ABSTRACT

Half a decade ago, the European Commission postulated that, ‘developing further co-operation in the fi eld of Higher Education [. . .] presents the European Community with its greatest challenge in EU-Asia relations’. This may well have been an over-statement. However, there are a number of problems that the EU’s Asia Strategies (Chapter 4) are not, at present, addressing with suffi cient focus (for instance the problem of forged academic credentials and ‘brain-drain’ issues). Notwithstanding this, the Commission’s declaratory diplomacy and ‘AsiaStrategy’ documents (see Chapter 4) have a tangible impact on EU-Asia relations in the area of Higher Education. Arguably one of the most signifi cant results of this policy-toolkit is the concentration of EU-Asia Higher Education co-operation on a number of key aims and objectives, which underpins many relevant programmes and initiatives. These key priorities are summarized in an early European Commission brochure (Commission of the European Communities 1995: 15). According to these guidelines, EU-Asia Higher Education co-operation aims to:

• capitalize on the existing co-operation and build on it, in a coherent manner;

• combine existing diverse regional and bilateral co-operation schemes; • ensure overall co-ordination (and ‘complementarities’) of activities; • pursue disciplinary foci – for example on ‘European Studies’; • make Asia-EU Higher Education co-operation more visible.