Framing Gender Issues in Asia-Pacific Higher Education

One of the major accomplishments of higher education across the Asia-Pacifoc region in the last three decades has been dramatically increased access. Equity remains a different story . Inequities in higher education based on gender persist and intersect with other markers of disadvantage and difference including rurality, ethnicity and class/caste. Gender inequity is recognised by both the Asian Development Bank and UNESCO as a major challenge for higher education systems across the region, impacting on both the participation of women as students and faculty, and the ability of institutions to properly service their many stakeholders.