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The study aims to understand the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopts the PRISMA approach to screening the selection of journal articles and review papers according to the research aims and the inclusion criteria. The journal articles and review papers were extracted and stored in Microsoft Excel and Google Scholar, Academic. Microsoft, Semantic Scholar, Elsevier, and Emerald Insight databases searched relevant documents using formulated keywords. A statistical technique was applied using the M.S. Excel analysis tool (PivotTable and an independent t-Test) to analyze data and determine the differences between teachers and students. The review revealed the evidence that the majority of the studies were primarily focused on the individual developing countries and results from other developing countries were not considered. In addition, the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate skills and training, inadequate Internet/Infrastructure, lack of supporting resources and lack of online student engagement and feedback. Finally, the independent t-test reveals there is no statistically significant difference in challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both teachers and students encounter similar challenges. The systematic review raised concerns that higher learning needs to effectively implement long term strategies and support teachers and students in getting into online teaching and learning.

Governments and education systems worldwide have tried using additional cash transfers to encourage school enrolment and attendance, and to reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. There are now many strands of evidence on the success of such schemes. This paper presents the results of international structured reviews of the existing evidence, coupled with a natural experiment in India and Pakistan, and a summary of the new findings from a 14-year evaluation of the impact of the Pupil Premium policy in England. The paper addresses the key issue of whether funding is best provided to poorer regions, to schools, families, or individual students. The synthesised results are clear. However, the results differ slightly in terms of whether attendance or attainment is the key objective, and with the age of the students, and the level of development of any education system. Regardless, cash transfers need to have conditions attached, and these conditions must be audited. A key condition for giving money to schools, rather than individuals, should be that it is only used to provide evidence-led programmes and processes.

This article offers a global overview of the burgeoning field of micro-credentials and their relationship to lifelong learning, employability and new models of digital education. Although there is no globally accepted definition of micro-credentials, the term indicates smaller units of study, which are usually shorter than traditional forms of accredited learning and courses leading to conventional qualifications such as degrees. The paper aims to provide educators with a helicopter view of the rapidly evolving global micro-credential landscape, with particular relevance to higher education leaders, industry stakeholders and government policy-makers. It addresses five questions: (i) What are micro-credentials? (ii) Why micro-credentials? (iii) Who are the key stakeholders? (iv) What is happening globally? and (v) What are some of the key takeaways? Drawing on a European-wide perspective and recent developments in The Republic of Ireland, the paper concludes that micro-credentials are likely to become a more established and mature feature of the 21st-century credential ecology over the next five years. While the global micro-credential landscape is currently disconnected across national boundaries, more clarity and coherence will emerge as governments around the world increasingly align new credentialing developments with existing national qualification frameworks. The micro-credentialing movement also provides opportunities for governments and higher education institutions in partnership with industry to harness new digital learning models beyond the pandemic.

This paper applies Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as well as data analysis to gain a better understanding of the existing perception on the education system. 45,278 tweets were downloaded and processed. Using a lexicon-based approach, examining the most frequently used words, and estimating similarities between terms, we detected that a predominantly negative perception of the education system exists in most of the analysed countries. A positive perception is identified in certain low-income nations. Men exhibit a more positive sentiment than women as well as a higher subjectivity in some countries. The countries that exhibit the most positive perceptions India, Canada, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa and Kenya are also those that manifest the highest subjectivity.

This paper locates the emergence of critical pedagogy (CP) as praxis in the protest movements in New Delhi, India, against the new citizenship amendment laws that were brought about by the Indian government. The ruling government in India brought amendments to the existing provisions for citizenship, such that persons from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious communities from neighbouring Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan were allowed Indian citizenship. Muslims, however, were excluded from this. This exclusion, coupled with the national project established for finding illegal immigrants in India -- called the National Citizenship Registry project -- affects the Muslim communities in South-Asia and has been widely resisted across India, by Muslims and other social and political organisations. This paper traces the development of such a struggle in Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi, and proposes that CP as a critique of the social, emerged from the specificity of the Shaheen Bagh movement. Shaheen Bagh gives critical insights into rethinking CP whenever its foundational tenets seem to have been lost or are merely subsumed by disciplinary compartments within academia. This struggle offers us insights toward returning to the insurrectionary character of CP, by locating CP within the context of such struggles. At the same time, this study of Shaheen Bagh and the specific form of CP that emerged in thatcontext, also shows us the limitations of contemporary social movements to take CP to its logical conclusion where oppressive class relations are undermined.

