HRD Education in Developing Countries

Abstract

The Problem

Human resource development (HRD) university programs, so named, have been found dominantly in the United States. However, university programs in HRD have emerged elsewhere, interestingly, more often in developing countries than in other developed countries. But, globally, we know virtually nothing about these programs, their histories, their curricula, their missions, and their research, as there is an almost complete gap in international literature.

The Solution

Two countries in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Thailand and Malaysia, were selected as case studies for HRD education in developing countries or upper-middle income countries as defined by the World Bank; they are also the most active in the Academy of HRD (AHRD) in Asia as they have hosted the Asian AHRD conference twice within a decade. Because of the paucity of literature on this topic, we accessed related websites to determine details about the HRD programs, supplemented by our own information related to these two countries based on our knowledge of HRD education in these two countries. The study showed that HRD education in these two countries is at the stage of established, based on the taxonomy developed within the article. More than one university in each country is offering HRD majors in undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels.

The Stakeholders

The information in this article should be of interest to anyone interested in international or global HRD, potential students who wish to study HRD in these countries, officers and members of the AHRD, members of the Program Excellence Network (PEN) of AHRD, and anyone generally interested in HRD in higher education.