Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the theoretical, rhetorical, and practical implications of the recent trend to include emerging and developing countries in international Higher Education Policies by way of the case study of Germany and Southeast Asia.

Paper long abstract:

The paper considers the notion of (higher) education research cooperation from a mutually beneficial perspective. It examines the theoretical, rhetorical, and practical implications of the recent trend to include emerging and developing countries in international Higher Education Policies by way of the case study of Germany and Southeast Asia. Germany international higher education cooperation policy infrastructure tends to challenge the traditional distinction between international research cooperation and development cooperation and embrace of more egalitarian discourse with consequences on standards and evaluation criteria. Our paper examines the underlying assumptions of the policy for research collaboration and the practice engagement with selected Southeast Asian countries (eg., Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos) as to whether they perpetuate traditional asymmetries in the global political economy of international research collaboration. The paper offers a review of policy assumptions more broadly, through the lenses of practical experience of engaging in cooperation programs as a way to search for more egalitarian approaches to global north- Global South cooperation.