heads of subdistricts, heads of villages, presidents
of subdistrict administrative organizations, temple abbots, and school
principals were invited to collaboratively design the operational develop-
ment plans and then they were implemented and monitored on every
Wednesday during June 2011 to January 2015 by the then vice president
for KU-KPS and his working teams. I was once a member of this team, and
my role was that of the collaborator and facilitator.
9 BOWORN METHOD
A Survey of Current Problems and Needs for Development

“An Ancient City, A Training Institute of National Pilots, An Educational
Source of Graduates in Agricultural Science, Soil of Good Quality,
A Monument of the Royal Consort Indra Saksaji and Land of Peace” is a
92 B. KASANTIKUL
unique slogan of Kamphaeng Saen District (KPS) which reflects that

this district of the ancient and historical city is suitable to be an
agricultural city; moreover, it is also composed of primary capital of
such potentially useful resources as KU-KPS, which is regarded as an
institution accumulating the knowledge bodies as Sciences of the Land
and where potential graduates in agricultural science are regularly and
consistently prepared and produced. There are other agriculture-related
agencies, namely, Nakhon Pathom Land Development Station, and this
government body is responsible for developing and planning strategies
for land use, and Experimental Irrigation Station of Water Use, this
government body is responsible for developing and planning strategies
for water use. The questions about how do KPS farmers adjust and
adapt their farming ways to securely survive in 4 years ahead and what
are the proper active and passive roles of those educational institutions,
government agencies, local administrations, or even community
members to set suitable guidelines and to properly position themselves
as part of the AEC in order to achieve maximum benefit are concerned.
To face the challenge of adaptation, all parties involved in KPS
were required to collaborate and promote consensus. The first order
of operation was to facilitate self-knowledge, strengths/weaknesses, and
then to learn how to collaborate effectively and respectfully. It was
essential to recognize that one person could not do problem solving.
Thus, then, the 9 Boworn project was aimed at promoting collabora-
tion between all parties including KU-KPS, and the government
agencies, local administrations, or even community members as men-
tioned above to develop their own community map of directions and
also analyze the KPS-SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats) in order to sustainably develop KPS culture to face the future
changes properly.
Planning, Approval Request for Implementation,

and Preparation of Required Resources
Planning and preparing of the required resources were conducted
through Wednesday weekly meeting. This was a vital step. It needed to
speak clearly between team based on the real needs with the limited
resources.
Publicizing the 9 Boworn Project

KU-KPS’ lecturers, staff, and students were regularly informed of current
affairs through circulated documents and leaflets. Also it was announced
via official KU website. Community-oriented publicity was done in a form
of weekly visit to each community.
Build an Understanding with Community Leaders and the Public

The KU-KPS vice president together with some executives responsible for
the 9 Boworn project regularly met community leaders through weekly visits
and meetings to obtain some information helpful for the project operation.
Selection of the Area to Be Developed

In this case, those quite underdeveloped villages would be of top priority
to be selected; then, data required for development were systematically
gathered. In terms of physical and geographical settings, KPS’s map
showing its exact location with adjacent districts and provinces, history,
total area, transportation routes, and places of significance including edu-
cational, religious, administrative and medical institutions, tourist attrac-
tions, museums, and public parks or botanical gardens were thoroughly
surveyed.
In terms of demography and society, in KPS, the number of total
subdistricts and villages, female and male population including children
and teenagers, the elderly, the disabled, the underprivileged, and figures of
authority: the district chief officer together with heads in the district office,
administrators of local administrations, subdistrict and village heads, and
temple abbots were surveyed; furthermore, ethnic minorities, prominent
artistic and cultural activities, household characteristics, community
group, institution or organization such as village funds/money-savings
groups and clubs of the elders, and community ways of life and health on
the whole were also reviewed.
In terms of community economy, the 9 Boworn project surveyed all
participating subdistricts in terms of occupations, local products, average
household incomes, expenditures, loans/money savings, and other forms of
community economic activities including village fund/money-savings group
and village financial institution were collected. In terms of community
94 B. KASANTIKUL
natural resources and environment, community’s soil, water, air, forest, and
other pollutions were surveyed. After all surveys were competed, a meeting
for all relevant parties was set in order to discuss and select the first nine
subdistricts to start the project.
Implementation
According to the project implementation, KU-KPS had consistently run
the 9 Boworn project based on H.M. the King’s PSE since 2011; then in
2012, the project was extended from former nine subdistricts to include
six more subdistricts and a subdistrict municipality on the whole of KPS
community in Nakhon Pathom Province with the same method.
Problems, needs, and recommendations were collected from the com-
munities. (Table 7.1) Actually all sectors of the areas have different pro-
blems and needs. So the problems and needs were surveyed to set the
priorities and prepare the availability from the relevant parties in order to
perform an implementation.
INPUT
The 9 Boworn project was implemented based on the principle of inclusive
participation among agencies inside KU-KPS. The Faculty of Agriculture
at Kamphaeng Saen had its students help pupils in schools to produce
vegetable for lunch. The Faculty of Education and Development Sciences
had students to help lead pupils at school to physically exercise, to repaint
the children playground at the school, to conduct physical checkup among
pupils, and to set up a medical room. Students from the Faculty of Sports
Science also conducted fitness tests and measured blood pressure and fat
level among pupils. Faculty of Arts and Science trained people to produce
effective microorganism water and to provide basic English training. The
Office of Extension and Training provided people with the training classes
of economic mushroom production, whereas Office of the Central Library
for KU-KPS helped the schools to organize their own libraries. The
Institute of Research and Development at Kamphaeng Saen provided
the schools with handmade high-capacity stoves and vegetable seeds.
Meanwhile, Suwanvajokkasikit Institute of Livestock research and devel-
opment at Kamphaeng Saen provided the communities and schools with
the training classes of chicken production. In addition to exhibition of
bodies of knowledge, the Office of Kamphaeng Saen Campus also offered
Table 7.1 Problems, needs and recommendations from each subdistrict

Places (village, temple, and school) Problems/needs and/or recommendations
in each subdistrict (which require solution and/or development)
Raang Pikun subdistrict

Village no. 3 A source of rice seed production
A training course on rice seed production
Baan Huay Duan School More instructional media
Kamphaeng Saen subdistrict
Village no. 11 Problems of salted soil to be solved
Wat Thung Krapang Hoam English teachers
School
School library to be improved
Assistant teachers
Sa Si Mum subdistrict
Village no. 8 Problem of rice farming (Khao Deed & Khao Deng
problem)
Rice seed for breeding and commercial growing
Commercial fish farming
Wat Don Tao It Temple Vegetable growing, catfish farming, and mushroom
production for school lunch
English and Thai proficiency among staff and
teachers to be improved
IT literacy to be taught
Thung Bua subdistrict
Village no. 3 Flood problem in paddy field
To grow palm trees in paddy field
Community leader development
Know-how on water management
Wat NiyomTham Temple Rest rooms/main building for religious activities
Buddhist Dhamma training courses for monks
Buddhist Dhamma training courses for children
Wat NiyomTham School Vegetable garden for school lunch
Maths, English, and IT teachers needed
Huay Mon Thong subdistrict
Village no. 12 Water-resistant sugar cane
Baan Nong Sanoe School Classroom desks and playground instruments to be
repaired
More musical instruments: 10 melodeons and an
Ankalung set
New books for the school library
English teachers
Vegetable garden for school lunch
(continued)
96 B. KASANTIKUL
Table 7.1 (continued)

