The many faces of asia pacific higher education in the era of massification

Higher education throughout much of the world, and certainly across the diverse Asia Pacific region, has been engaged in one or another aspect of the massification phase (Trow in International Handbook of Higher Education (RSS), 2005) for the past three or four decades. From an outside perspective, it may appear that the general form and dynamics of this massification movement are quite similar, irrespective of local country differences. On closer inspection, however, the process of massification is in fact highly complex and differentiated, taking a variety of shapes and pathways.