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https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999211039634
Research in Comparative &
International Education
2021, Vol. 16(3) 199 –208
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/17454999211039634
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Editorial: International
educational mobilities and
new developments in Asia’s
higher education: Putting
transformations at the centre
of inquiries
Phan Le Ha
Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam; University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
Gerald W Fry
University of Minnesota, USA
Setting the scene
In recent decades there has been a dramatic growth in the field of international higher education
with an explosion of scholarly work on international educational mobilities and international stu-
dents’ experiences. However, much of this work is focused on European and English-speaking
western contexts. In actuality, in an article published in 2009 on Asian international students study-
ing in Thailand, one of us already noted
little about international students in areas beyond the Western world has been discussed in the published
research literature. The assumption that ‘the West is the world’ . . . appears to have marginalised even the
need and importance of doing research into the so-called Other – the Other that the Self has already known
and constructed (Pennycook, 1998; Said, 1978). (Phan, 2009: 202)
Although international educational mobilities have been taking place in the vast majority of
Asia, research on the educational research on this area is only an emerging field of inquiry, particu-
larly in relation to higher education (HE) and mobility studies in the international context. Indeed,
scholarship on south–south mobilities is only in the making (Kang and Hwang, forthcoming 2022;
Liu and Phan, 2021, Nugroho et al., 2018; Ortiga, 2018; Pfaff-Czarnecka, 2020; Phan, 2018, 2020;
Sidhu et al., 2020; Yang, 2018). This Special Issue (SI) is first and foremost conceptualised in
response to this significant scholarly inquiry.
Corresponding author:
Phan Le Ha, Universiti Brunei Darussalam and University of Hawaii at Manoa, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei-Muara
District BE 1410, Brunei Darussalam.
Emails: leha.phan@ubd.edu.bn; halephan@hawaii.edu
1039634RCI0010.1177/17454999211039634Research in Comparative and International EducationPhan and Fry
editorial2021
Editorial
200 Research in Comparative & International Education 16(3)
Via multiple methodological approaches adopted in the individual articles, the SI also provides
insight into varied student flows and their underlying implications for Asia and beyond.
Comprised of two interrelated parts (Part I and Part II), the SI as a whole is dedicated to produc-
ing and advancing scholarship on educational mobilities in Asia. The articles included in the SI are
scheduled to be published between September 2021 and March 2023, and are exclusively focused
on transformation generated and shaped by international educational mobilities and new develop-
ments in Asia’s HE.
Initiating and leading this SI, for us, is both intellectually and personally driven, as we play multi-
ple roles in international education as scholars, thinkers, actors, observers, researchers, participants,
producers, consumers and critics. The SI is informed by our engagement with a vast range of theoreti-
cal and empirical work on international educational mobilities and the internationalisation of HE
(see, for example, Brewer and Ogden, 2019; Brooks and Waters, 2011; Collins and Ho, 2018; Collins
et al., 2014; De Wit and Jones, 2018; SK Kim, 2016; Kim, 2017; Leung and Waters, 2017; Oleksiyenko,
2018; Xu and Montgomery, 2018; Yang, 2020). It is also informed by our scholarship, research,
teaching and service in various countries in Asia for the past decades (for example, Fry, 2018; Fry
et al., 2009; Jon et al., 2020; Liu and Phan, 2021; Paige et al., 2010; Phan, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017;
Phan and Doan, 2020; Phan and Mohamad, 2020; Phan et al., 2021; Phùng and Phan, 2021).
Geographic focus
The setting for this SI is Asia and its HE institutions. Asia is now home to roughly 60% of the
world’s population, making it both a huge economic and an educational market. Three of the
world’s four most populous countries, China, India and Indonesia, are in the region. With the tre-
mendous economic growth of China, India and the Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan
and Singapore), the economic gravity of the world has shifted to the East (Gundling and Caldwell,
2015). In 2020, Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed that of the rest of the world. These
facts and celebrated prospects about Asia can be found everywhere, from popular and scholarly
writing to policy narratives to diplomacy and international relations. The Asian century and the rise
of Asia discourses have dominated much of public knowledge for several decades; and they have
also prompted considerable academic dialogues as Phan (2017) shows.