Wat Lak Met School More playground instruments

New books for the school library
School science laboratory
Vegetable garden for school lunch
Quality fry for fish farming
Assistant teachers for teaching and academic activities
Thung Krapang Hoam
subdistrict
Village no. 5 A PSE learning center on 10-rai area
Landscape improvement for the entrance of KPS
ancient city
Community Information Communication
Technology (ICT) training courses
Lack of irrigated water in dry season
Wat Nong Pla Lai Temple Training courses on the Thai language for Buddha
Dhamma teaching
Wat Nong Pla Lai School Vegetable seed to grow to support the school lunch
project
How to make compost and biofertilizer for use at
school
Science and English teachers and teaching materials
and media
Wang Nam Khiew subdistrict
Village no. 5 Disease management for fish raised in Krachang
Training courses on crop plant development: rice,
sugar cane, green bean etc.
Rice seed of good quality for increased production
Water management guidelines for community canal
(Khlong Thasarn Bangpla)
A source of rice seed of good quality
A village center for sharing useful knowledge and
information
Khlongtan Temple The 9 Boworn project for every village
Community English training courses
Academic guidance for community occupations
Baan Khlongtan School School library development
School ICT room development
English, Burmese, and Cambodian teachers
Playground development
(continued)
Table 7.1 (continued)

Vegetable growing, fish farming for school lunch

Botanical labels for school trees
Rice mill instruments to be repaired
Don Khoy subdistrict
Village no. 2 Increased products and price of rice
Quality rice seed: riceberry and Sinlek
The problem of rice farming(Khao Deed & Khao
Deng) in broadcast paddy fields
Organic vegetable production
Community rice mill
Wat Sa Phang Temple Improved soil quality to grow edible fruit
Wat Sa Phang School Household vegetable plot/greenhouse
How to make effective microorganism (for cleaning
purposes)
Technological know-how of soil-free growing
Project of Elder brothers-help-school pupils by KU-
KPS students
IT development
two training courses of computer workshop on how to keep the computer

effective and how to solve the problems and to install basic network
system. Moreover, a workshop on development of teaching skills of scien-
tific method was done; students were assigned to help people in commu-
nities to, for example, survive flooding disaster.
INCLUSIVE PARTICIPATION
Inclusive participation was the method used in the project through pub-
licizing inside KU-KPS to be well informed of the goals and objectives. In
KU-KPS, executives, lecturers, supporting staff, students, private business
organizations as well as general public were invited to join the project.
Some of them donated money, whereas others volunteered to help
according to their interests and expertise. At executive level, KU-KPS’
faculty deans and institute/office directors provided support in terms of
academic counseling, participating in meeting, and monitoring the opera-
tion of the project. Meanwhile, at operational level, KU-KPS’ academics
(lecturers and researchers) and supporting staff implemented the project as
98 B. KASANTIKUL
follows: for example, at villages, they went to train farmers to produce rice
seed; at temples, they went to offer symbolic candles on the annual period
of 3-month Buddhist Lent for 16 temples across KPS as an activity to
promote the national arts and culture and to plant trees to promote
peaceful and cool atmosphere in the temples; and at schools, they went
to train teachers on computer knowledge, science teaching skills, and basic
communicative English.
ENCOURAGEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

AND EXPERIENCE SHARING
Executive Level
The 9 Boworn project operation followed principles of management includ-
ing collaboration and distribution of responsibility. Thus, both previous
results and the next operational plan were put in monthly KU-KPS execu-
tive board meeting as an important agenda of opinion sharing and common
resolution-making among KU-KPS faculty deans and institute/office direc-
tors. In other words, this was operational improvement through the plan–
do–check–act (PDCA) cycle.
Operational Level
In this project, there were working groups in expertise of plant, animal,
and fishery production. Each group was composed of KU-KPS academics
(lecturers and supporting staff) and student volunteers would regularly
have informal meetings prior to the operation in communities.
OUTCOMES
Villages, temples, and schools in KPS community as the target groups of
the 9 Boworn project are developed as community development sources as
in Fig. 7.3. The expected results of this project are to get SCD which is
economically, environmentally, and socially healthy and resilient.
The important outcome is a community that is self-sufficient, happy,
moral, and cultural, involving no crime and drugs and where everyone is
educated. They can apply science and technology for the development of
organic agriculture for food security.
Sufficiency Morality
Science and
Happy technology
Organic Villages, Temples, Education

Agriculture and Schools
Safe food No crime
Culture No drugs
Fig. 7.3 The outcomes of 9 Boworn project
From this project, we found that villages can develop themselves to be a

learning center for the other such as rice seed breeding, commercial fish
farming, water management, and organic vegetable production. Temples
can adapt themselves to be the center of basic English teaching for com-
munity, teaching ethics and morality. Schools can provide food to stu-
dents by fish farming, mushroom, and growing fruits and vegetable. They
can also earn money by selling residue from lunch preparing. In addition,
the student can earn money by composting such as vermicomposting.
EFFICIENCY IN RESOURCE USE IN THE PROJECT

The 9 Boworn project used all resources in its operation efficiently and
covering the cost as much as possible because all those KU-KPS executive
and operational personnel volunteered to work for it without pay. The
100 B. KASANTIKUL
budget of Baht 2,700,000 spent in the project was also from the donation
by KU-KPS executives, lecturers, staff, students, private business organi-
zations, and general public. Fundraising began with promoting the
strength and benefit of projects both inside and outside the university,
sending letters to the relevant authorities in order to obtain the financial
support, and indulging in various forms of activities to get the donation
such as inviting an important person to visit the real area to see the
problem and the potential to develop, and Buddhist religious activities.
In its operation, frugality was emphasized following His Majesty the
King’s PSE and zero waste management. This frugal model was demon-
strated to and successfully accepted by community people. For example, in
the 9 Boworn project, KU-KPS demonstrated straw mushroom growing
in baskets to teachers, parents, and pupils from different schools to create
income among them according to His Majesty the King’s PSE using all
resources efficiently and covering the cost as much as possible. In the
demonstration, which was financially supported by KU-KPS’ Economic
Mushroom Production Club, there were 40 teachers and pupils from
Wat Don Tao It School, Nong Pla Lai School, and Wat Niyomtham
Wararam School. The straw mushroom growing in baskets was easy to
follow, required small space to be done. The mushroom products not only
generated household income but also could be served as food for school
lunch, for example, the case of Wat Don Tao It School. In the project,
school pupils were taught by academics of special expertise through real
practice which was different from regular teaching at school. In addition,
biofertilizer production was also practiced to reduce the use of chemical
fertilizers.
THE 9 BOWORN AS A GOOD PRACTICE MODEL