The paper offers a synthesis of findings from an international initiative coordinated by the Asia Productivity Organisation (APO) to measure higher education productivity across nine Asian countries. The paper discusses benefits, barriers, and potential for estimating university productivity across international contexts. Stakeholders from nine participating countries collected and analysed institutional data and reported measurement results. The APO initiative represents the first multi-country test of an adapted productivity measurement model first advanced by the United States National Research Council (NRC). The research provides evidence for proof of concept of the adapted NRC model for use across international contexts. Additional findings demonstrate the range of productivity definitions and interpretations for higher education. The paper concludes by showing priority areas for both targeted and broad developments in research and practice of measuring productivity in higher education.

Focusing on the contemporary conflicts and social political complexities of South Asia (specifically, India and Pakistan), this paper explores the roles and relevance of Gandhi's and Bacha Khan's moral education in negotiating/addressing the situated disparities. Drawing from the words and wisdom of Gandhi and Bacha Khan, this paper examines identity issues particularly in the context of (i) gender (disparities and struggles of women (and girls) in the society); (ii) age (situation and contributions of youths and elderly people in bringing about changes); (iii) class (including occupational and caste-based complexities and their negotiations); (iv) ethnicity (struggles of indigenous populations in overcoming situated adversities); (v) religion (tensions and acts of negotiating religious orthodoxies towards creating more secular society); and (vi) regional identities (roles of regional identities in fostering local development). Grounded in their philosophies and pedagogies, the paper discusses the contributions of the two visionaries and their epistemologies/ideologies in studying and/or addressing the issues of contemporary world. This scholarship seems particularly important today when dominant sociopolitical and religious institutions and their agendas often do not value (if not oppose) such moral education, which potentially affects the lives of South Asian populations at large.

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

In this study, the variables having impact on the student motivation have been analyzed based on the articles, conference papers, master's theses and doctoral dissertations published in the years 2000-2017. A total of 165 research papers were selected for the research material and the data were collected through qualitative research techniques through document review and content analysis. According to the research results, the most important factors affecting student motivation are the fields of teacher, teachers' classroom management skills and their teaching methods. In this research, factors having less influence on the student motivation are parental communication, student characteristics and study fields. In addition, relational search type was used more than others, mostly students were selected as the study group and most researches were conducted in USA and Turkey.

Pakistan was bifurcated and Bangladesh emerged as a sovereign state in 1971 after the culmination of a separatist movement that was raised on the basis of Bengali nationalism claimed on ethnic and cultural grounds. Since the pronounced demand as well as well-defined goal of the movement changed from autonomy to the separation only after Pakistan Army?s action on 25th March 1971 and also Awami League (AL) and Mujibur Rehman, the party and leader that spearheaded the separatist movement, got prominence as separatists after Agartala Conspiracy Case in 1966 the time and events of the origin of the Bengali Movement need to be looked for. This paper highlights the ideological origins of Bengali separatism even before the partition of India in 1947. It also finds out the early organisations which, when got matured in later decades, became instrumental in promotion of the Bengali separatist movement. The paper then examines the development which for the first time generated the cultural and lingual feelings as well as economic grievances that nurtured the Bengali separatist movement. Therefore main research question of the paper is when and how the Bengali Movement started.

