IAFOR > The Asian Conference on the Liberal Arts > ACLA2019 Overview

ACLA2019 Overview

Conference Theme: "Uncertain Futures: The Role of Liberal Arts Education"

November 08–10, 2019 | Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Held at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, The Asian Conference on the Liberal Arts (ACLA) is a multidisciplinary conference co-organised by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Lingnan University (Hong Kong), the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership (APHERP), and in affiliation with the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE).

Given the rate of change in today’s world, the future has never seemed less certain, to either students or teachers. This conference will concentrate on the role of formal education in preparing students for uncertain futures, and for societies that are changing at great speed.

With the positive aspects of globalisation that have transformed how we work and interact with each other, we must also consider the more negative impacts on societies and the natural environment. For those resistant to the growing interconnectedness brought by globalisation, some retreat into nationalism, regionalism, populism and authoritarianism, frequently driven by fear-based politics, and fears of an uncertain present, and scary future.

Globalisation been driven by massive leaps forward in technology. Technologies have made life better in so many ways, but they have also contributed to great losses of personal privacy, and increased reports of alienation as social media and online life vye for time with “real” life. Until fairly recently, technology was driven by policy, as opposed to the current situation where it exists before any ramifications can be fully considered.

Artificial intelligence and robots are already replacing many more routine jobs, and while technology may create many as yet unimagined jobs, teachers and professors are in the position of having to educate for the unknown. How do we keep the Liberal Arts relative in this high-tech world? How then do we respond effectively to uncertain futures by repurposing liberal arts education? How do we reimagine teaching, lecturing, nurturing, mentoring, and the curation and transmission of knowledge? How do we prepare for students to thrive when confronted with the unexpected? How do we plan for as yet unknown disruptive change?

The past decade has been a challenging one for liberal arts education as it has been seen by some governments and actors as less useful than “more practical” areas of study, by which they mean it is difficult to quantify in the same ways as the sciences, and in particular the “hard” sciences. This has lead, in many countries, to a reappraisal of their role in the face of budget cuts in favour of other subjects, but has also lead to a reconceptualisation and rebranding of the liberal arts, from the futile and fanciful of their caricature, to instead hard- nosed selling of their fundamental need in both analysing and interpreting information, and framing and exploring all other subjects. This is a recognition of their crucial importance in helping foster and nurture the skills that will be required for future generations.

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CHER/ACLA2019 Photo Report

Following the overwhelming success of last year’s edition, Lingnan University, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), and the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership (APHERP) co-hosted The IAFOR Conference for Higher Education Research (CHER2019). The theme was "Uncertain Futures: Repurposing Higher Education", a title chosen to reflect the precarious nature of global socio-economic development today. The Asian Conference on the Liberal Arts (ACLA2019) was held in parallel under the theme "Uncertain Futures: The Role of Liberal Arts Education".

Above: Dr Bernard Charnwut Chan (Executive Council member of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR), gave the opening remarks. Dr Chan emphasised the need to establish strong ties between educational institutions and governments due to the uncertain socioeconomic futures faced by various societies around the globe.

Above, clockwise from top left: Professor Joshua Mok (Vice President, Lingnan University) offered theoretical and empirical perspectives to aid the understanding of the uncertain futures that are confronting societies. Representatives from IAFOR, APHERP, and Lingnan University unveil their commitment to supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through research, discussion, and dissemination of information. Students performed a traditional Chinese Lion Dance, culminating in a hospitable message of welcome to all in attendance. And Keynote Speakers posed for a group photo (left to right) Professor Simon Marginson (University of Oxford, UK), Professor Francis Green (University College of London, UK), Professor Leonard K. Cheng (President, Lingnan University), Dr Bernard Charnwut Chan, Professor Deane Neubauer (East-West Center, USA), Professor Adam R. Nelson (University of Wisconsin-Madison, US), and Professor Joshua Mok.

Above left: In a speech entitled "Boya Education in China: Lessons from Liberal Arts Education in the US and Hong Kong", Professor Leonard K. Cheng discussed the importance of China’s “boya” education (BYE) in the era of computer-based automation and AI technology. Professor Cheng argued that BYE needs to occupy a central role in the undergraduate curriculum to achieve its goals in China. Above right: Professor Simon Marginson delivered a presentation entitled "Equal but Different: Global and Regional Implications of the Rise of China in Universities and Science". He argued that the coming decades may witness a situation where rapid growth and improvements in China are impeded by geopolitical conflict, but that China’s systems of higher education and science are now sufficiently developed, and self-sufficient enough, to sustain a strong regional and global role under such conditions.

