杉村 美紀

This article clarifies the role of higher education networking in promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The significance of ESD in higher education has been recognized since the 1990s. Globalization and internationalization emphasize the importance of creating partnerships through networking and international collaboration. Higher education networks play a significant role in the development of ESD. This article analyses three networks in Asia to compare the characteristics of networking and ESD in higher education. It also identifies the significance of networking in advancing the following aspects: the whole school/institution approach, the formation of a platform through partnership building, interdisciplinary educational research activities, and the sharing of knowledge. The networks include environmental education teachers, graduate schools for environmental studies in the Asia-Pacific region, and a university network that supports UNESCO-associated schools in Japan.

Purpose This paper discusses the effectiveness of a consortium-based student mobility programme by investigating the impact of the Asian International Mobility for Students (AIMS) Programme. AIMS is a regional multilateral large-scale student mobility programme based on a consortium of 10 member countries and 87 member universities with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development (SEAMEO RIHED) as a facilitator. Over 6,000 students have participated in a semester-long intra-regional student exchange under AIMS since 2010. Design/methodology/approach The study employed questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews to investigate the impact of AIMS and its advantages as a consortium-based student mobility programme. Findings It was found that AIMS significantly impacted member universities by accelerating their internationalisation processes through increasing the number of inbound and outbound students and courses offered in English and so on. AIMS has promoted harmonisation among the members by developing common procedures and guidelines, providing platforms for mutual sharing of experiences and good practices and capacity building of international relations offices. AIMS has also had a significant impact on students by enhancing their regional identity and knowledge about the region of Asia, contributing to their development as future regional and global citizens. As advantages of AIMS, member universities efficiently built a foundation for international collaboration with common procedures and guidelines and shared their experiences through such venues as Annual Review Meetings. Students also feel supported by having clear guidance and find programmes prepared by host universities and SEAMEO RIHED useful. Originality/value This study is unique in that it empirically studies the impact of one of Asia’s largest student mobility programmes for the first time by analysing large-scale qualitative and quantitative data.

Today, as international students become more mobile, and as further diversification of mobility takes place, transnational strategic development is demanded of Japan's higher education policies in lieu of traditional concepts such as "international intellectual contribution" and "mutual international understanding." Global 30, the Project for Establishing a University Network for Internationalization, the Project for Promotion of Global Human Resources Development, and the Top Global University Project embody the direction of internationalization and reformation of universities set forth by the Japanese government. Furthermore, efforts to develop talent across borders using a common platform of multilateral cooperation and networks have been undertaken as seen in the Re-Inventing Japan Project. These are the new models for international higher education. Faced with only incremental increases in foreign students and a decline in the number of Japanese students studying abroad, defining the role of Japan in international higher education and developing its strategies are vital for Japan's higher education policies.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how international students' movements affect higher education policies with an aim of forming education hubs. International students' movements have become more active, massive and diversified in the process of globalization and internationalization of higher education. People in general have come to be more concerned about studying abroad through the cross-border programs, while governments are also eagerly attracting international students for human resource development. There are several types of students' movements as follows; 1) bilateral movement, 2) multilateral movement through international networking, and :3) transit movement in which students can move from one place to another. As a result, education centers have appeared or are being designed to become hubs for international students. Those hubs are classified into three types; "student hub","skilled workers hub", and "knowledge /innovation hub" (Knight, 2011), which can become an important strategic factor of higher education policy in many countries. For example, Sri Lanka has just started a reform of higher education with an aim to become "the most-cost effective and quality education hub in Asia". Malaysia has already started functioning as a "student hub", thus attracting various international students from Asia, Middle East and African countries. It can be said that Malaysia is a transit point as the preliminary destination for students who will eventually go on to English speaking countries like USA, UK, Canada, Australia and so on to get higher degrees. However, the formation of hub by international students' movement has also caused some issues as follows; frictions between local people and newcomers, drastic cultural changes and social security problems, one of which is the typical issue of people flowing illegaly into countries. These conflicts can stimulate people's nationalism, thus bringing about controversial political debates. International students' movements can provide higher education policies with new perspectives, while it is also true that it causes political and social problems.

Chinese society has a serious social inequality， and its multilayered structure seems to be fixed under rapid marketization． Education has been regarded as a means of getting out of the lower class and going up to the upper class． However， it often causes another competition and changes people's con呂ciousness on the way of life． First， minority people in rural areas come up against a dilemma of importance of mother tongue education for keeping ethrlic identity and usefulness of Chinese and English education for going on to school and job in competition． Secondly， the increasing gap between the first and second generations of migrant workers， is becoming wide in terms of way of life． Thirdly， the problem of children who have been left behind in rural areas as their parents must work in cities is getting more serious in causing the poor school works as well as mental deficiency． These matters considered， it can be pointed out that educational inequality in China lays not only between differences of cities and rural areas， but the disparity of region， ethnic group and class of rich and poor have fixed the social divide structure through education． ix