The Importance Of Research In Higher Education

Higher education institutions are expected to create and disseminate knowledge to people, through the students and professionals. This may be through instruction, extension, outreach, production, or research. While each of these foci are more or less overlapping in terms of contribution and relevance, each of them has its own magnitude of importance for a university. In fact, higher education institutions are considered as knowledge producers and providers in today’s ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘learning society’ (Naidoo, 2008; Ozga, 2008). At present, it is not only enough that universities and colleges teach students, but they should be able to convey significant messages, which the students will be able to apply in the future. Instruction does

In this sense, Lukman, Krajnc, and Glavič (2010) considered research as a backbone of university ranking and its outcomes. However, if university academics are not adept in conducting research this undertaking will not live up to its name and nature. Hence, it is important to look into two things when dealing with research in higher education: 1) the quality of research being conducted by faculty members and students; and 2) the capability of the faculty members and students to conduct research. This are the matters that this research is set to find out, specifically in the Southeast

Harman (1998) defined quality assurance as “systematic management and assessment procedures adopted to ensure achievement of specified quality or improved quality, and to thus enable key stakeholders to have confidence about the management of quality and the outcomes achieved.” This shows that quality assurance does not only refer to the process but also to the aim of attaining quality and continuous improvement as part of the outcomes. This is important for higher education institutions and research universities since they are agents of knowledge creation, production and dissemination. However, most universities, especially in Asia, have been patterning their quality assurance and performance from the western perspective. For instance, it was emphasized by Tierne (2016) that some authors have been referring to the American education and research endeavors that result to becoming research universities as the worldwide “gold standard” for higher education. This poses problems for nations that are trying to establish their own criteria of quality based on their own understanding and concept of what quality is. Hence, there is a need to understand how quality is perceived among Southeast Asian nations and their higher education