One principle of being a good practice model is being a community
development oriented and focused on inclusive participation consisting
of academics (lecturers and researchers), supporting staff, and students
from all faculties, institutes, and offices in KU-KPS. In addition, outside
KU-KPS, cooperation was from all 16 subdistrict administrative organiza-
tions, a subdistrict municipality, schools, and temples as well as people and
other organizations which recognized the significance of the project and
consistently supported it in terms of money.
The important and prominent process in the operation of the project
is the tripartite cooperation among agencies/organizations inside and
outside KU-KPS and KU-KPS’ personnel and students to collaboratively

push the project forward to achieve the objectives.
SUCCESS-SUPPORTING FACTORS
The 9 Boworn project was successful according to the outcomes that
resulted from inclusive participation among faculties, institutes, offices,
and centers, all of which aimed to provide academic services for the society
at every level, to enhance knowledge, skills, and experience of the academic
and public services among their academics, staff, and students. In this
project, people and outside organizations were networked by KU-KPS as
a leading educational institution and knowledge source responsible for
critical problem-solving through His Majesty the King’s PSE.
CONCLUSION
Throughout 4 years of the project, KU-KPS has transferred and developed
the bodies of knowledge to its neighboring communities. Some government
agencies went to recognize the real issues encountered by those communities
so that they could provide proper assistances. Temples have become unifying
centers among people and also helped to relieve their conflicts. Schools have
obtained useful educational technologies to help in instruction and there are
also new learning centers at the schools. People in the communities have
been developed in terms of thinking and career skills to earn more income.
The results from the 9 Boworn project are in three areas: (1) the people in
the project get a better standard in food quality and food safety and farmers
have better skills, (2) there is higher income for farmers, which stimulates the
economy, and (3) there is a cleaner environment and farmers use less
chemicals. When the project was assessed through a questionnaire of satisfac-
tion, it revealed that the average satisfaction toward the project was at the
high level. From informal interviews, it was recommended that the project
should be continuously implemented and the communities should be visited
more often to obtain the real issues within.
FUTURE RESEARCH
Today, participation in the 9 Boworn project by the communities is still going
on; it is also extended to other subdistricts in Nakhon Pathom and even other
provinces. However, the project is run by a supervisory committee. In this
102 B. KASANTIKUL
way, the 9 Boworn foundation aids in achieving a substantial and continuous

work with financial support. Further research to be conducted is a study of
good practices in those successful communities to draw lessons learned from
the 9 Boworn project which would lead to further sustainability. Increased
reliance on empirical methods would help to draw out the most effective
components of the project, and richer qualitative descriptions would aid in
understanding the most transferrable elements of the case.
REFERENCES
UNESCO (2004). DESD Draft International Implementation Scheme (IIS).
France: UNESCO.
Economic, N., & Board, S. D. (2012). The eleventh national economic and social
development plan (2012–2016). National Economic and Social Development
Board. Office of the Prime Minister. Bangkok, Thailand.
Government, H. M. (2005). Securing the future: delivering UK sustainable devel-
opment strategy. Norwich: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs.
Handley, P. M. (2006). The king never smiles. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.
Mongsawad, P. (2010, June). The philosophy of the sufficiency economy: a
contribution to the theory of development.’ Asia-Pacific Development
Journal, 17(1), 123.
Benya Kasantikul was an assistant to the vice president in Administration and

Quality Assurance at Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus (KU).
During that time, KU set 9 Boworn project to promote and combine both
university knowledge and collaborations in order to not only achieve the project
effectively but also make KPS a sustainable community development.
CHAPTER 8
Continued Learning in an Aging Society:

A University–Community Collaborative
Educational Intervention in Taiwan
Wei-ni Wang
Abstract Learners who are not credit and degree seekers, such as
elderly members of society, are often neglected in higher education
literature, perhaps due to the assumption that they have aged out of
educational benefit. By making concrete connections to the elderly
population, the university can increase its involvement in providing
social benefits through programs that are innovative but not necessarily
involved in the traditional scheme of tuition, credit hours, or diplomas.
The groundbreaking establishment of the Active Aging Learning
Centers (AALCs) in Taiwan is one example of a university initiative to
respond to the aging of society. These centers position learning as a
fundamental component of elderly health and a means to change
people’s perception of aging and being old. In this chapter, the context
of the recent establishment of AALCs will be introduced, and the
distinctiveness of the design and its programs will be exemplified. The
chapter includes an analysis of the critical components of AALCs.
Keywords Older adults Elder education Community outreach
W. Wang (*)
National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7_8
104 W. WANG
INTRODUCTION
The university is viewed as the most important driver in the process of
knowledge maintenance, creation, and dissemination (Altbach et al.
1999; Cornford and Pollock 2003). Within globalized knowledge
economies, the demand from both governments and citizens in pursuit
of up-to-date knowledge and employable skills has increased since the
1990s, so that how and to what degree higher education institutions are
accountable for public good is scrutinized (Alexander 2000; Altbach
2013; Albach et al. 1999; Bogue and Hall 2012; Clifford and
Montgomery 2014; Kezar et al. 2005; Heller 2013; Tierney 2006;
Williams 2016). Certain academic disciplines today, including science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM), are particularly more
emphasized by the governments as their performance outcomes are
perceived to positively lead to scientific innovation and economic
growth. With no intention to disparage any discipline for modern
knowledge generation and dissemination in support of innovation, it
is genuinely worth noting that some disciplines illustrate their commit-
ment to public good with a different discourse, one that envisions
themselves proactively contributing to social development (Hall 2009;
Munck et al. 2014; Sandmann 2008).
Adult education is one program that enacts the nonbusiness-oriented
public good discourse. Long seen as a vehicle promptly responding to
urgent learning needs of individuals regardless of their age and social status,
adult education is a site where ordinary adults or citizens are striving to gain
control over their lives (Cervero et al. 2001). It is also a field of profession
as well as research that values continuous personal growth, and showcases a
strong willingness to work with different parties to foster social develop-
ment in face of change. Teaching and research do not merely take place in
the classrooms or laboratories; academic work of adult education fre-
quently reflects social responsibility and engagement, by providing indivi-
duals who are not registered university students a range of programs from
workforce development, community capacity building, literacy, employ-
ability, personal enrichments, and so on, to even those that are in aim to
reduce social inequalities experienced by oppressed groups (Merriam and
Brockett 2007). However, these endeavors housed in higher education
institutions are often overlooked, perhaps due to the primary institutional
mission of higher education is to serve college-age students (Bierema 2011;
Heaney 2000). The current reality is unfortunately still in accordance with
8 CONTINUED LEARNING IN AN AGING SOCIETY . . . 105
what Burton Clark noted in 1956, “[t]he adult program is a separate,

periphery activity, and its clientele is completely outside the compulsory
attendance age groups” (Clark 1956, p. 58).
Despite being marginalized on institutional agendas and mission prio-
rities (Merriam and Brockett 2007), most adult education programs within
higher education institutions conscientiously champion their own way to
break through legal limitations and resource constraints in order to strive for
right of learning for all. Adult education academics walk out of the isolated
ivory tower to collaborate with governmental and/or nongovernmental
organizations to tackle social challenges, and most importantly, attempt to
provide possible solutions to social problems at hand by doing what they are
most capable of, planning and implementing learning interventions to bring
more power to oppressed groups. Although not many have been documen-
ted in higher education accountability literature worldwide, these attempts
are instances of how higher education academics connect their expertise to
the broader objectives of human and social development, which are not
narrowly limited to economic growth and innovation.
One example of such is a Taiwanese experience of establishing new
learning opportunities for older adults for guiding them to adjust aging
and retirement with ease and dignity. Some faculty from the adult and
elder education programs at Taiwanese universities foresaw the accompa-
nying learning needs brought out by the growing graying population in
the 1990s, and started to advocate that an installation of a new form and
focus of learning would be imperative for the society in preparation for
facing the unprecedented challenges resulted from the demographic and
socio-structural changes. Their efforts received a monumental recognition
from the Ministry of Education (MOE) with the release of a white paper
on elder education in 2006 and a group of adult education scholars were
designated as consulting taskforces to provide trainings for community
organizations with an interest in starting up Active Aging Learning
Centers (AALCs). To date, there are 313 AALCs with 10,032 volunteers
cross the country (MOE n.d.-a) and are without doubt one of the most
prevailing elder learning resources.
Learners who are not credit and degree seekers, such as elders, are often
neglected in higher education literature. Connecting to this particular
segment of the population, the university increases its involvement in
providing social benefits through programs that are innovative but not
involved in tuition, credit hours, or diplomas. The groundbreaking estab-
lishment of the AALCs in Taiwan is a form of universities’ initiatives to
106 W. WANG
respond to the coming of the aging society, aiming to advocate learning as

