• Higher education is critical for sustained growth in low and middle income East Asia
  
  
• Higher education can lift productivity and competitiveness in developing East Asian countries by:
  
  
  • Providing the high level skills demanded by the labor market—including technical, behavioral and thinking skills
    
    
  • Launching research needed for innovation and growth
    
    
• Access to higher education has increased dramatically in the past two to three decades, but countries need to develop the right type of skills and research to be more competitive
  
  
• To meet these goals, higher education needs to be seen as a system where individual institutions are well connected among themselves and to firms, research institutions and earlier levels of education
  
  
• Public policy has a constructive role in improving higher education with high priority given to:
  
  
  • Financing:
    
    
    • Adequately finance research; prioritize underfunded fields such as science and engineering; provide sufficient scholarships and loans for the poor and disadvantaged
      
      
  • Managing public higher education institutions:
    
    
    • Improve the management of public higher education institutions, where 70% of all students are enrolled, by encouraging greater autonomy and accountability
      
      
    • Greater decision making autonomy in areas such as academic curricula, staffing and budgeting should be encouraged
      
      
    • Accountability can be enhanced by delegating greater power and responsibilities to institutions and governing boards and by providing students with information to choose and move across institutions
      
      
  • Providing better stewardship:
    
    
    • Put in place adequate incentives for private institutions so that they can further help governments increase enrollment and strengthen skills
      
      
    • Ensure stronger links between industry and universities
      
      
    • Take advantage of opportunities provided by international higher education markets

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