Opportunities and tensions in the process of educational globalisation: The case of Hong Kong

With the rise of Asian economies, university education in the region is no longer just a service to be consumed domestically. It is also perceived as an industry for a rising global city. How to capture the growing market and make the best use of such an opportunity for city building is now on the agenda of many cities in Asia. Hong Kong is a particularly interesting case as it is both a destination for many talented students from China and a bridge for international students to reach different parts (China in particular) of Asia. Educational globalisation seems to make sense politically as well as economically. Yet how to strike a balance between opening the door of universities to the outside world and meeting the education needs of the local population is by no means unproblematic. At stake are further changes in the universities, and major challenges to the political capacity of the government which has to turn higher education into a revenue generating service without doing it at the expense of local interests. Copyright © 2014 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.