In addition to Asia’s widely praised economic success over the past three decades, its dynamic,
fast-changing and diverse HE systems have also been observed and studied from varied approaches,
perspectives and viewpoints (see, for example, Fry, 2018; Hawkins and Mok, 2015; Heslop, 2014;
Neubauer and Gomes, 2017; Neubauer et al., 2019; Nonaka, 2018; Oleksiyenko et al., 2018; Phan
and Doan, 2020; Phan et al., 2021; Welch, 2011). This body of literature has pointed to a number
of key trends and developments in HE in Asia, which include massification, privatisation, com-
mercialisation, internationalisation and cost escalation as neoliberalism and global university rank-
ings are pushing their ways into all levels of policy, conceptualisation and operation. These
important phenomena are complexly intertwined.
At the same time, as countries in Asia have been actively promoting the internationalisation of
HE, different forms and developments of international educational mobilities are constantly evolv-
ing and growing, as all the articles included in this SI demonstrate. Examples include comparative
analyses of the World Class University model that is driving and (re)shaping international educa-
tional mobilities across the four Asian Tigers’ HE systems (Oleksiyenko et al., 2021, this issue).
Other organic educational mobilities have also been generated by Asian HE institutions such as the
East Asian Leaders Program (EALP), a trilateral/trilingual exchange programme jointly coordi-
nated and overseen by Japanese, Korean and Chinese universities (Hanada and Horie, 2021, this
issue). The EALP, which has created unique opportunities for teaching, learning and intercultural
Phan and Fry 201
interactions, is driven and informed by a collective effort to address specific regional historical,
sociopolitical and sociocultural complications that have concerned all those involved.
The emerging attention given to student mobilities within the Asian region or south–south
mobilities (for example, Chen, 2021; Collins and Ho, 2018; Gunter and Raghuram, 2017; Lipura
and Collins, 2020; Nguyen et al., 2020; Ortiga, 2018; Pfaff-Czarnecka, 2020; Phan, 2009, 2017,
2018; Wong and Wen, 2013; Xu and Montgomery, 2018; Yang, 2018, 2020) points to a serious
need to diversify and transform thinking about HE and international education in the Asia region,
a scholarly call to which this SI rigorously responds. Actually within Asia, studies of HE in coun-
tries in East Asia – particularly China, Japan and South Korea – have dominated the existing litera-
ture. The same thing can be said about contexts such as Singapore and Malaysia in Southeast Asia.
The rest of Asia’s HE is much less known. In the same vein, studies of international educational
mobilities in areas such as Brunei, India and Vietnam are exceedingly rare. This SI is the first that
brings all these contexts together in an attempt to understand marginal or overlooked HE spaces
that, in diverse ways and to varied extent, are rising as increasingly important players in the realm
of international educational mobilities.
All in all, the articles in Part I of this SI focus on various forms of international educational
mobilities and new developments in HE in Asia and how this dynamic region is providing diverse,
attractive destinations and enriching academic and learning spaces for Asian students as well as
students from all parts of the world.
International, inter-Asian, intraAsian educational mobilities
We would like to clarify a number of key concepts and terms used in this SI. To start with, we
refer to both mobility and mobilities interchangeably in this SI. They both encompass the ‘new
mobilities paradigm’ and the ‘mobility’ turn discussed in the influential scholarship of John Urry
and others (Jensen et al., 2018; Sheller and Urry, 2006; Urry, 2007). Indeed, there is a journal
titled Mobilities initiated by John Urry, Mimi Sheller and Kevin Hannam in 2006. With regards
to educational/academic mobility, ‘mobilities’ in plural form is being used more and more these
days by scholars of diverse fields including sociology, geography and education such as Collins
and Ho (2018), Jöns et al. (2017), Lipura and Collins (2020), Xu and Montgomery (2018). From
our reading of the existing literature, ‘mobilities’ as a term signifies the diverse range, forms,
shapes, contents and specialised fields embedded in the concept itself. Likewise, ‘mobilities’ –
when presented in plural form – also points to the multiple theoretical, ideological, conceptual
and methodological approaches and disciplinary foundations employed and developed by
researchers. Our SI, in varied ways and manners, joins hands with the surveyed literature to con-
tinue to enrich, critique and push research and scholarship along the lines of the ever-complex
‘(im)mobility’ turn.’
