Well aware of the growing importance of the public accountability movement, many governments in Asia have introduced different polices, strategies, and mechanisms to maintain quality in higher education. Along with the massification of higher education and the prominence of new public management among Asian nation states, evaluation, accreditation and audit have been frequently employed to determine whether educational services offered by universities have been up to certain level. In order to fulfill the responsibility of securing quality education within its jurisdiction, many Asian governments are beginning to impose relevant regulations and quality assurance measures. These moves have substantially reshaped and redefined the relationship and configuration between higher education sector and government. The emergence of quality assurance, as a regulatory instrument, are also concerned with the differentiated roles and responsibilities of all the players involved such as universities/colleges, national quality assurance systems, independent accreditation bodies, professional bodies, and regional international organizations. Moreover, the popularity of transnational higher education such as branch campuses and twining/dual program and the increasingly integrated higher education area in Asia with the facilitation of ASEAN, UMAP and AEARU not only create the needs of recognizing the qualification and degrees regionally but also pose serious governance challenges to each country domestically. It is against these wider contexts that this panel will pay special attention to the emerging issues of quality assurance in selected societies such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and China etc.. Also, it is imperative to examine the challenges that further regional integration and transnational collaboration may face in Asian countries with respect to quality assurance.
