Regional Quality Assurance Activity in Higher Education in Southeast Asia: Its Characteristics and Driving Forces.

This article analyses the characteristics and driving forces of regional quality assurance activity in Southeast Asia, which has been actively promoted in recent years by the ASEAN University Network, an organisation for higher education under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). There are now more collaborative efforts among quality assurance agencies and higher education institutions for quality assurance at the international and regional levels as 'globalisation' of higher education accelerates. However, each effort is formed with different objectives and characteristics, as it is driven by different forces. In Southeast Asia, ASEAN's policies, such as reducing the economic gap within the region and creation of a single market, and member countries' policies to internationalise higher education institutions have brought about a strong need to improve the quality of higher education and to foster harmonisation of higher education systems, which have been the driving force behind this regional quality assurance activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]