a means to change people’s perception of aging and being old. This paper
presents the unique case of which an introduction of a university–com-
munity collaborative elder learning intervention in Taiwan. Since the
development of elder education is parallel to the Taiwanese demographic
changes, this paper starts with a brief preview of the country’s population
structure, followed by the evolution of elder education policies. Next is to
showcase the distinctiveness of AALCs and their programs, and the chap-
ter concludes with critical components of AALCs.
TAIWAN, ITS AGING POPULATION, AND CALLING

FOR ELDER EDUCATION
Taiwan, which is probably known for its high population intensity and rapid
advancement in technology, is an East Asian country located in the south-
western edge of the Pacific Rim. Still recovering from the turmoil of the
World War II, Taiwan was largely rural and agricultural in 1960 and only
2.5% of the population was over 65 of age (National Development Council
[NDC] 2014). However, with speedy modernization leading to better
quality of life and medical breakthroughs since the 1970s, the age structure
of Taiwanese population made a manifest turn (Copper 1999; NDC 2014):
Taiwan became an aging society when more than 7% of its population was
65 years old or above in 1993; the percentages of which are projected to
increase to 14% and 20% in 2018 and 2025, respectively, where the former
represents an aged society and the latter a super-aged society. Given the trend,
Taiwan grows old fast but with lesser time to react.
Not only is the population over 65 years of age but also the proportion of
this age group has been continuously growing due to increases in average life
expectancy. As a result, the Taiwanese society has faced unprecedented
challenges (Huang 2008), including changes in the social–economic struc-
ture, national financial difficulties caused by increasing burden of health care
and pension expanses, labor shortages, and an ambivalent stereotype that
links elders to dependency and wisdom. But only few had realized how
urgent these challenges were to the country in 1990s, leaving some profes-
sionals from the governments, academia, and charity groups vexed to ponder
strategies to transit to the coming of an aging and aged society. Establishing
leisure places and centers with the provisions of informal learning for elders
was the most visible and timely feature then.
It was when baby boomers entered their 50s and started retiring from
the workforce around 2000 the Taiwanese society realized the enormity
of the extent to which aging and longevity had affected the country.
Baby boomers represent a new demographic profile (Huang 2008):
a significant part of these “young” elders are healthy individuals who
can independently function and complete their daily tasks; who are
better educated, richer, and full of energy; and who endeavor to stay
healthy and independent to the fullest possibility. Given the rise in
average life expectancy, they would have more time in retirement as
well as in later life stages. Therefore, the traditional leisure places had
limited appeal to baby boomers and they demanded opportunities to
remain active and contributive once retiring from workforce. For this
new generation of elders, who are keen to continue their personal
growth (Hoyer and Roodin 2008; Huang 2004, 2008), their calling
for accessibility to a rather heterogeneous range of learning resources
thus has been noted and the university–community-initiated and public-
funded AALCs were set up as a consequence years later.
The existence of the leisure places for elders indicated that learning in
later life is not a new concept in Taiwan; additionally, the newly formed
AALCs are by no means a by-product of those leisure places, either. The
following sections entail the evolution of elder education policies in
Taiwan and the conception of AALCs, respectively.
EVOLUTION OF TAIWANESE ELDER EDUCATION

The chronicled development of elder education could be categorized into
three phases separated by two policy imperatives: the Practical Plan of
Education for Older Adults in 1989 and the white paper of Toward an
Aged Society: Policies on Education for Older Adults in 2006.
Initial Phase: Before 1989

The first elder education institution in Taiwan was the Evergreen Club
founded by the Taipei Young Women’s Christian Association in 1978
(Huang 2004), and some leisure-based learning activities were offered for
older people to participate. In 1980, the Ministry of the Interior released
the Senior Citizens Welfare Act as the first national legal endeavor to react
to the growing of aging population and relevant issues thereof. Specifically,
the 19th Article of the Act states that, “to enrich the quality of older adults,
108 W. WANG
authorities and organizations should encourage older adults to join in

social, educational, religious, and academic activities” (Huang 2005), and
this became the grounding principles of the implementation of elder educa-
tion. The Evergreen Club experience drew attention to some government
officials and after the passage of the Senior Citizens Welfare Act, a modified
model called Evergreen Academy (a model similar to University of the
Third Age) was founded by Kaohsiung City Government in 1982, and it
was named the first well-planned and well-organized elder education insti-
tute in Taiwan (Yang 2010). The Taipei City Government founded the
second Evergreen Academy 6 months later. The first two initiatives set
examples for other local governments and many more were established.
Huang (2005) introduced Evergreen Academies as a model with
various traditions in which experiences from the North American com-
munity colleges, the University for the Aged in Japan, the University of
the Third Age in France, and Evergreen Club in Taiwan were drawn.
Evergreen Academies are either established or funded by the social
welfare and service departments of local governments, and are admini-
strated by community-based agencies with little or no assistance from
neighboring universities and adult education scholars. The programs
offered are mostly personal enrichment oriented and instructor centered
(Huang 2008) and the topics are coupled with welfare and leisure issues
(Huang 2005).
The academic community of adult education started to take shape
toward the end of this phase. The Association of Community Education
was established in 1982 and the Association of Adult and Continuing
Education in 1990, and their shared mission was to facilitate the
professionalization of community and adult education in Taiwan.
Because of their expertise in life span human development and lifelong
learning, adult education scholars were invited to join the dialogues on
elder learning issues and gradually became active participants in shaping
policy initiatives to support older adults. For example, at the sixth
National Conference on Education (NCE) held by the MOE in 1988,
these scholars suggested the provision of elder education to enrich
lifelong education resources.
Emergent Phase: 1989–2006

