Asia Pacific’s moment in global higher education

There are few regions in the world where the pace of change in higher education feels as significant as it does today across Asia Pacific.

Home to some of the world's largest education systems, fastest-developing economies and most internationally ambitious universities, Asia Pacific is not simply participating in the evolution of global higher education. Increasingly, it is helping to shape it.

That makes our dedicated Asia Pacific supplement particularly timely.

Across these pages, we explore five very different international education markets: China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Kazakhstan. Each has its own history, priorities and challenges, but together they illustrate the diversity and dynamism that characterise higher education across this vast region. What connects these markets is a growing recognition of the importance of higher education to national competitiveness. Governments and institutions across Asia Pacific are investing in talent, research, innovation, international partnerships and their ability to attract and retain students. At the same time, students themselves are becoming more sophisticated in the choices they make.

This is creating a more complex and increasingly multidirectional international education market.

For many years, discussion about international student mobility in Asia tended to focus predominantly on outbound flows to established destinations in North America, Europe and Australia. Those pathways remain enormously important, but they are no longer the whole story; students increasingly have a much wider set of possibilities within Asia itself.

Increasingly, students and families are evaluating multiple destinations, pathways and models of international education. Proximity, affordability and cultural familiarity can sit alongside considerations of academic reputation, employability, research excellence and international experience. For universities, that creates opportunity, but also significantly more competition.

Institutions are competing not only for students, but also for academics, research partnerships, investment, reputation and influence. The competitive landscape is becoming both more international and more distinctly regional. We can see that changing balance reflected in university performance.

The QS World University Rankings 2027 identified the continued rise of East Asian institutions as one of its clearest global trends. China recorded the highest number of new entrants globally and the highest number of upward moves, while institutions from Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China have a substantial presence among the world's leading universities.

That progress matters; it signals something deeper than movement within a rankings table. It demonstrates the growing depth of academic capability across Asia and the sustained ambition of universities throughout the region to strengthen research, reputation, employability and international engagement.

The forthcoming QS Asia University Rankings provide an opportunity to recognise excellence, but they also allow us to step back and consider the direction in which Asian higher education is travelling. In a sector where institutions are increasingly benchmarking themselves beyond their national borders, understanding relative strengths and areas for development is becoming an essential part of university strategy.

Competition, however, should not be the only lens through which we view this rise. The distinctive strength of Asia Pacific is its diversity. China's extraordinary scale and rapidly developing research ecosystem sit alongside Japan's long-established academic traditions. Indonesia combines a huge and youthful population with an increasingly ambitious higher education sector. Thailand continues to strengthen its international connections and educational offering, while Kazakhstan occupies an increasingly interesting position connecting Central Asia with wider Asian and global education networks.

These are not interchangeable markets, nor should we treat them as such. Internationalisation in Asia Pacific will succeed when universities understand those differences while finding new ways to collaborate across them. That means building deeper institutional partnerships; creating opportunities for student and faculty mobility; developing transnational and flexible education models; strengthening research collaboration; and connecting education more closely with the skills, industries and technologies that will define the economies of the future. It also means recognising that international education itself is changing.

A globally engaged university is no longer defined simply by how many international students arrive on its campus. Internationalisation increasingly encompasses joint research, transnational education, digital collaboration, academic networks, industry partnerships and opportunities for students to gain international experience in many different forms. For Asia Pacific, that represents an extraordinary opportunity.

The region has scale. It has talent. It has some of the world's leading universities alongside institutions and national systems with enormous potential for further development. Most importantly, it has a growing network of relationships connecting universities, governments, employers and students across borders.

The challenge now is to turn that diversity and momentum into lasting impact, and it is precisely these conversations that make bringing the higher education community together so important. From 3–5 November 2026, more than 1,500 leaders from universities, government and industry will come together in Bali for the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific. Under the theme "Advancing Education for Purpose and Impact", the Summit will explore internationalisation, workforce readiness and cross-border collaboration, and the role Asia Pacific can play in shaping the future of global higher education.

Bali is therefore more than simply the location for this year's gathering. It provides us with a moment to reflect on what kind of higher education region Asia Pacific wants to become. Will its rise be measured primarily by the number of its universities climbing global rankings? By the number of students crossing its borders? Or can we define success more ambitiously, through the strength of our partnerships, the opportunities we create for students, the knowledge we generate and the contribution our universities make to society?

I believe the next chapter will require both competition and collaboration. Universities will continue to compete globally for the best students, academics and partners. But many of the defining challenges facing our societies, from technological transformation and sustainability to demographic change and the skills demands of new economies, cannot be addressed by individual institutions or countries alone.

They require us to work across borders. That is perhaps the most exciting aspect of Asia Pacific today. This is not simply a region experiencing growth. It is a region increasingly confident about the contribution it can make to global higher education.

I hope this edition provides a window into that transformation. The future of international education will be shaped by many parts of the world. But there is little doubt that Asia Pacific will be central to that future.