About Asian Education and Development Studies

Asian Education and Development Studies

Asian Education and Development Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Emerald that examines how education connects with development, governance and social change across Asia. Based editorially in Hong Kong, the journal was launched in 2012, with volume 1, number 1 marking the start of its published record, and Hong Kong education scholar Joshua Ka Ho Mok serving as its founding editor-in-chief, a role he took on from 2011 as the journal was being developed. It carries the print ISSN 2046-3162 and the online ISSN 2046-3170. From its first issue, the journal presented itself as a platform showcasing the latest research on education, development and governance issues in Asian contexts, and it has continued to publish comparative and international research with a strong Greater China focus.

Origins and founding

The journal emerged from a growing research consortium based in Asia whose scholars worked on education and development studies. In the editorial published in volume 1, issue 1, founding editor Ka Ho Mok welcomed readers to a new journal intended to showcase research on education, development and governance in Asian settings, and described the journal as the official journal of that research platform. Mok developed the title while he was at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, the institution now known as the Education University of Hong Kong, before later moving to Lingnan University in Hong Kong. The launch therefore tied the journal from the outset to Hong Kong's community of comparative education and social policy researchers, even though its subject matter ranged across the whole Asian region. The first issue examined the regionalisation of education in Asia, drawing on papers selected from a senior seminar organised by the East-West Center in Hong Kong, and asking what regional competition and cooperation meant for public policy and governance.

Publisher and bibliographic identity

Emerald publishes the journal, and its articles appear on the Emerald Insight platform with Emerald Publishing Limited shown as publisher. The print ISSN is 2046-3162 and the online ISSN is 2046-3170, the pair by which the title is registered in journal directories and indexing services. Bibliographic records list the journal under social sciences, with subject categories in development, education and general social sciences. Because Emerald is a United Kingdom publisher, some directories record the United Kingdom as the country of publication, while the journal's editorial origins and leadership are rooted in Hong Kong. That distinction matters for readers of this directory: the journal is listed here under Hong Kong, China, because its founding editor developed it there and its scholarly network is anchored in Hong Kong institutions.

Aims and scope

The journal's founding editorial set out a broad and deliberately cross-boundary remit. It welcomes contributions in education development, globalisation and regional responses, social development and social policy, urbanisation and social change, politics and changing governance, critical development issues and their policy implications, and demographic change and policy issues. Articles with strong comparative perspectives and regional insights are especially welcome, as are in-depth examinations of the role of education in promoting social, economic, cultural and political development in Asia. The journal invites original empirical research, review papers and comparative analyses, as well as reports and research notes, from scholars working across education, political science, sociology and development studies. That scope explains why its pages range well beyond schooling alone, into the governance and development questions that surround education systems.

Education and development in Asia

The defining idea of the journal is that education cannot be understood apart from development. Asian societies have expanded schooling and higher education rapidly while also urbanising, ageing and integrating into global markets, and the journal provides a venue where those processes are studied together. Research published in its pages addresses how education policy interacts with economic development, how social policy responds to changing populations, and how governance arrangements shape what education systems can deliver. By framing education as part of a wider development process, the journal speaks to readers interested in the social, economic and political development of the region as a whole, not only to specialists in pedagogy or school administration.

Higher education and internationalisation

Higher education is one of the journal's most prominent themes, reflecting both its founding editor's research interests and the transformation of Asian universities. The journal publishes comparative and international research on higher-education internationalisation, transnational education, education policy, quality assurance and student mobility, with a strong Greater China focus. A guest editorial in volume 7, issue 2, in 2018, on the changing landscapes of Asian higher education, described dramatic improvement in the region's higher education systems, massified and even universalised access, growing numbers of inbound international students and rising placements in world university rankings, and examined strategies by which Asian systems pursue international linkage and global competitiveness. Special issues of this kind show how the journal uses themed collections to take stock of fast-moving policy debates.

Greater China focus

Although the journal covers Asia broadly, Greater China occupies a central place in its coverage. Its founding editor is a leading scholar of higher education and social policy in China, and the journal regularly publishes work on education policy, governance and development in mainland China, Hong Kong and the wider Greater China region. Topics in this strand include the internationalisation of Chinese higher education, cross-border and transnational provision, student mobility involving Chinese students and institutions, and the quality assurance arrangements that accompany rapid expansion. For researchers following how Chinese education is changing and connecting with the rest of Asia, the journal offers a sustained, English-language record written largely by scholars based in the region itself.

Editorial leadership

Joshua Ka Ho Mok, also known as Ka Ho Mok, has been the journal's editor-in-chief since before its first issue appeared, having taken the role in 2011 during its development and serving as founding editor-in-chief from the 2012 launch. Mok is a Hong Kong scholar of comparative policy whose career has included posts at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, now the Education University of Hong Kong, and at Lingnan University, where he served as vice-president and Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Comparative Policy. His own research on higher education regionalisation, internationalisation and social policy in Asia closely matches the journal's remit, and Lingnan University's Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership lists the journal among the international publication platforms associated with his work. He is also a founding editor of the Journal of Asian Public Policy, a companion title in the same Hong Kong-centred scholarly network.

Indexing and scholarly standing

The journal is indexed in Scopus and in the Emerging Sources Citation Index, the two services most often used to establish the standing of a relatively young social science journal. Scopus coverage of the title runs from 2013 onward in directory records, and the journal remains active, with volumes continuing into the mid-2020s. Its subject rankings in Scopus-based listings place it in the education, development and general social sciences categories. Indexing in these services means its articles are discoverable through the main bibliographic databases used by universities, and that citations to its articles are tracked for the metrics by which Asian education research is increasingly evaluated.

Readership and significance

Asian Education and Development Studies serves researchers and policy readers who need English-language, peer-reviewed analysis of how education and development interact in Asia. Its significance lies in the combination it offers: a Hong Kong editorial base, a publisher with global distribution, a founding editor deeply embedded in the region's higher education debates, and a scope that deliberately crosses the boundaries between education, governance, social policy and development. For scholars of comparative education, higher education studies and Asian social policy, it has become a recognised venue for work that treats Asian experience on its own terms, with comparative and regional insight rather than as a simple application of theories developed elsewhere.