ABSTRACT
I now foreground and discuss six major debates to set the scene for the book and its remaining chapters.
• Debate 1: Travelling Global and National Policy Rationales and Discourses as Stimuli for the Globalisation and Internationalisation of Higher Education
• Debate 2: English and the Internationalisation of Higher Education in Asia • Debate 3: English, the West, Colonialism, and Neo-colonialism/
Globalisation • Debate 4: The Commercialisation and Mediocrity of Transnational English-
Medium Higher Education • Debate 5: English, Internationalisation of Higher Education, and
(National) Cultural Identity in Asia • Debate 6: Transnational Education and the Continuity to Entertain the
West-Asia Dichotomy of all Kinds
The internationalisation of higher education (HE) has been referred to as a must and a springboard for international integration and social advancement that could help transform societies as well as produce comparative advantage beneficial for the nation state to perform globally. At the same time, there are growing concerns expressed in everyday news and professional meetings and in policy documents in Asian countries about teachers not knowing how to create effective learning environments for students, about ‘traditional methods of teaching’ that are pulling Asia behind in terms of education and development, about students who are only good at studying for examinations and lack critical thinking and analytical skills, about graduates who are unemployable because of insufficient exposure to English and global mindedness, and about local Asian teachers predominantly using didactic teacher-centred approaches in the classroom (Barnawi, 2012; Brock & Symaco, 2011; L. H. Phan, 2014b; Tran et al., 2014; Tupas,
2015; Widin, 2010). All of these problems have urged governments and educational entities to reform their current policies and practice, and globalisation and internationalisation are often the key directives that travel across borders and inform as well as dictate to nations and institutions (Bhandari & Lefébure, 2015; Huang, 2007a, b; L. H. Phan, 2013).