Many action plans started to take effect the following year after the sixth
NCE and turned the page of the evolution of elder education to the
Emergent Phase. In the course of approximately next 15 years, the con-

cept of lifelong learning received growing acknowledgment and its dis-
course was gradually infused into the provision of elder education.
The first initiation of MOE’s involvement in elder education was
A Practical Plan of Education for Older Adults proposed in 1989 as the
consequence of the sixth NCE; its purpose was to encourage social and
community education institutions to provide learning activities for seniors
to facilitate their adjustment to aging. Sequent reforms were launched,
and the most important among which were the announcement of a white
paper entitled Heading for A Learning Society in 1998 by the MOE, along
with the passage of the Lifelong Learning Act in 2002. The Act states that
the educational authorities at all levels of governments shall undertake
overall planning of lifelong learning policies, programs, and activities;
therefore, the number of institutions providing lifelong learning programs
started to increase since then.
Because of the population increase of older adults, the concept of lifelong
learning became prevalent in elder education. Abundant new social welfare
department-funded Evergreen Academies were established, yet much more
was founded with little or without public funding, such as those provided by
schools, foundations, community associations, religious groups, and the
like. The rationale to deliver elders’ educational programs remained similar
in this phase: leisure oriented and instructor centered (Huang 2005, 2008).
According to Ministry of Health and Welfare, the total number of
Evergreen Academies and the like was 5029 in 2006 (Ministry of Health
and Welfare n.d.) indicating that those programs were in great demand in
this phase, and that the spirit of lifelong-learning-is-a right-for-all-citizens
truly extended to the realm of elder education.
In terms of the role of adult and community education scholars, their
involvement in promoting elder education became conspicuous (Huang
2005). In 1993, two Graduate Institutes of Adult and Continuing
Education (GIACEs) were established at the National Chung Cheng
University and the National Kaohsiung Normal University; complimen-
tary to lifelong learning perspectives, theories of aging, elder learning, and
gerontology as well as various models of elder education from other
countries were gradually introduced to the community of adult education
and that triggered many scholars’ curiosity to start pondering alternative
ways to deliver learning programs for elders. About 10 years after Taiwan
became an aging society by definition, and as the expectation for building
the professionalization of elder education grew, the Graduate Institute of
110 W. WANG
Elder Education (GIEE) was founded at National Chung Cheng

University in 2003. The establishment of GIEE, a program exclusively
focused on the theories and practice of elder education, signaled the
forthcoming trend of reshaping the leisure-oriented elder learning pro-
grams to ones contributive to quality of life for new generations of seniors.
GIEE has been an active driving force to develop and promote localized
elder education policies and practices in Taiwan.
The policy framework of active aging published by the World Health
Organization (WHO) in 2002 was particularly influential to Taiwanese
adult education scholars when trying to develop learning alternatives for
new generations of elders who are more educated, active, and independent
than their older counterparts. WHO (2002) defined active aging as “the
process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security
in order to enhance quality of life as people age” (p. 12), and stressed the
recognition of the human rights of older adults to exercise their participa-
tion in all aspects of social life. Furthermore, the framework suggested
provisions of education and learning opportunities throughout the life
course were important to enable older people to participate in the society.
The active aging framework was adopted by the adult and elder education
scholars as to advocate the significance of a value-laden national policy on
elder education, and they urged new forms of practice to foster new
generations of elders building a positive attitude toward aging. The
scholars’ efforts were eventually answered by the government in 2006
with an announcement of a white paper titled Toward an Aged Society:
Policies on Education for Older Adults. Not only be the closure of the
Emergent Phase, the 2006 white paper was also the prelude of the
Expansive Phase of the Taiwanese elder education evolution.
The Emergent Phase is a period of time full of convergence and
divergence. The model of Evergreen Academies received wide acceptance
as the population of elders dramatically grew, and many new ones were set
up to respond to high demands for lifelong learning resources. On the
other hand, the new addition of GIEE to the academic community also
played an important role in working with governments to develop alter-
native elder educational policies that were guided by the mind-set of active
aging. The announcement of the Toward an aged society white paper
transitioned the discourse of elder education to a new direction, and policy
implications recommended in the white paper evolved to be the leading
features of practice in the next and current phase of development, the
Expansive Phase.
Expansive Phase: 2006–Present

The Toward an Aged Society white paper is the outcome of vigorous
advocacy efforts made mainly by scholars and professionals from adult
education based on various international and domestic empirical research
findings (e.g. Huang et al. 2005; Huang 2010; Hwang et al. 2006; MOE
2004; Yang 2006). After its release in 2006, the development of elder
education advanced to the Expansive Phase, and the white paper has been
the legal foundation of elder education in Taiwan.
The ultimate goal of the 2006 white paper is to ensure learning rights
for older adults and to promote concepts of successful and active aging to
the society (MOE 2006). The document, which came nearly three dec-
ades later after the passage of the Senior Citizens Welfare Act in 1980, is
the very first policy framework announced by the MOE in regard to
provisions of elder education, illuminating the responsibilities of govern-
ments, institutions, and individuals with six guiding principles for imple-
mentation: social justice and equality; holistic adaptation and
empowerment; resource integration and sharing; localization and com-
munity-based orientation; social participation and autonomy; and profes-
sionalization. By applying the principles, the provisions of elder education
are situated in the lifelong learning perspectives, elder learner centered,
and in aim to strengthen the positive image of old people and aging. The
white paper is the government’s declaration of social justice for older
people: it values their human rights and strives to eliminate ageism, a
form of discrimination against individuals because of their age.
Specifically, one of the 11 action plans proposed in the white paper is to
establish community-based senior learning centers by using existing facil-
ities, such as community centers, libraries, temples or churches, nursing
homes, and even vacant classrooms of schools. This new branch of elder
learning resources is named AALC (Le Ling in Mandarin, meaning
learning is too pleasant to forget one’s age) funded by the governments,
and the MOE officials worked closely with a group of GIEE faculty to
construct start-up and operation mechanisms for AALCs. Programs and
activities offered are beyond leisure and recreation (e.g. singing, dancing,
and handcrafting); some examples are life history, volunteerism, health,
security and safety, to name a few (Wei 2012). Driven to fulfill the goal of
“One township, one center,” 104 AALCs were set up in 2008, and the
number went up to 202 in 2009; to date, there are 313 AALCs cross the
country (MOE n.d.-a).
112 W. WANG
A similar new feature of elder education is Active Aging Universities

