Review of USAID Higher Education Programs in Asia, 2011-2016
This study inventories selected higher education investments made by USAID in the Asia region during this period to catalog program diversity and assess how and to what extent the programs reflect these broad trends. In all, the research team considered 34 programs across 13 countries. The programs reviewed were mostly small ($1 million to $3 million in funding on average), involved US higher education institutions as partners (70%), and were concentrated at upper tertiary level bachelors and graduate programs, and advanced research (85%).
This study was conducted at the request of USAID’s Asia Bureau to understand the scope of higher education investments in Asia during the 2011–2016 time period and to assess programmatic reflection of key development and foreign policy directions of the time. The review was conducted using secondary analysis of publicly available program documents, such as fact sheets, program websites, press releases, program reports, and sometimes evaluations. Given the lack of evaluations and primary data, this study is not an evaluation of program effectiveness or impact but rather a more surface-level review of program characteristics and parameters.