Key Research Policy Issues and the Changing Role of the State in the Asia-Pacific Region

Rapid economic and social changes in many countries of the Asia-Pacific region are impacting significantly on university research policy at both national and institutional levels. Leading higher education systems in the region are following similar developments to those found generally in OECD countries, particularly leading to changing roles for the state in research policy and innovation, establishment of new mechanisms for allocating public funding of research, experiments in priority setting and research concentration, enhanced university-industry research partnerships, and more serious efforts to capture research outputs in order to create new jobs and produce economic and social benefits. On the other hand poorer countries find great difficulty in meeting enrolment pressures, let alone allocating significant sums to support research.