(AAUs), which is a modified model with characteristics of Elderhostels in
the United States and the Universities of the Third Age in France. This is a
university-based residential education program launched in 2008, offering
short-term learning activities for citizens age 55 or above on university
campuses; university faculties teach courses and students enrolled are able
to access campus resources. The number of AAUs has been climbing year
after year since 2009, and a total of 103 AAUs was administrated in 2015
(MOE n.d.-b). The establishment of AAUs marked a new era of close
collaborations between postsecondary education and elder education.
Other than the expansion of active aging-oriented elder learning
opportunities, two major legal reforms occurred in this phase to consoli-
date the implementation of elder education. First was the amendment of
the Senior Citizens Welfare Act in 2007, which clarified that education
authorities concerned “are to work out, to promote and to supervise the
plans of education programs to elders, training sessions to elder almoners
and social education programs for the aged society” (Ministry of Health
and Welfare 2014). Second was the addition of the term elder learning to
the Lifelong Learning Act in 2014; it “refers to the learning activities
provided by lifelong learning institutions for people 55 years and older
to engage in” (MOE 2014). The changes in legal articles repositioned
education authorities as the leading governmental figures in promoting
elder education, and the MOE is now required to allocate and secure
budgets to support educational programs that enable elders to enjoy
healthy, independent, and active lives and that allow the general society
to acknowledge elders as engaged senior citizens.
The enactment of the Toward an Aged Society white paper was monu-
mental for the development of elder education in Taiwan. It is composed
of various action plans that later led to installations of the prevailing
AALCs. With the release of the white paper and followed by immediate
establishments of elder learning resources, there has been more room for
the Taiwanese elder education to prosper and expand.
The three chronological phases of evolution of elder education in Taiwan
unveiled profound paradigm shifts in six aspects. The foremost one is the
discourse shift from elder education as welfare to elder education for social
justice: Evergreen Academies symbolized a form of welfare provisions, but
the recent new learning locations are agent to portray positive image of
elders. The next two are extended from the first one, being shifts from
dependence to independence and, from compensation to empowerment: both
entail two opposite attitudes toward elders, one viewing them passive and
dependent burdens to the society and in need of certain compensations to
adjust and survive, but the other viewing them active and independent
participants in the society and in demand for more opportunities to act on
their autonomy and life experiences. The fourth and fifth aspects are in
regard to the programs offered, shifting from recreation to lifelong learning
and from homogeneity to heterogeneity: content areas in elder education are
not limited to those solely for the purposes of leisure and personal enrich-
ment, because new generations of older adults are keen to explore new
knowledge; additionally, traditional instruction-centered teaching is not
satisfactory to elders nowadays, so different ways of teaching and learning
have become critical to retain elder learners. Last but not the least, the 30-
year elder education evolution highlights a profound paradigm shift in aged
human resources, from human capital divergence to human resource devel-
opment: retirees and elders were normally labeled as individuals who were
no longer able to contribute to the society and were excluded from the
mainstream human capital; yet, current elders tend to eagerly deny such
labeling and often rather enjoy playing active roles in their families and
society, therefore, a human resource development rationale has been gra-
dually applied in the delivery of elder education to build capacities and
maximize potentials of older learners.
AALCS AND PROGRAMS

The magnitude of involvement of the adult education scholars in the evolu-
tion of elder education in Taiwan has increased over the years. University
scholars have worked with governments and community groups to promote
the groundbreaking learning intervention for older adults, AALCs.
Responsibilities of the Active Aging Education Advisory

Group (AAEAG)
Senior learning centers may not be a completely new idea in Taiwan, but
AALCs, which is a model in advocacy of learning for active aging, are
definitely one. Therefore, after the release of the Toward an Aged Society
white paper, governmental officials’ reliance upon the expertise of the
scholars deepened. An Active Aging Education Advisory Group
(AAEAG), consisting of faculty members from GIACE and GIEE at
National Chung Cheng University since 2008, was entrusted by the
114 W. WANG
MOE to assist and support the establishment of AALCs across the

country. The major tasks of the AAEAG are to construct startup and
operation mechanisms for AALCs, and according to the Chair of the
Group, Dr. Hui-Chuan Wei, other responsibilities include establishing
and leading the headquarter of AAEAG, designing and publishing opera-
tion manuals and learning materials for AALCs, providing trainings for
AALC personnel and volunteers, organizing annual conferences and
achievement exhibitions, paying consulting site visits, and delivering
end-year assessments and evaluations (Wei 2012). Overseen by the
AAEAG are four regional consulting teams that are composed of adult
education department faculty from other universities, and they are
responsible for working with local governments and AALCs in respective
regions.
With the steering efforts of the AAEAG supervised by the MOE, a solid
and systematic mechanism of program development, training and consul-
tation, coordination, and evaluation for the AALCs has gradually fallen
into place to support efficient implementation of the new intervention. In
the aspect of operation and promotion of AALCs, the governments and
the faculty-composed AAEAG have formed a close partnership.
Training and Consultation Provided by the AAEAG

In accordance with the four visions tailored in the Toward an Aged
Society white paper (lifelong learning, well-being, autonomy and dignity,
and engagement in society), public units and registered community
groups of interest to provide elder learning activities are eligible to
apply for setting up an AALC. After reviewing organizational and per-
sonnel structures, accessibility, building safety, and learning programs of
the applicants, qualified ones are selected by the governments to receive
MOE funding to run an AALC and their staff is obliged to attend
meetings and training sessions held by the AAEAG. Overall, AALCs
are primarily community-based and situated in existing units such as
community associations, community colleges, libraries, clinics, non-
profit organizations, primary schools, and so on.
Because the administration of AALCs was a new perspective, a systematic
and outcome-based approach was applied by the AAEAG to design and
deliver training programs for AALC personnel and elder education
instructors (Wei 2012). Such a perspective enabled the AAEAG to make
adjustments and add new components based on constant monitoring on the
progress, so the effectiveness of each AALC could be assessed and calibrated

properly and timely. In the first years of practice, the themes of training
included AALC administration and operation for administrators and local
government officials, teaching skill development for instructors, and
curriculum development for administrators and instructors. Since many indi-
viduals engaged in AALC now have had some years of experiences, the focus
of training has shifted to train the trainers, meaning developing seed trainers
for entry-level AALC personnel and instructors; as a result, a great deal of
training load could be released from the shoulders of the AAEAG, and
simultaneously, a new group of human capitals emerged. Besides a systematic
training model, the AAEAG delivers whole-day training sessions in combina-
tion with consultation meetings; a few hours would be scheduled as open
discussions or roundtables that allow all participants to ask questions, and
seek suggestions from their peers, the AAEAG, and invited guest speakers.
Apparently, the AAEAG plays a critical role in the promotion of AALCs.
The contents of the training offered tightly connect to the governments’
expectation and missions of AALCs, and the intensity of interactions through
training sessions strengthens the university–community collaboration as well.
AALC Curriculum
To every educational/learning setting, its curriculum is the feature that
best differentiates it from others; the AALCs are no exception. Faculty
members from adult education programs played a critical role in the
curriculum design for the AALCs based on theories drawn from World
Health Organization (2002) and McClusky (1971, 1974). World
Health Organization (2002) defined active aging a holistic life-course
framework that focuses on encouraging the participation of older adults
in society, and is argued to be a comprehensive strategy that countries
facing challenges caused by growing aging populations could adapt
(Foster and Walker 2015). The WHO active aging discourse was thus
applied by the AAEAG as the theoretical basis to design AALC’s curri-
culum. The second theoretical framework employed was McClusky’s
Learning Needs Model (McClusky 1971, 1974). McClusky stressed the
importance of continuous learning and education to individuals as they
age, and proposed five learning needs for older adults in a hierarchical
system, including coping needs (the need to cope with the changes
brought on by aging), expressive needs (the need for activities carried
out for its own sake), contributive needs (the altruistic desire to serve
116 W. WANG
others), influence needs (the need to be valued and politically active),

and the last, transcendent needs (the need to rise above frailty associated
with aging).
The AAEAG’s involvement in constructing the AALC’s curriculum struc-
ture has been manifest. Reflected upon the leisure-orientated programs
offered at the Evergreen Academies, the AAEAG witnessed vast room for
improvement and took a completely different approach to design the curricu-
lum structure for the AALCs. Compiling both theoretic frameworks of WHO
and McClusky, the AALC curriculum structure does not merely respond to
what elders want to learn but more importantly, to what elders need to know
to be an active participant in the society (Wei 2012). Additionally, the curri-
culum structure is also used as guidelines to design a set of AALC courses that
would yield to meet the highest learning needs of older adults. The current
AALC curriculum structure is divided into five categories with opportunities
for community-based and active aging-inspired learning (Wei 2014).
1. Community-Centered Thematic Topics