The prime purpose of this study is to find out the research productivity of three regions Nigeria, Pakistan, and India. The bibliometric quantification was used to analyze the data. The present research identifies the importance of this online journal. The study discloses frequency of publication growth, author's collaborations, papers length, and most cited papers, most productive authors, and total references used. Design/methodology/approach The survey method was used to find out the full-text research articles on the online database of LPP. The Google scholar was used to retrieve the citations. All the collected data has been analyzed using MS excel and other electronic devices. Findings The results of this study indicate that in the year 2008 to 2013. The contribution of Nigerian authors is more than the other two nations that are 226 while Indian comes 2nd with 193 research papers and Pakistan comes 3rd with 67 research articles from the studied period in the wellknown journal of Library and information science field that is LPP. The present study revealed the majority of the research articles were single authors from Nigeria 114, Pakistan 18, and India 80. The study results show that the majority of the paper length in the range of 6-10 Nigerian 116, Pakistan 34, and India 70 respectively. The study showed the total references were calculated 4140 from Nigeria, 1506 Pakistan, and 3243 from Indian. The most cited paper was retrieved by a Nigerian paper that is 197 citations. The analyzed data shows the most productive authors were Rubina Bhatti from Pakistan with 18 research papers. This study contributes to the existing literature of three-nation contributions to the Library Philosophy and practice throughout the year. This is the first study of three-nation research productivity in the well-known online journal library philosophy and practice. Limitations of the study The present study was limited to the well-known LIS Journal and research articles specifically published at online journal library philosophy and practice. This study is purely limited to the research productivity of Nigerian, Pakistani, and Indian authors to the Library Philosophy and Practice from 2008 to 2013. Practical implications Despite its limitations, the findings of the study will help the LIS professionals of three nations and as well as other parts of the LIS professionals to provide more information about their research productivity of a particular journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on English teachers in Asia in the context of globalization, the global spread of English and the emergence of English as an "Asian language." It highlights the dilemmas facing these teachers in meeting the growing social demands of English proficiency in a technology-influenced, managerial and neoliberal education environment with limited expertise, skills and policy support. We locate the paper in language policy and planning (LPP) within which the concept of micro-level agency provides a critical lens. We draw on insights from several Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam. We argue that while English teachers are found to exercise their agency to meet changing demands of English proficiency, this agency can be seen as the result of what we call "policy dumping" at the macro-level--i.e. education policymakers not paying due attention to the requirements of policy implementation but dumping down policies to educational institutions and English teachers for their implementation. We conclude the paper by suggesting implications for English language policies in Asian countries that respond to globalization and the dominant discourses of English in a globalized world.

South Asian economies has witnessed very slow growth over the years and the gap has widened manifold between other nations of Asia particularly East Asian nations and South Asian nations. This paper examines co-integration between the economic growth and reach of higher education in South Asian nations explaining this disparity. The research employed an econometric panel co-integration investigation to analyse the long run relationship of higher education and economic growth among these nations. The research confirmed positive long run causality between the economic growth of the South Asian nations and gross enrolment ratio of higher education. So, if the South Asian nations continue with their existing pattern of paying less attention to higher education by allocating low share of investment on it, poor human capital formation would result in growing further economic disparity between developed and South Asian nations where rich nations would remain richer and poor nations would remain poor with the gap remaining unabridged. This research will serve as an aid to policy makers, educators and financers of South Asian nations to bridge the gap between high- and low-income nations. The focus on the quantum of spending on higher education by the government will help improve the reach of tertiary education and build economic prosperity in these nations.

Mathematics anxiety (MA) has a debilitating impact on learning, achievement, mental health, and the future career life of students. Though MA is a popular research theme, there is little agreement among researchers regarding the cross-cultural effect of gender. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perceived MA differences among males and females across cultures using the Anxiety Towards Math Scale (ATMS; Muñoz and Mato, 2007). Data were collected between October 2019 and September 2020) from students (N = 4,340) in 12 countries. Using univariate analysis of variance, the results indicate that gender has a significant main effect on MA with females recording higher mean scores than males, [71.816 > 68.118]. Examining the interaction effect of gender and location, significant differences in MA scores exist between males and females across all locations except for Egypt, Malaysia, and Nigeria (Enugu State). Conversely, females reported significantly higher MA scores than males in the rest of the locations, except Iran (Tehran and Qom) and Pakistan (Faisalabad). Gender-based ranking of the top-three locations with high MA scores indicates that females, starting from Malaysia, Thailand (Bangkok), and Nigeria (Enugu State) ranked the highest. Similarly, males beginning from Malaysia, Nigeria (Enugu State), and Thailand (Bangkok) ranked the top-three in MA. The implications are that mathematics teachers need to adopt different culturally-appropriate and gender-focused interventions to support students with MA challenges. Though interpreting the results from this survey need to de done with caution due to the smaller community and national online samples, the role of cross-cultural gender differences in MA cannot be overlooked.