Part I of this SI with five substantial articles focuses on the range and extent of transformation that
international educational mobilities and the internationalisation of HE have enabled and promised to
bring about in terms of personal and professional growth, pedagogy, teaching, learning, intercultural
interactions, social engagement and capacity building for institutions, communities and societies in
Asia. This focus contributes to advancing further our knowledge of educational mobilities by discover-
ing scholarly gaps and examining new phenomena. Specifically, we do so by connecting international
educational mobilities to new developments and transformation in Asia’s HE spaces, in response to
Asia’s significant and growing role in the global landscape of HE and the many forms and intensities
of mobilities within the region as well as being brought in, appropriated and transformed. At the same
time, we examine different and intersecting purposes of educational mobilities within Asia such as
mobilities for circulating aspirations to rise to the top (Oleksiyenko et al., 2021, this issue), mobilities
202 Research in Comparative & International Education 16(3)
for academic goals, mobilities for society, mobilities for self-transformation and identity building, and
mobilities as individually initiated and as top-down mandated (Hanada and Horie, 2021, this issue;
Kheir, 2021, this issue; Kumpoh et al., 2021, this issue; Lipura, 2021, this issue). We also investigate
the ways in which HE developments such as university–community partnerships (Kumpoh et al, 2021,
this issue), and bilateral and multilateral collaborations among institutions and programmes (Hanada
and Horie, 2021, this issue) may shape mobility experiences and aspirations for individuals and edu-
cational organisations.
Next, we have noted that scholars have used academic mobility/ies and educational mobility/ies
in existing literature. Are they the same or how are they different? Academic mobility/ies refers
primarily to student and staff mobility/ies, whereas educational mobility/ies encompasses the
movement of faculty, scholars, staff and community members as well as the mobility/ies of ideas,
practice, programmes, curricula, courses and partnerships (Xu and Montgomery, 2018). The title
of this SI adopts ‘international educational mobilities’ in recognition of the term’s more inclusive
meaning, whereas different papers included in the SI refer to academic mobility/ies, student mobil-
ity/ies and/or educational mobility/mobilities as they engage with each or all of these terms and
processes.
Then, related to the two points raised above, in this SI we are using both inter-Asian and
intraAsian mobility/ies to indicate educational mobilities within the Asian region. Inter-Asian and
intraAsian mean the movement across Asian countries, but not within the same country, such as
students from Kunming, China, going to study in Shanghai. For more information about the impli-
cations associated with these terms, please refer to the SI put together by Collins and Ho (2018)
entitled ‘Discrepant knowledge and InterAsian mobilities: Unlikely movements and uncertain
futures’ published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, and the upcoming SI
on international mobilities in and out of South Korea, guest-edited by Younghan Cho, Jiyeon Kang
and Phan Le Ha (forthcoming 2022) for Globalisation, Societies and Education.
Transformation
When we initiated this SI, we felt that in order to take a new path, we needed to be able to convince
ourselves and others of the intellectual and practical importance of placing transformation at the
centre of inquiries when it comes to international educational mobilities and new development in
HE in Asia. Why transformation?
Transformation is the key word here. Its on-going intellectual influence is indebted to Mezirow’s
and associates (1978) seminal work on transformative learning in adult education that evolved over
the years (Mezirow, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2000) and continues to inform the scholarship, research,
pedagogy and practice of many educators and scholars across the disciplines (for example, Boyd
and Myers, 1988; Bullen and Roberts, 2019; Johnson and Howell, 2017; JJ Kim and Kim, 2019;
Phillips, 2019; Taylor, 2001, 2007). Along this line of inquiry, one of us (Gerald Fry) co-wrote a
book on transformation with regard to study abroad (Paige et al., 2009) and has also run about 20
programmes in Southeast Asia and East Asia which emphasised transformation and cooperative
learning (see Tomita et al., 2000 for details). Inspired by this body of work, we see transformation
as taking place and being generated and accumulated at multiple points and on numerous occasions
where and when the personal, the sociohistorical, the social and one’s reflections, experiences and
relationships with others and with the world come together to inform learning.
The late Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal (1969) from Sweden forcefully argues that scholars and
researchers should make explicit the normative value premises that guide their work. Ruth Behar
(1996), a highly regarded cultural anthropologist at the University of Michigan, also urges research-
ers to make their values known. The editors of and contributors to this SI have taken this wise
advice to heart as we have developed the SI and all the accompanying articles.
Phan and Fry 203
Our first and fundamental value premise is the belief that, in general, educational mobilities
bring about great value and opportunities for learning, reflection and transformation for all con-
cerned: the individual, the institutions and communities with which they are associated, and soci-
ety at large. Extensive research supports this view (see, for example, Nugroho et al., 2018; Diao
and Trentman, 2021; Fry et al., 2009; Jon and Fry, 2021; Ortiga, 2018; Paige et al., 2009, 2010;
Phan, 2017, 2018; Tran and Gomes, 2017; Yang, 2018). As shown in all the articles in this SI and
its accompanying articles, we also see mobilities as a pivotal condition and lens through which
transformation is enabled and shows its diverse colours in ways that are often unexpected and easy
to be overlooked. Second, through studies conducted in different educational mobility contexts we
would like to see how mobility experiences could be as transformative as possible, and how trans-
formation can be observed, perceived, communicated, reflected upon and lead to changes and
actions for the betterment of humanity and society.
