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This paper explores the issue of developing and enhancing intra-ASEAN international student mobility given the context of ASEAN integration, regionalization of ASEAN higher education and the various intra‐ASEAN student mobility schemes currently implemented.

It explores higher education policies, available higher education and international student mobility data, as well as the various intra‐ASEAN (and relevant) student mobility schemes to present the current status of intra‐ASEAN student mobility, challenges and opportunities to further enhance student mobility within the ASEAN region.

Aside from showing that intra‐ASEAN student mobility is significantly low compared to outbound student mobility from ASEAN countries, the paper also highlights the relationship between a country’s income status with choice of intra‐ASEAN or extraASEAN student mobility. Finally, it recommends developing a comprehensive intra‐ASEAN mobility scheme taking the merits of the various intra‐ASEAN mobility schemes currently implemented and guided by developments in the European ERASMUS mobility programs.

This is probably the first (in fact, it is an exploratory) paper that address the issue of intra‐ASEAN international student mobility, which aims to explore relevant issues to address the development of a comprehensive ASEAN mobility scheme.

Cambodian and Laotian students (CLS) are among the largest groups of international students in intra-ASEAN student mobility as well as in Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs). However, little has been researched on the factors influencing CLS’s decision to choose Vietnam as destination country. The purpose of this study is to investigate why CLS decide to go overseas and choose Vietnam as their host country among other opportunities as well as their perceptions of the decision.

Using qualitative methods and employing purposive sampling, data were collected by semi-structured interviews from CLS studying in a HEI in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The data were analysed against the push–pull framework to understand factors influencing the participants’ decision.

The findings show that CLS in the study were “pushed” by the perceived higher value of a foreign qualification and family encouragements. In terms of pull factors, they were attracted to choose Vietnam as the host country most observably due to scholarship opportunities. However other pull factors were also significant, especially the lack of certain skills in home countries and its congruence with Vietnam’s competitive strength in offering courses for those skills. In retrospect, the participants expressed a sense of optimism, though there was also certain reservation.

The small sample restrict the generalisability of the findings.

As an exploratory study, the findings can lay the ground for largerscale studies investigating CLS mobility in Vietnam and be employed for inbound student mobility policymaking reference for HEIs in Vietnam as well as in other developing countries.

This study investigates why Cambodian and Laotian international students decide to go to Vietnam, a developing country in the lesser-known part of international student mobility landscape. This is a topic that remains under-researched in the Asia-bound student mobility literature. Insights from the study can not only contribute to the scholarly gap but also offer implications for HEIs in Vietnam and other Asian countries.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it intends to engage in skill gain–lose debate in the contemporary global skill mobility context; and second, it looks into whether Southeast Asia (SEA) is losing by experiencing skill deficiency due to over outflow of talents.

Primary data were collected through interviews with policy makers, stakeholder and migrant professionals from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The paper comes up with the brain drain dynamics to better understand the trajectory of skill mobility in and from SEA. Within the skill mobility discourse, it is undoubtedly difficult to conclude who are the losers and the gainers in the long run.

This research is based on relatively small sample. However, this offers a fresh insight into the skill deficiency dynamics in Southeast Asia.

Migration of skilled workers to other countries remains a highly contentious issue. Skill drain does not take place based on skill surplus and deficient equation. Skilled migrants can make their choice to migrate on their own with minimal control of the Government. This paper aims to argue that sending countries lose skill which cannot be offset or justified by the remittances inflow.

This paper is based on a research conducted on skill migration from the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. In this study, skilled migrants are engineers, medical doctors, nurses and academics. The author interviewed 12 engineers (four from the Philippines; two from Malaysia; four from Singapore and two from Thailand); nine medical doctors (four from the Philippines; three from Singapore, one from Malaysia and one from Thailand); eight nurses (six from the Philippines and two from Thailand); and 14 academics (six from the Philippines; five from Singapore and three from Malaysia) who were working abroad.

Skill migration continues to grow because of the growing demand, wage differentials, glorifications of the contribution of remittances to development and failure of the origin countries to retain them. The question remains whether the respective sending country is producing more of them so that they can send after their own demand is met. This paper investigates whether the sending end can afford exporting such skills.

This is an important contribution to the scholarship.

This study aims to explore the role of cultural distance, economic integration, price competitiveness and substitution prices for tourism arrivals between 10 Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries and 22 other origin countries from 2007 to 2019.