Quantifying the impact of teaching quality on pupil learning, and understanding what teacher characteristics or practices are likely to improve student achievement, are pressing research questions in all countries. Empirical evidence also needs to be context specific since different education systems are likely to have different facilitators and barriers to good teaching. Existing evidence, largely from the US, suggests a number of strong research designs that enable researchers to model the impact of teaching on pupil achievement. However, operationalising these models in more resource-constrained contexts is challenging. In this paper we describe our attempt to model the impact of teachers and their practices on pupil achievement using the quantitative data generated for this research (household and school surveys with a teacher survey and an attempt to assess teacher knowledge). We describe the challenges when trying to implement this approach in the Indian and Pakistan context and the methodological adaptions needed. We reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our approach. We note that existing literature tends to provide relatively minimal descriptions of the specific research design and instruments used to model teacher quality and hence provides a partial picture of methodological considerations. In this paper we contribute a detailed and frank account of developing a workable research design and the challenges we encountered.

The student engagement concept has been revolutionised so that students play an active role alongside staff members in determining their student learning experiences. Although the development of student--staff partnerships enhances student engagement and experience, empirical research on partnerships in Malaysia is scant. This paper contributes to the growing scholarly literature on such partnerships -- in particular, exploring postgraduate international students and staff members' partnership dimensions in extra-curricular activities at a research university in Malaysia. This qualitative study interviewed 33 postgraduate international students, 10 academic staff and 12 professional staff members. Based on the findings, the student-staff partnership model is well integrated into the extra-curricular activities: international students are invited to co-design and implement adjustment programmes for newly arrived international students. This paper also explores the multi-layered benefits of partnerships for postgraduate international students and for staff members. The implications of such partnerships for the university, international students and staff members are discussed.

Purpose: It is still unclear how Asian universities incorporate the theory or practice of sustainable development (SD) in their research and education programmes. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to report on a study that has examined how universities in Asian countries handle and address matters related to SD. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a bibliometric analysis and an online survey-method. The online survey data were analysed through descriptive analysis and one-sample student's "t"-test. Findings: The study indicates that there is considerable variation among the Asian countries regarding sustainability practices in higher education institutions (HEIs). The HEIs in far eastern countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are perceived to demonstrate more sustainability practices. Research limitations/implications: Even though a substantial number of participants participated in the survey, it did not cover all Asian countries. The online survey was carried out over a limited period of time, and not all HEIs in the field may have received information about the study. Practical implications: Asia is the largest continent facing a number of sustainability challenges. In this context, the contribution of HEIs is very important. The findings of the current study may serve as a baseline for Asian HEIs to take more initiatives towards SD goals, as HEIs are responsible for the education and training of hundreds of thousands of students who will be occupying key positions in industry, government or education in the coming years. Originality/value: The study contributes to the existing literature in two distinct ways. First, it was possible to develop a comprehensive instrument to measure sustainability practices in HEIs. Second, this study has filled the gap of the scarcity of studies regarding sustainability practices in HEIs in Asia.

The primary purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate the causes of educational poverty in less developed countries. The basic intent in carrying out such a study is to define and derive the role of governing agencies in deliberately creating educational poverty in the country, so that the private interest of the rich and powerful ruling class can be fully safeguarded. This study is of crucial interest to the common man because majority of the people living in less developed countries are poor in spite of the fact, that almost all these countries own ample human and material resources. However, the common man in these countries is continuously suffering, generation after generation, and has been denied access to basic amenities of life. The rich and powerful ruling class, in majority of the less developed countries, has intentionally denied basic education facilities to its people for keeping them ignorant and unaware of their fundamental rights to share national resources and to gain competence for comfortable living in the society. The paper advocates a complete reversal in economic growth policies of the less developed countries so that top priority is given to those projects and programs that directly benefit the common man in the society. In this respect, the author calls for awareness among the people to exercise their economic and social rights so that people of all the strata can share equally the fruits of growth and prosperity.

