East Asia is increasingly developing into an educational powerhouse and role model. Academic performance of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Singaporean and Taiwanese students is superseding that of Western students in international student competitions such as PISA. Why is this the case? While there may be some global convergence in terms of curriculum content, the pedagogical approaches diverge. In contrast to the Western approach, East Asia typically places a strong emphasis on Competition and Confucianism in its education systems. This study tests the effectiveness of that approach at the tertiary level and compares it to the Western paradigm. Three models have been developed to probe the effect of Confucianism and Competitiveness on Academic Performance. Australian, Chinese and Korean samples were analysed to test for such effects in a three-country model comparison. Partial least squares (SmartPLS) modelling with second order formative constructs are presented with concrete implications for education policy.