Comparative study on internationalization of higher education in China and Japan : a review of historical roots

Abstract

As a response to globalization, internationalisation of higher education could be accomplished by the forms of a series of national policies and institutional strategies to strengthen the global competitiveness of universities. The history of Japanese higher education spans approximately over 130 years, experiencing both flourishing time and stagnant period. Driven by the increasing pace of internationalisation and great pressure originated from global competition, Japanese government has already taken concrete measures to get its higher education better merged into internationalization. However, higher education in Japan is now at a crossroads maintaining its sustainable and steady development. As Japan’s neighboring country, China came much more slowly of breaking the ice for the internationalisation in dimension of higher education if compared with Japan. As gradually playing an important role internationally, China has invested massively into internationalisation of higher education as well. However the direction of development in Chinese higher education seems to be blur or too early to tell. The current status of higher education in China and Japan are both characterized by profoundly historical roots. Better understanding on the ‘historical internationalisation’ in both countries sheds light on the understanding of higher education in contemporary China and Japan and their developmental progress. Therefore the present dissertation examines the originally authentic sense of internationalisation which could be traced back to the middle to late 19th century. During the middle of nineteenth century China and Japan were both undergoing the threat from invasive West with countries’ independence and traditional culture in danger. In response to expansion of the West, Chinese and Japanese’s reactions varied enormously in polity subversion, economic construction, attitudes towards foreign culture and educational reform. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 in Japan rapidly foster its modernization by successfully ‘using the barbarian to control the barbarian’ to achieve the equal standards with the West eventually which opened a brand-new page for the beginning of Japanese modern history. Unlike Japan, Chinese failure in Self-Strengthening Movement which was supposed to be the preparation of modernization in China, stroke China back to the abyss of bureaucratic governance, leading Chinese modernization and first step accepting western culture and technology almost half a century later than Japan. In this sense, historical roots of internationalisation in China and Japan would be taken into serious consideration in this dissertation because it shaped countries’ status quo and would probably insert a far-reaching influence on the prospective development.