Like all organisations, good governance is a fundamental requirement for the responsible and accountable management of universities in general and open universities in particular. This is to ensure that these (open) universities remain relevant to their mission of facilitating unfettered access to higher education for citizens and at the same time continue being reliable contributors to personal and institutional developments, the vital ingredients to maintaining sustained national development. While several studies have, in the past, been conducted on governance of universities, almost all of them have centred around conventional, face-to-face institutions. Not much published literature is in evidence on the governance of Open Universities. This paper, drawing from a study on the governance of a few open universities in Asia, tries to discuss the nature of their challenges, and the lessons that can be drawn from their practices and experience. The study focused on aspects relating to institutional autonomies such as curriculum, budgeting and financial management, admission standards, conferment of qualifications, academic staff appointments, development and promotions and research policies. Our findings indicate that, similar to conventional systems, the state plays a crucial role in many aspects of governance both in publicly funded and privately supported institutions. Recent attempts at governance transformation towards greater institutional autonomies is beginning to show limited changes in some but not all jurisdictions studied.

Over the last two decades, education privatization has become a widespread phenomenon, affecting most education systems and giving place to a consistent increase in private school enrolment globally. However, far from being a monolithic phenomenon, privatization advances through a variety of context-sensitive policy processes that translate into multiple policy outcomes. This paper aims at understanding why and how education privatization unfolds in a broad variety of settings and, to this purpose, examines the different manifestations of education privatization on the light of Cultural Political Economy (CPE). The conceptual and analytical tools provided by CPE prove to be particularly well suited to explore such a multi-faceted and multi-scalar phenomenon. CPE has helped us to capture the intersect and tension between different drivers (global and local, material and ideational) of education privatization through the evolutionary mechanisms of variation, selection and retention. On the basis of a systematic literature review methodology, encompassing 227 research papers, the article identifies and systematizes six different paths towards education privatization--understood as groups of frequently associated circumstances, mechanisms and courses of action leading to privatization. Conceived as ideal types, these different paths ultimately allow for a richer understanding of education privatization and show that the international diffusion of education privatization norms and discourses is far from producing policy convergence at a global scale.

Border conflict is the product of aggression between the nations. Borders are not just physical barriers, but also psychological barriers between the neighboring countries. The Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is experiencing hostility and displacement since independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. The uncertainty continues, especially for the villages close to the border where incidences of firing are quite frequent. During conflict in border areas, the rights of a children i.e. the right to life, the right to education, the right to be with family and community, the right to health and the right to be nurtured and protected are severely violated and compromised. This paper aims to understand the impact of border conflict on the education of children in the Jammu region. This study adopted qualitative method in which, thirty children living in the bordering villages, of the age group between 10-14 years were interviewed. Phenomenological analysis is used to explore the lived experiences of the children. The findings of the study described the impact of border conflict under four sections viz. (a) disturbed school functioning and student hood; (b) frequent dislocation due to intense concern for security; (c) multiple impediments in sustaining education during conflict; and (d) tangled aspirations and hope for future among the children.

Purpose: Higher education is uncertain which sustainability-related education targets should be sought and monitored. Accepting that something needs to be measurable to be systematically improved, the authors explored how measures relate to potential targets. This paper aims to focus on dispositions to think critically (active open-minded thinking and fair-minded thinking in appraising reasoning) as measures and explored how they related to sustainability concern as an indicative educational target. Design/methodology/approach: This research included the development and testing of research instruments (scales) that explored dispositions to critical thinking and sustainability concern. Authors researched these instruments within their own correspondence groups and tested them with university students and staff in Pakistan, the USA, Austria, India and New Zealand. The authors also asked a range of contextualising questions. Findings: Respondents' disposition to aspects of active, open-minded thinking and fair-minded thinking do predict their concern about facets of sustainability but their strength of religious belief was an important factor in these relationships and in their measurement. Practical implications: This research demonstrates the complexity of monitoring dispositions to think critically and sustainability concern in educational systems, particularly in circumstances where the roles of religious beliefs are of interest; and suggests ways to address this complexity. Originality/value: This research integrates and expands discourses on ESD and on critical thinking in diverse disciplines and cultures. It investigates measurement approaches and targets that could help higher education institutions to educate for sustainable development and to monitor their progress, in ways that are compatible with their culture and values.

