Higher education governance in crisis: a critical reflection on the massification of higher education, graduate employment and social mobility

In the last few decades, higher education expansion is becoming increasingly a growing trend in the Asia and Pacific region. With strong conviction to produce more people better equipped with knowledge and skills for coping with the challenges of the globalizing economy, many governments in the Asia and Pacific region have increased higher education enrolments. The massification of higher education has generated significant pressure for graduate employment and eventually affected upward social mobility, with imbalanced supply and demand in terms of higher education graduates. This article sets out against the context highlighted above to critically examine the influence on Asian societies when these higher education enrolments are expanded, as well as its consequences to graduate employment and the impact on social mobility.