Above, clockwise from top left: Professor Francis Green spoke on ‘Graduate Employment and Under-Employment’, focusing on the issues pertaining to the availability of employment for new graduates in view of globalisation, changing economic characteristics, and fortunes of societies. Professor Deane Neubauer addressed the issue of climate change in his talk "Engaging the Forces Propelling the Repurposing of Higher Education", in which he discussed the increasingly significant impact of environmental concerns are having on higher education.

Attendees deemed the conference a major success, and all participants said they appreciated the academic and social content of the programme. Organisers said they achieved the goal of debating the future needs of higher education, and establishing how to repurpose higher education for the coming uncertain times. Students, researchers, and policymakers all agreed that they must continue these discussions to ensure higher education is prepared for what lies ahead.

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Programme

  • Boya Education in China: Lessons from Liberal Arts Education in the U.S. and Hong Kong
    Boya Education in China: Lessons from Liberal Arts Education in the U.S. and Hong Kong
    Keynote Presentation: Leonard K. Cheng
  • Equal but Different: Global and Regional Implications of the Rise of China in Universities and Science
    Equal but Different: Global and Regional Implications of the Rise of China in Universities and Science
    Keynote Presentation: Simon Marginson
  • Graduate Employment and Under-Employment
    Graduate Employment and Under-Employment
    Keynote Presentation: Francis Green
  • Uncertain Futures of the Past: “Repurposing” American Higher Education, 1945–1965
    Uncertain Futures of the Past: “Repurposing” American Higher Education, 1945–1965
    Keynote Presentation: Adam Nelson
  • Engaging the Forces Propelling the Repurposing of Higher Education
    Engaging the Forces Propelling the Repurposing of Higher Education
    Keynote Presentation: Deane Neubauer

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Keynote Speakers

  • Leonard K Cheng
    Leonard K Cheng
    Lingnan University, Hong Kong
  • Adam R. Nelson
    Adam R. Nelson
    University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
  • Simon Marginson
    Simon Marginson
    University of Oxford, UK
  • Francis Green
    Francis Green
    University College London, Institute of Education, UK
  • Deane Neubauer
    Deane Neubauer
    East-West Center, USA

Featured Speakers

  • Joshua Mok
    Joshua Mok
    Lingnan University, Hong Kong

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Advisory Board

  • Joshua Mok
    Joshua Mok
    Lingnan University, Hong Kong
  • Bernard Charnwut Chan
    Bernard Charnwut Chan
    Executive Council of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

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Review Committee

  • Dr Jin Jiang, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
  • Dr Chi Sum Garfield Lau, The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Professor Ka Ho Joshua Mok, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
  • Professor Deane Neubauer, University of Hawaii, Manoa, United States
  • Dr Marilyn Obod, Our Lady of Fatima University, Philippines
  • Dr Despoina Panou, Ministry of Education, Greece

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ACLA2019 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

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About Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Founded in Guangzhou in 1888 and re-established in Hong Kong in 1967, Lingnan has the longest history among all local tertiary institutions. Its vision is to be a leading Asian liberal arts university with international recognition, distinguished by outstanding teaching, learning, scholarship and community engagement. Lingnan is committed to providing quality whole-person education by combining the best of Chinese and Western liberal arts traditions; nurturing students to achieve all-round excellence and imbuing them with our core values; and encourage faculty and students to contribute to society through original research and knowledge transfer.

On the auspicious occasion of celebrating its golden jubilee, Lingnan has achieved a leap in ranking that puts it in the top 100 Asian universities in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asia University Rankings 2018. In 2015, Lingnan University was also named as one of the top 10 liberal arts college in Asia by Forbes. Lingnan is dedicated to building an international campus and actively establishing strategic collaborations with prominent universities worldwide.