Issues in the study of bilingualism and multilingualism in India and Pakistan are examined, including the delineation of linguistic boundaries, defining a society that is multicultural and yet has developed a "communication ethos" based on a core of common experience, the difficulty in interpreting language role and defining language usage in a multicultural area, the relationship between language identity and communication, definition of bilingual identity, and the role of the government and language elite(s) in language identity. Three indexes of prominent language pressure that affect language use in a given area are described: the state language pressure index; Hindi-Urdu pressure index; and English pressure index. It is concluded that the Indian experience suggests that a genuine understanding of multicultural societies will be guided largely by viewing language as a synergistic network inspiring trust in cross-cultural settings while empowering the particular. Contains 38 references. (MSE)

Research on engineering practice is scarce and sharing of qualitative research data can reduce the effort required for an aspiring researcher to obtain enough data from engineering workplaces to draw generalizable conclusions, both qualitative and quantitative. This paper describes how a large shareable qualitative data set on engineering practices was accumulated from 350 interviews and 12 field studies performed by the principal investigator and by students conducting PhD and capstone research projects. Ethical research practice required that sharing and reuse of qualitative data be considered from the start. The researchers' interests and methods were aligned to maintain sufficient consistency to support subsequent analysis and re-analysis of data. Analysis helped to answer questions of fundamental significance for engineering educators: what do engineers do, and why are the performances of engineering enterprises so different in South Asia compared with similar enterprises in Australia? Analysis also demonstrated the overwhelming significance of technical collaboration in engineering practice. Conceiving engineering practice as a series of technical collaboration performances requires a more elaborate understanding of social interactions than is currently the case in engineering schools. Another finding is that global engineering competency could be better described in terms of "working with people who collaborate differently". Research helped to demonstrate that formal treatment of technical collaboration in an engineering curriculum could help avoid student misconceptions about engineering practice that hinder their subsequent engineering performances.

This study explored the factors of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the recommendations given by the researchers in seventy recruited research studies, which have been conducted for literature review of teachers' job satisfaction in developing countries. The recruited studies were conducted across 21 countries in Asia and Africa, but the majority of them were in Iran, India, Turkey, Pakistan, China and Malaysia. The main purpose of the study was to explore the various relevant factors and, based on them, give recommendations and solutions for the enhancement of the jobs of teachers who work in educational institutions in developing countries. Included in this study were 61 quantitative, two qualitative, and seven mixed research papers. Conducive working conditions, promotional opportunities, fair remuneration, support from headteachers, colleagues and the community, teacher empowerment, and friendships were found to be the major factors affecting the job satisfaction of teachers. An autocratic management style, mistrust, a non-transparent system, a work-life imbalance, an ineffective teaching/learning environment, and unavailability of resources were found to be the main factors affecting job dissatisfaction.

The focus of this paper is to highlight the violence against women's in Jammu and Kashmir. In Jammu and Kashmir Woman are the most vulnerable and worst hit section of the society especially under situations of violence caused by militancy and armed conflict. They don't only suffer from intense humiliation and harassment but also undergo traumatic experiences with prolonged depression making them mentally sick. However the disturbing situation prevalent in Jammu and Kashmir has hit the Kashmiri women hardest. Thousands of women who have become widows have to bear the entire responsibility of bringing up their children and running the household expenditure. The results drawn were; women in Jammu and Kashmir are still left with lot of issues and challenges related to health, economy, education, politics, domestic violence, declining sex ratio, female feticide and infanticide, state violence, dowry harassment, eve teasing, unequal wages and child labour. The central government, state government, NGO's and local bodies should work jointly for the empowerment of women in Jammu and Kashmir.

Open universities have emerged as an innovative pillar in the expansion of access to higher education participation, with single-mode distance education providers broadening access in many countries through economies of scale supported by large enrolments. These models raise questions about the quality of education provided. This paper reports on a comparative case study of quality assurance (QA) programs in distance education at three open universities in Southeast Asia. Focusing on QA development and implementation in learner support services, the study explored QA policies, supporting management practices and structures, and the influence of internal and external environmental factors, as identified through thematic analysis of data from semi-structured interviews and policy documents. The results showed many similarities in QA for learner support at the three institutions. Their learner support services were determined to be responsive to government and external quality agencies, external cultural and language factors, and student feedback. [NOTE: Issue number shown on this PDF (no. 1) is incorrect. The correct issue number is no. 2.]