Third, directly related to the second value, is the need as international education educators and
scholars to provide for the most challenging, in-depth educational experiences which promote
intercultural understanding and competency, as well as humanistic international education
(Mcallister, 2018). Fourth, we are of the view that transformation via international educational
mobilities in Asia can take place from the margin and unexpected or even unappreciated, undesir-
able, unlikely spaces and places (Lipura, 2021, this issue; Phan, 2017, 2018; Yang, 2018), along-
side the predominant discourse of well-established elite mobilities (Collins et al., 2014; Oleksiyenko
et al., 2021, this issue). One of us (Phan, 2017) coins ‘transformative mediocrity’ to conceptualise
and theorise the transformation that is generated out of seemingly mediocre encounters, spaces and
places as perceived and experienced and reflected upon by students, administrators and institutions
in the context of transnational HE in Asia and the Gulf region.
What’s more, while we acknowledge the importance of critically engaging with ethics and
equity and social justice issues in scholarly work on international educational mobilities (see, for
example, Chen, 2021; Collins and Ho, 2018; Phan and Barnawi, 2015; Tanarath, 2019; Waters,
2012), we would like to echo what we have argued elsewhere: that critical scholarship must address
transformation in its diverse forms (Chowdhury and Phan, 2014; Phan, 2018). Likewise, we recog-
nise the important role of language in international educational mobilities and in the transformative
experiences of those involved. Although the popular role of English continues to dominate (De
Costa et al., 2020, 2021), other languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi and Vietnamese
are emerging as important media of instruction, research and intercultural/social engagement
(Hanada and Horie, 2021, this issue; Kheir, 2021, this issue; Kumpoh et al., 2021, this issue;
Lipura, 2021, this issue).
In conceptualising transformation, reference to place and locality – recognised as important
concepts related to student mobilities, international education, identity and experience – is an
important theme throughout the contributing articles. Through in-depth and wide-ranging studies
of inter-Asian or intraAsian student mobilities brought together in this collection, many new
insights have emerged in terms of epistemologies, pedagogy, teaching, learning, intercultural com-
munication and competency, professional growth and institutional capacity in the Asia region.
Alongside a few existing others (Cho et al., forthcoming 2022; Collins and Ho, 2018; Phan
et al., 2020; Sidhu et al., 2020), this SI is another much-needed collective effort to put Asia at the
centre of global HE. In the same vein, this SI is perhaps the very first collection that is centred on
transformative experiences – those that occur at all possible levels including individual, institu-
tional, sociocultural, linguistic, intercultural, social, national, regional and global as well as aspira-
tional and emotional. These transformative experiences, as all the contributing articles demonstrate,
happen in all shapes, forms and spaces. The many conceptualisations of transformation discussed
and demonstrated in all the articles have prompted Leve (2021, this issue) to write a highly
204 Research in Comparative & International Education 16(3)
inspiring, captivating and engaging commentary to conclude Part I of this SI. In her commentary,
Leve has referred to transformation as ‘transformative possibilities’. She creatively interweaves
her thoughts on international education and international mobilities with moments of ‘interrup-
tions’ whereby her reflections are constantly influenced and complicated by her contemplations of
possibilities for transformation. Leve’s commentary serves as a powerful testimony to our schol-
arly effort to put transformation at the centre of inquiry and as an extended call for readers to
appreciate and critically engage with this important scholarly endeavour addressed in this SI.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
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Author biographies
Phan Le Ha is a Senior Professor in the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education and Head of the
International and Comparative Education Research Group, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. She is also affili-
ated with the Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa,
US. Please visit her homepage for more information: https://ice.ubd.edu.bn/phan-le-ha/.
208 Research in Comparative & International Education 16(3)
Gerald W Fry is a distinguished international Professor and a Professor of international/intercultural educa-
tion, Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, College of Education and Human
Development, University of Minnesota. A major part of his professional life has been involvement with
international, intercultural and interdisciplinary activities. He served for a number of years as both a Director
of international studies and as a Director of the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. He also was twice team
leader for major Asian Development Bank educational reform projects in Laos and Thailand respectively. In
2009, he received the University of Minnesota Award for Global Engagement.