This category refers to topics that are rooted in the residing community or
area, so the learners could share their understanding of the local history,
culture, industries, and issues or problems of interest. For example, Ma-
dou is famous for its pomelo, a kind of citrus fruit comes out in mid-
autumn, so the Ma-dou AALC designed a series of pomelo-themed
programs that serendipitously led to the formation of an elder’s commu-
nity theater. The elder learners wrote their own scripts, learned how to act,
and performed at local schools; they had never believed they had the
potential to perform on the stage if not for joining the AALC.
2. Policy Advocacy and Promotion

The second category refers to dissemination of important policies or new
perspectives that are critical to elders; for example, new national health
insurance policies, health promotion activities, road safety, and anti-fraud
initiatives.
3. Basic Life Skills

This category refers to basic education that helps elders to develop new skills
and knowledge to live in the modern world such as computer/smartphone
classes, financial security, and concept of retirement preparation. Particularly

to elders living in the rural areas, many of them possess little level of literacy
and they are eager to learn how to write their own names.
4. Interests and Recreation

This refers to primarily leisure-oriented classes such as arts and crafts,
singing, health promotion exercise, and the likes. This is the type of
programs that are the least distinctive from those provided at the
Evergreen Academies; yet some AALCs have learned to convert the design
of such classes to ones more educational and empowerment oriented.
For example, one singing class in Shuishang AALC was redesigned
to infuse road safety messages to Taiwanese folk songs: they took the
information learned from the Policy Advocacy sessions as inspiration
and rewrote the lyrics in singing classes. After some practices, they
performed their songs around the community as road safety ambassa-
dors to transmit the knowledge to other non-learner elders. Because
the melodies were familiar to many, it was more effective to spread
new knowledge.
5. Contribution and Service

The fifth category is strongly related to the last three learning needs
addressed by McClusky (1971, 1974), and it refers to any learning endea-
vors that ultimately would prepare older learners to obtain a more active
role in the society. Some examples are volunteering training, leadership
development classes, and life history and storytelling. This type of courses
can also be the advanced version of any of the previous four types such as
the community theater or road safety ambassadors.
Another unique example is the toy clinics housed in vacant class-
rooms at elementary schools. Elder volunteers were recruited from the
community to receive basic toy-repair training, and they later became
toy surgeons and nurses. Vacant classrooms were renovated and deco-
rated as a medical clinic, to where school students could bring in their
broken toys, talked to toy surgeons and nurses in regard to the “symp-
toms of their toy patients,” and came back to pick up their “cured” toys.
In the clinic, the volunteers sharpened their skills of toy repairing, team
worked and brainstormed to figure out how to repair, and expanded
their intergenerational networks. Through the toy clinic programs,
118 W. WANG
elders were more engaged in their volunteering services, which at the

same time enriched their living knowledge and felt energized through
interacting with school children.
AALCs are now the most organized and mission-driven elder learning
settings in Taiwan. In 2014, 306 AALCs were established nationwide, and
70,472 courses or activities were taken place with a total of 1,784,464
participants attended (MOE n.d.-c). Since AALCs are dispersed widely
across the country, their older adult learners come from a variety of back-
grounds; consequently, a heterogeneous range of learning programs and
teaching methods are imperative to the AALCs, not only for the purpose
of retaining participants but also for the effectiveness of promoting the
concept of active aging.
The AAEAG has been playing a critical role in rationalizing the opera-
tion and curriculum structure of the AALCs, yet without the entrustment
of the governments and recognition of the participating community-based
organizations, AAEAG’s sole efforts might be still limited. The above is
remarkable outcomes achieved by collaborations among government,
community organizations, and university faculties.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of this chapter is to present a unique case of the develop-
ment of a university–community collaborative elder learning interven-
tion in Taiwan, the AALCs. The chapter asserted that the establishment
of AALCs was not only a response to the coming of an aging society,
but also an example of university faculty’s collaboration with govern-
ments and communities to implement interventions for social benefits.
After reviewing the evolution of the Taiwanese elder education, the
strenuous advocacy efforts of adult education faculty members over
the past two decades were visible, and paradigm shifts in six aspects
were identified highlighting the current focus on an education-oriented
human resource development rationale for building capacities and max-
imizing potentials of older learners. These shifts were in accordance to
what was suggested in the WHO active aging framework: the provisions
of education and learning opportunities are important to enable older
people to participate in the society.
This chapter also introduced the composition of the AALCs and their
curriculum structure, in addition to the role that the AAEAG played in
the process of AALC establishment and expansion. It was found that the
installation of AAEAG, which was composed of faculty members from

adult education programs, has been critical in rationalizing the operation
and curriculum structure of AALCs; particularly through the training
and consultation sessions organized by the AAEAG, the systematic and
outcome-based approach was effective in assisting AALC personnel and
instructors to improve their understanding of the mission of AALCs
and elder education. The quick expansion of AALCs symbolized one
successful collective achievement of governments’ policy responses to
national demographic changes, universities’ engagement in aging issues,
and communities’ participation in providing community-based learning
opportunities.
AALCs are now the most organized and mission-driven learning
settings for elders in Taiwan. With the involvement of faculty members
from departments of adult education, AALCs are more than just learning
settings: they are also community centers that can be easily accessed to,
socializing locations for elders to interact with others, volunteering places
for elders to take apart, platforms where aging and elder relevant informa-
tion is stored, and even a second home for older people whenever they feel
like being with family members for comfort or company. This chapter
concludes with six components critical to the great acceptance of AALCs
in Taiwan:
1. The enactment of the Toward an Aged Society white paper and the
reauthorization of Lifelong Learning Act serve as necessary legal
foundation to encourage people and community organizations to
take part in the new initiative.
2. The installation of the AAEAG is crucial in terms of setting up
grounding principles for the establishment and curriculum struc-
tures of AALCs.
3. Regular training and consultation sessions are beneficial for person-
nel involved to be equipped with systematic knowledge for admin-
istrating AALCs, and these events are also great opportunities for
team building.
4. The concept of active aging is welcomed by the Taiwanese baby
boomers and is well blended into AALCs’ missions and their curri-
culum structure.
5. New inventions are encouraged at AALCs, so that learners can
constantly experience new ideas, new ways of learning and servicing,
and new programs.
120 W. WANG
6. The importance of developing emerging seed instructors and leaders

has been noted, and relevant training topics are designed to enlarge
the human capital base of the AALC model as a whole.
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creating a lifelong learning system for the elderly. In Proceedings of the
Conference on Senior Education Policiesin the Aging Society in East Asia
(pp. 29–49). http://b001.senioredu.moe.gov.tw/ezcatfiles/b001/img/
img/198180850.rar. Accessed Feb 20, 2016. (in Mandarin)
Wei, H. C. (Ed.) (2012). Active aging learning in Taiwan. Taipei: Wu-Nan
Books. (in Mandarin)
Wei, H. C. (2014, March 7–8). Current situation and prospects of active aging
learning in Taiwan. Keynote speech made at the 2014 International Conference
on Elder Education and Intergenerational Learning. Taipei, Taiwan.
Williams, J. (2016). A critical exploration of changing definitions of public good in
relation to higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 41(4), 619–630.
World Health Organization (2002). Active ageing: a policy framework. http://
apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/67215/1/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8.
Pdf. Accessed Mar 1, 2016.
Wei-ni Wang is an associate professor at the Department of Adult and

