Faculty and Student Mobility Among ASEAN Higher Education

Amirul Mukminin, Kasinyo Harto, Lenny Marzulina, Rina Antasari, Dian Erlina, Ainur Abdrazakova, Fridiyanto Fridiyanto, Erna Listyaningsih

2026

Closed access Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.4018/979-8-3373-8267-8.ch009
Data confidence 70 medium
How this score is calculated

It is built from checkable properties of the record itself: whether the article has a DOI, how many independent sources confirmed its data, whether the required fields are filled in, and how recent the latest confirmation is. Disagreement between sources and a missing identifier lower it. A value of 80 or above means the record was published without further checking; 60 to 79 means it is published at reduced confidence, with a manual check advisable. A record verified by an editor by hand is never pushed below 90 by a recalculation. This scores our data about the article, not the article itself.

Abstract

This paper analyzes faculty and student mobility within ASEAN higher education, examining regional opportunities and persistent exchange barriers. Through the AUN, AIMS program, and bilateral agreements, three dimensions emerge: asymmetrical talent flow reinforcing hierarchies and brain drain; institutional impediments including credit incompatibilities, qualification disparities, language barriers, and visa restrictions; and cultural dimensions shaping mobility experiences. Despite harmonization rhetoric, significant gaps between policy aspirations and implementation persist. COVID-19 exposed structural vulnerabilities while accelerating digital alternatives transforming exchange paradigms. Meaningful mobility requires policy innovation encompassing standardized credit recognition, expanded scholarships targeting underrepresented institutions, streamlined immigration, language preparation, and institutional capacity development in emerging ASEAN economies, transforming academic mobility from an elite phenomenon into an inclusive regional human capital development mechanism.