HESA reviewed documentation for GGP programmes in China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, and South Korea. (Hong Kong programmes have been excluded from this evaluation due to their significant departure in programme structure and outputs.) The GGP – East Asia partnership network encompasses the 127 partnerships spread across 116 unique East Asian partner HEIs in 8 countries and 79 cities. These are represented in the figure on page 11.

By far the largest GGP - East Asia partner country in terms of the number of institutions engaged and programmes in operation, China partnerships involve 40 unique Chinese HEIs, which includes institutions serving as the lead partner as well as supporting partners. Nearly 40% of the partnerships where a Chinese institution serves as lead involve partners from outside China–primarily from other Asian countries. Therefore, the disproportionate size of the China portfolio may slightly exaggerate the benefit to China of these partnerships, as well as understate the extent to which they also draw upon expertise beyond Chinese institutions and political borders. Chinese consortia appear to serve as hubs for East Asian regional collaboration, with the British Council and UK institutions playing a key role in catalysing and internationalising those efforts.