– With over half the world’s population, Asia contains the largest number of living languages. This rich cultural heritage has posed both a challenge and an opportunity for the development of world-class educational institutions and for the international students who seek to attend them.

– Japan has had a head start in Western-style education dating back earlier than WWII. However, thanks to heavy education-sector investments, several other countries have joined the lead—notably, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore.

– Policy reforms in all these countries have led to dramatic improvements in the quality of higher education. Generally, the trend among the top universities has been toward the creation of educational hubs—as in Malaysia, Singapore, China and to a certain degree, India. Governments have allocated vast public resources to that end.

– This situation has triggered intense competition over foreign-student recruitment, academic partnerships and research funds, resulting in a dramatically higher standards bar and more comfortable tuition levels. 

– Despite wide differences in educational quality and offerings, some countries now boast universities that rank among the world’s top one hundred learning institutions.

– Three Asian nations stand out for the dynamism of their educational sector: