Higher Education and Belief Systems in the Asia Pacific Region

Alexander Jun, PhD, is a TED speaker and the author of From Here to University: Access, Mobility, and Resilience Among Urban Latino Youth (Routledge Press, 2001). He has published extensively on issues of postsecondary access for historically underrepresented students in underserved areas, and recently completed a three-year narrative inquiry research project on the educational mobility and academic resilience of Khmer orphans, which he is currently completing a book on. Jun is pursuing research on issues concerning higher education globalization in the Pacific Rim, and while studying at the University of Southern California, he earned a Ford Foundation fellowship to conduct research on college preparation programs for urban youth. Jun teaches courses on diversity and social justice in higher education, comparative higher education, and qualitative research methods, and joined Azusa Pacific University after serving for 15 years as a faculty member and administrator at the University of Southern California. Christopher S. Collins, PhD is an associate professor of higher education at Azusa Pacific University.  He holds a PhD in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and is currently exploring the function of higher education in diverse contexts.  He has recently edited several volumes on higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, including Higher education access in the Asia Pacific: Privilege or human right? and University-community engagement in the Asia Pacific: Public benefits beyond individual degrees (both published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).