A panel-data gravity model is applied to estimate tourism demand in the ASEAN region. An index of cultural distance (time-variant) is introduced to examine the role of cultural differences across bilateral partners. Moreover, relative prices and substitution prices are introduced to the gravity equation to estimate price elasticities. Finally, this study tested whether the ASEAN free trade agreements (FTAs) encourage intraregional tourism arrivals. Two-panel regression approaches are used to test the model.

Cultural distance positively affects tourism inflows, boosting foreign arrivals. Income and price elasticities are important determinants in the demand model for ASEAN. A gain in price competitiveness versus alternative destinations can lead to substitution in destination choice. Meanwhile, geographic distance has a negative impact on arrivals, suggesting that connectivity and transportation are key in boosting tourism inflows in ASEAN. A decline in the disposable incomes of tourists caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may reduce tourism arrivals in the region. However, when currencies in ASEAN weaken, and consumer prices are lower than in other destinations, arrivals in ASEAN will be stimulated. FTAs have facilitated travel intra-ASEAN, which is an advantage over the extra-ASEAN sector.

Cultural heritage could be used in tourism promotion as ASEAN can attract tourists seeking novelty and new excitements. ASEAN countries could create complementary destinations and jointly promote cultural heritage to accelerate the region’s recovery. The depreciation of currencies in ASEAN and the gain in relative price competitiveness could attract more tourist visits, helping the region reestablish tourism activities in a postpandemic economy.

The model accounts for three key variables in the gravity approach: cultural distance in ASEAN tourism inflows, the effects of the ASEAN economic community on intraregional tourism, and relative and alternative price competitiveness. This study enriches the literature about tourism-demand approaches in modeling tourism arrivals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) flagship universities in moving the agenda of regional integration forward through academic/research collaboration and cooperation.

Flagship universities are leading universities in the national higher education systems of countries that make up the ASEAN. This study on the ASEAN’s flagship universities is based on a three-pronged strategy, namely, a literature review, analysis of websites contents, and citation of supporting pieces of evidence from other relevant studies to support arguments. Using the QS top universities in Asia 2016 listing, top 70 public universities in ASEAN were selected for investigation. In instances where public universities in a particular ASEAN country were not listed in the QS listing, a premier public university of that country was then selected for investigation.

There is a tendency for ASEAN’s flagship universities to look beyond ASEAN, primarily to establish vertical collaboration, which is important to their efforts in creating their image and enhancing their reputation. As a result, academic/research collaboration among flagship universities and collaboration between these universities and other universities in ASEAN is glaringly on the low side. Interestingly, to move the regional integration agenda in ASEAN, other intermediary agencies outside of ASEAN, such as in the European Union, are very active in providing a platform for both flagship and non-flagship universities to collaborate.

While regional collaboration and cooperation within ASEAN and East Asia have been discussed elsewhere, this paper has utilised and expanded Douglass’ (2016) idea of flagship universities to include regional relevance for the purpose of regional integration of ASEAN.

The tourist industry in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region has grown at an unprecedented rate, keenly reflecting the rapid growth of the individual economies of the region. Associated training and manpower development efforts — keys to a position of competitiveness — however, have not kept pace with this growth. While various measures have been suggested to develop manpower capabilities in the tourism sector in this region, efforts to meet obligations are arguably insufficient. This paper traces recent developments in the tourist industry in ASEAN and its region and examines training and manpower development challenges that the region faces at present. This article also suggests ways to address those issues.

This paper aims to investigate the economic impacts of the current coronavirus disease, which is globally known as (COVID-19) pandemic, on small businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry, including food and beverages (F&B) industries in Malaysia during and after the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and conditional (CMCO) with the emergence of new business models.

In this paper, the implemented methodology involved a secondary qualitative research design based mainly on the existing literature, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports, the government’s documents, in addition to online sources and observations regarding local business experiences.

The findings revealed that implementing effective strategies of recovery, shaping resilience solutions and supporting policies such as the National Recovery Plan, which is backed by the government played a pivotal role in avoiding the turndown of small businesses.

This critical review is submitted as an original research paper, which aims to provide important perspectives regarding the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on the tourism and hospitality industry in Malaysia. This paper serves as a scholarly platform for further in-depth studies on various resilience solutions of small businesses.