Continuing Education, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. Her research
interest covers leadership and administrative issues in adult and higher education.
CONCLUSION
If the growth of higher education tapers off at the same time the price
continues to increase, societies will increasingly question the individual
benefit in exchange for the high cost. There has always been a public
purpose underpinning the role of higher education, but that purpose has
become dormant and in the shadows of the dominant narrative around
individual learner benefits. The degree to which higher education reposi-
tions and reconceptualizes its existence for social benefits is the degree to
which societies and governments will continue to use collective public
funds to support this sector of education.
However, the increasing individualistic and market-oriented frames that
are applied to higher education may continue to erode the degree to which
the public funding supports the enterprise. As a result, it is important for
individual institutions, higher education systems, and the study of higher
education to continue to develop a strong sense of academic public good.
This volume is one modest effort in presenting cases, which are com-
ponents of academic public good. The chapter authors in this volume met
with a larger group of scholars at a seminar in Bangkok, Thailand, on the
campus of Kasetsart University (KU). It was an appropriate setting for a
seminar dedicated to exploring the difficulty of measuring academic public
good and the importance of describing it in great detail. KU is a publicly
engaged, agriculturally focused research institution that generates a great
deal of academic public good through a variety of disciplines. During the

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7
124 CONCLUSION
seminar, many key areas of academic public good were identified, but two
that are missing from this volume include agriculture and public health.
The chapters that emerged included unique perspectives on public good,
including the role of leadership in university–community partnerships,
transnational and cross-border higher education, cultural preservation, a
philosophy of sufficient economics, and care for an aging population.
The unique perspectives presented here should be built upon to further
articulate and inspire an academic public good mission component at
institutions around the globe. Furthermore, academic public good should
continue to be theorized and expanded so that it becomes part of the
common language of higher education.
Higher education will continue to be known for enrolling students who
pay tuition and work toward a degree that is leveraged for employment.
Universities and colleges also produce knowledge, relationships, and atti-
tudes that cannot be understood when measuring collegiate value through
individuals. There is a demand for greater catalogs of university–community
engagement to highlight the ways in which higher education can provide
benefits to society beyond individual degrees. Throughout the Asia Pacific
are in-depth examples of engagement that produces consciousness, partner-
ships, and services that are broadly available to the public and enhance the
progress of society. Unlike an individual degree, these are public benefits that
should be focused upon and featured more readily so that the breadth of
university benefits comes to be better understood.
INDEX
A E
Adult education, 104, 105, 108, 110, Economy, 23, 32, 49, 52, 74,
111, 113, 114, 115, 118, 119 76, 77, 78, 80, 88, 93, 101
Aging population, 8, 106–107, 108,
115
G
GLOBE studies, 14, 15, 19
B
Borderless education, 42
H
Hong Kong, 14, 27, 28, 31,
C 32, 47, 48
China, 13, 14, 32, 35, 41–53
Community engagement, 2, 7, 8, 12,
59, 73 I
Creative tourism, 73–82 Industry, 7, 35, 74, 75
Cross border, 7, 21–37, 42 International branch campus, 8, 22
Cultural
heritage, 50, 51, 58, 59, 60–61,
64, 66, 69, 74, 75, 81 K
preservation, 8, 49, 50–51, 57–70 Kasetsart University, 8, 88, 93
D L
Digital humanities, 8, 59–60, 61, Leadership, 13–15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 25,
66, 69 45, 51, 117

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45222-7
126 INDEX
M Singapore, 14, 31, 32, 36

Malaysia, 8, 14, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, Sino-foreign, 41–53
34, 60, 62, 65, 66 Sustainable tourism, 8, 75,
Massification, 7 76, 77
P T
Partnership, 7, 11–19, 24, 27, 28, 32, Taiwan, 14, 103, 106, 107, 108,
78, 114 110, 111, 112, 113,
Public funding, 4, 43, 109 118, 119
Public good, 1–8, 27, 31, 42, 104 Thailand, 14, 35, 74, 76, 77,
academic, 1–8 78, 81, 89
Transnational, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30,
32, 33, 35, 36, 42, 43, 44, 45,
S 46, 47, 50
Self sufficiency, 8, 98
Service, 7, 22, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33,
42, 49, 78–79, 90, 101, 108, W
117–118 World Bank, 4, 6, 33, 43

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International and Development

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International and Development Education

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

Cover illustration: Détail de la Tour Eiffel © nemesis2207/Fotolia.co.uk

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

Many thanks to the Asia Paciﬁc Higher Education Research Partnership

1 Academic Public Good 1

2 Educational Leaders and Partnerships: A Critical

3 Cross-Border Higher Education: Engaging East Asian Cities 21

4 The Challenges and Beneﬁts of Transnational Higher

5 Digital Heritage as a Rhetorical Tool for Cultural

6 Thai Higher Education and Local Community Engagement

7 University–Community Connections and the Thai Concept

8 Continued Learning in an Aging Society: A University–

Fig. 2.1 Conceptual framework for new partnership formation

Table 4.1 The ﬁnancial resources of eight Sino-foreign cooperation

Academic Public Good

Abstract Public good is generally deﬁned as a beneﬁt to or the well-being

Keywords social beneﬁts public good knowledge production

C.S. Collins (*)

© The Author(s) 2017 1

Higher education institutions need a “larger purpose that underpins their

INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL BENEFITS

quantiﬁed and there is no agreed-upon approach (although McMahon

PUBLIC GOOD CONCEPTS

democratic forms, openness, transparency, popular sovereignty, and grass-

CONCEPTUALIZING ACADEMIC PUBLIC GOOD

mismatch of evaluation criteria and culture. Similarly, if a social setting was

international branch campus to explore the economic and political moti-

Christopher S. Collins is an assistant professor of higher education at Azusa

Educational Leaders and Partnerships: A

Abstract Leading a new partnership in an unconscious, unstructured, or

C.M. Lucas (*)

© The Author(s) 2017 11

to collaborate with diverse constituents. A localized and common under-

Keywords Leadership models partnerships

CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR PARTNERSHIP CREATION

Possible Start of new

new ventures versus an articulation of the conception to completion of

In relation to forming new partnerships, the self-protective style does

1. articulate that team members have the task of discussing available

These behaviors signal the possibility of a partnership and employ a more

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

knowledge bases, and outstanding quality emphasis, create numerous

Cross-Border Higher Education: Engaging

Abstract Higher education crossing national jurisdictional borders is not

© The Author(s) 2017 21

of further research on CBHE graduate outcomes from employers’ per-

Keywords Students Cross-border Partnerships

EDUCATION HUBS VS BRANCH CAMPUSES

An international branch campus is deﬁned as an entity that is owned, at least

An education hub is a planned effort to build a critical mass of local and

education institutions and encourage them to offer franchise and twinning

GLOBAL–NATIONAL RATIONALES OF HUB STRATEGIES

that transnational education, in many cases, is treated as peripheral, and is

Host-Country Regulations and Institutional Innovations

debates of internationalising higher education (Jones and Killick 2013;

descriptions of the application of Leask’s concepts in their work with

POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND IMPACTS ON CAPACITY BUILDING

This section discusses policy implications on CBHE provision in host coun-

in these countries is likely to provide useful lessons. The key point to be