Learn more about Lingnan University

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Boya Education in China: Lessons from Liberal Arts Education in the U.S. and Hong Kong
Keynote Presentation: Leonard K. Cheng

In this paper I shall discuss the importance of China’s "boya" education (BYE), which has a tradition similar to that of the West’s liberal arts education (LAE), in the era of computer-based automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Drawing on the experience of BYE in Mainland China and LAE in the United States and Hong Kong, I argue that (a) for BYE to achieve its goals in China it should occupy a central rather than tangential role in the undergraduate curriculum, (b) professional or technical training is not only compatible with the fundamental values of boya or liberal arts but also is helpful in showcasing the touted strengths of BYE and LAE, and (c) the combined benefits of BYE or LAE on the one hand and professional or technical training on the other may be achieved by pursuing both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

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Equal but Different: Global and Regional Implications of the Rise of China in Universities and Science
Keynote Presentation: Simon Marginson

The rapid development of higher education and the associated research in China is now well documented. The gross enrolment ratio, the proportion of school leavers entering tertiary education, rose from 5 per cent in 1996 to 51 per cent in 2017. The number of Chinese mainland universities in the Shanghai ARWU top 500 grew from eight universities in 2005 to 58 in 2018. In physical sciences STEM research, the leading Chinese universities now produce as many high citation research papers, in English, as the leading universities from the United States. The growth of science in China has coincided with the emergence of the global system of science publishing which has now achieved a dominant role in research, and has been built on a high level of internationalisation, including US-China collaboration. In the next period, the processes of rapid growth and improvement in China may become impeded by geo-political conflict, including restrictions on people mobility and exchange of technology, but one suspects that China’s higher education and science systems are now sufficiently developed and self-sufficient to sustain a strong regional and global role under such conditions. The paper will reflect on the similarities and differences between universities in China and Euro-America and the implications of the emerging bipolar world for the evolution of both global higher education and China.

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Graduate Employment and Under-Employment
Keynote Presentation: Francis Green

For those investing their time and money in university study, the uncertain prospects of finding a “graduate job” after achieving their qualification has been casting a gloom over higher education in many countries. Pessimists argue that the number of graduate jobs are not expanding fast enough to absorb the increasing number of graduates, and fear that the widespread introduction of robotic production will exacerbate this trend; while optimists emphasise the continuing average “returns” to higher education in the labour market, and expect that new jobs will emerge to replace those that disappear with new technologies. At the root of the issue is the fact that the graduate labour market is not a typical short-term micro-market, with an equilibrating price-mechanism ensuring that the supply of and demand for graduate skills remain closely aligned. With institutional and macroeconomic differences across nations, the risk for graduates of not finding employment in graduate jobs is expected to vary. In this talk I will report on a project that has been building a comparable picture of recent graduate labour markets in countries with high participation systems of higher education, especially drawing on evidence from Europe. I will analyse the supplies of graduates, the numbers of graduate jobs and the disequilibrium trends over a decade, alongside evidence of the changing dispersion of graduates’ wages.

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Uncertain Futures of the Past: “Repurposing” American Higher Education, 1945–1965
Keynote Presentation: Adam Nelson

On the one hand, the United States after World War II built a higher-education system that became the envy of the world. On the other hand, the construction of that system provoked such intense student backlash that it nearly fell apart. While the story of global student protest during the late 1960s is well known, this lecture considers the causes and consequences of student alienation during the early 1960s, when many students became increasingly critical of the mass institutions – including the “multi-versities”– they inhabited. As they expressed their fears of an “uncertain future” marked by seemingly inexorable technological change (from industrial automation to nuclear proliferation to environmental degradation), they saw the university as both “the problem” and “the solution”. This story may hold lessons for global university leaders today.

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Engaging the Forces Propelling the Repurposing of Higher Education
Keynote Presentation: Deane Neubauer

This paper explores the nature and some of the probable effects on higher education (HE) of four major emergent global dynamics: the emergence of the Work 4.0 culture, climate change, the continuing pattern of national and international realignments, and transforming population dynamics--in particular, the aging of global populations. All four of these macro social changes will impact HE in a variety of ways. This paper focuses on suggesting ways in which HE as a social value and set of practices may respond to these macro changes. In specific I inquire into the varied elements of Work 4.0 and seek to link them to the repurposing of HE. I also ask how an impending global climate change emergency will impact higher education with particular emphasis on the likely responses of both national governments and international organizations. This focus dovetails in some national settings (most specifically the USA) with the rise of nationalism and a policy predilection for national versus international solutions to various issues. And finally, the paper raises the question of how changing population dynamics are affecting HE, in specific, the kinds of novel subject matter, research and delivery systems that will likely emerge with a globally aging population?

