Chapman, D. W., Cummings, W.K., & Postiglione, G. A. (Eds.). Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education. Springer, 2011. ISBN: 978-94-007-0445-9. Pages: 392

This book examines how East Asian countries have developed their own international higher education programmes in response to the changing economic, social, and educational environments in which they now operate. The authors of the book argue that there will be more intra-Asian higher education relations, in particular among China, South Korea and Japan, which have become attractive to students from other Asian countries. While students from places like Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand may still go to the West for study, student flows from East Asian countries to traditional partners in the West may slow down as a result of competitive international higher education policies and instruments introduced by China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia Hong Kong and Singapore. The role of English as a medium of instruction is also critically analysed in the book. On the one hand, English enables higher education systems in some East Asian countries to compete internationally. However, the use of English is potentially endangering the role of Asian languages in academia, and thwarting the development of social sciences and humanities in the region. Compared with developments in Europe, internationalisation strategies in East Asia remain scattered, although a regional initiative similar to the Bologna Process is now being discussed under the auspices of ASEAN.

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