Read presenters' biography
Leonard K Cheng
Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Biography

Professor Leonard K Cheng is President of Lingnan University, Hong Kong. After his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, he taught at the University of Florida for 12 years. He joined the School of Business and Management of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 1992, where he served as Head of Economics, Associate Dean, Director of PhD and MBA programmes, Acting Dean and Dean. He joined Lingnan University as President in September 2013.

Professor Cheng’s research interests include applied game theory, market structure, currency crisis, international trade and investment, technological innovation and imitation, and China’s inward and outward foreign direct investment.

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Boya Education in China: Lessons from Liberal Arts Education in the U.S. and Hong Kong
Adam R. Nelson
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Biography

Adam R. Nelson is Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. in history from Brown University. His publications include Education and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872-1964 (2001); The Elusive Ideal: Equal Educational Opportunity and the Federal Role in Boston’s Public Schools (2005); Education and the Culture of Print in Modern America, co-edited with John L. Rudolph (2010); and The Global University: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives, co-edited with Ian P. Wei (2012). He is currently writing a book titled Empire of Knowledge: Nationalism, Internationalism, and American Scholarship, 1780-1830. His research has been funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard, the Advanced Studies Fellowship Program at Brown, and the Vilas Associate Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He co-directs the “Ideas and Universities” project of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN; see https://wun.ac.uk/wun/research/view/ideas-and-universities).

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Presentation information will be added here shortly
Simon Marginson
University of Oxford, UK

Biography

Simon is Professor of International Higher Education at the University of Oxford, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Higher Education, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Tsinghua Journal of Education. Simon has worked at the University of Oxford since September 2018. Prior to that he was Professor of International Higher Education at the UCL Institute of Education (2013–2018), Professor of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne (2006–2013), and Professor of Education at Monash University (2000–2006). He was the Clark Kerr Lecturer on higher education at the University of California, Berkeley in 2014, and in the same year received the Distinguished Research Award from the Association for Studies of Higher Education in the United States. He is a member of Academia Europaea, a Lifetime Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education in the UK, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the UK and Australia.

Simon is one of the most cited scholar-researchers in the world in the field of higher education studies (h-index Google Scholar 51, Web of Science 16). He draws on and integrates a range of social science disciplines in his work, primarily political economy and political philosophy, historical sociology and social theory. He works primarily on globalisation and higher education, international and comparative higher education, and higher education and social inequality. He is currently researching the public good contributions of higher education, and completing a book with colleagues on the implications of the worldwide trend to high participation systems of higher education.

His books include Markets in Education (1997), The Enterprise University (with Mark Considine, 2000), Global Creation (2009) and Imagination (2010) with Peter Murphy and Michael Peters, International Student Security (with Chris Nyland, Erlenawati Sawir and Helen Forbes-Mewett, 2010), Higher Education and Globalisation (edited with Roger King and Rajani Naidoo, 2011), Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific: Strategic Responses to Globalisation (edited with Sarjit Kaur and Erlenawati Sawir, 2011), Higher Education in Vietnam (with nine co-authors, 2014), The Age of STEM (edited with Brigid Freeman and Russell Tytler, 2015), The Dream is Over: the Crisis of Clark Kerr’s Californian Idea of Higher Education (2016) and Higher Education and the Common Good (2016).

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Equal but Different: Global and Regional Implications of the Rise of China in Universities and Science
Francis Green
University College London, Institute of Education, UK

Biography

Francis Green is a Co-Investigator on CGHE’s social and economic impact of higher education research programme. Francis is Professor of Work and Education Economics at UCL Institute of Education. He writes on skills, education, training, job quality and industrial relations issues, and has worked as an advisor to the OECD, the European Union, the World Bank, and the UK and Singapore governments.

He is the author of Skills and Skilled Work. An Economic and Social Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Graduate Employment and Under-Employment
Deane Neubauer
East-West Center, USA

Biography

Deane Neubauer is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He currently also serves as the Associate Director of the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership (APHERP) which conducts a wide range of policy-focused research with a special focus on higher education. He is also currently an adjunct fellow of the East-West Center, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Deane holds a BA from the University of California, Riverside, and MA and PhD degrees from Yale University. Over the course of his career he has focused on a variety of political and policy areas including democratic theory, public policy, elections and various policy foci, including education, health, agriculture and communication. He has held a wide variety of administrative positions at the University of Hawaii, Manoa and the 10 campus University of Hawaii system. He also has over twenty-years experience in US-oriented quality assurance.

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Engaging the Forces Propelling the Repurposing of Higher Education
Joshua Mok
Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Biography

Professor Joshua Mok Ka-ho is the Vice-President and concurrently Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Comparative Policy of Lingnan University. Before joining Lingnan, he was the Vice President (Research and Development) and Chair Professor of Comparative Policy of The Hong Kong Institute of Education, and the Associate Dean and Professor of Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences of The University of Hong Kong. Prior to this, Professor Mok was appointed as the Founding Chair Professor in East Asian Studies and established the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom.

Professor Mok is no narrow disciplinary specialist but has worked creatively across the academic worlds of sociology, political science, and public and social policy while building up his wide knowledge of China and the region. Professor Mok completed his undergraduate studies in Public and Social Administration at the City University of Hong Kong in 1989, and received an MPhil and PhD in Sociology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991 and The London School of Economics and Political Science in 1994 respectively.

In addition, Professor Mok has published extensively in the fields of comparative education policy, comparative development and policy studies, and social development in contemporary China and East Asia. In particular, he has contributed to the field of social change and education policy in a variety of ways, not the least of which has been his leadership and entrepreneurial approach to the organisation of the field. His recent published works have focused on comparative social development and social policy responses in the Greater China region and East Asia. He is also the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Public Policy (London: Routledge) and Asian Education and Development Studies (Emerald) as well as a Book Series Editor for Routledge and Springer.

Featured Presentation (2019) | Presentation information will be added here shortly
Joshua Mok
Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Biography

Professor Joshua Mok Ka-ho is the Vice-President and concurrently Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Comparative Policy of Lingnan University. Before joining Lingnan, he was the Vice President (Research and Development) and Chair Professor of Comparative Policy of The Hong Kong Institute of Education, and the Associate Dean and Professor of Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences of The University of Hong Kong. Prior to this, Professor Mok was appointed as the Founding Chair Professor in East Asian Studies and established the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom.

Professor Mok is no narrow disciplinary specialist but has worked creatively across the academic worlds of sociology, political science, and public and social policy while building up his wide knowledge of China and the region. Professor Mok completed his undergraduate studies in Public and Social Administration at the City University of Hong Kong in 1989, and received an MPhil and PhD in Sociology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991 and The London School of Economics and Political Science in 1994 respectively.

In addition, Professor Mok has published extensively in the fields of comparative education policy, comparative development and policy studies, and social development in contemporary China and East Asia. In particular, he has contributed to the field of social change and education policy in a variety of ways, not the least of which has been his leadership and entrepreneurial approach to the organisation of the field. His recent published works have focused on comparative social development and social policy responses in the Greater China region and East Asia. He is also the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Public Policy (London: Routledge) and Asian Education and Development Studies (Emerald) as well as a Book Series Editor for Routledge and Springer.

Featured Presentation (2019) | Presentation information will be added here shortly
Bernard Charnwut Chan
Executive Council of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong

Biography

Mr Chan is President of Asia Financial Holdings Limited and Asia Insurance Company Limited. He is the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Chairman of Hong Kong Palace Museum Ltd., Chairman of the Steering Committee on Restored Landfill Revitalisation Funding Scheme and Chairman of the Committee on Reduction of Salt and Sugar in Food. He is also a Hong Kong Deputy to the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and a board member of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. He previously served as a Legislative Council Member as well as Chairman of the Council of Lingnan University, the Council for Sustainable Development, the Antiquities Advisory Board, the Advisory Committee on Revitalisation of Historic Buildings and the Standing Committee on Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service. Mr Chan was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star in 2006.

Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

A Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance, Dr Haldane is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), a Visiting Professor at the School of Business at Doshisha University (Japan), and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (USA).

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.