From 27-29 July 2021, the EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN region (SHARE) organised its 12th Policy Dialogue on “Creating a Resilient & Sustainable ASEAN Higher Education Space”.
The dialogue was opened by H.E. Igor DRIESMANS, the EU Ambassador to ASEAN, and H.E. KUNG Phoak, Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, and was joined by various ASEAN Higher Education stakeholders.
Our Executive Director, Ambassador Toru Morikawa was pleased to deliver a keynote speech at this event on 29 July 2021. The theme of his speech was on the topic of “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in ASEAN’s Internationalisation”. In his remarks, Amb MORIKAWA emphasised ASEF’s part in the discussion at the policy dialogue.
“ASEF applauds the partnership between the European Union and ASEAN which is taking steady steps guided by the Bangkok Declaration on Advancing Partnership in Education for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in ASEAN, through different projects such as SHARE. The mutual recognition of the higher educational system such as credit across the ASEAN countries would be a key institutional back-bone to promote equity and inclusion in Higher Education not only between the Members but also in respective domestic educational system for different groups of the society, as well as with different ASEAN partners.”
Amb Morikawa’s keynote speech can also be read here and watched here.
Following this, ASEF’s Director for Education, Ms Leonie NAGARAJAN, was invited to moderate a panel with the same theme “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in ASEAN’s Internationalisation”. The panellists included:
- Ms. Rodora BABARAN (Director of Human Development Directorate, ASEAN Secretariat)
- Dr. Wesley TETER (Senior Consultant of Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, UNESCO Bangkok)
- Ms. Raudhah NAZRAN (CEO & Founder of Accelerate Global)
- Dr. YANG Mee Eng (Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation)
The panellists spoke on the impacts of COVID-19 and the current gaps and lack of diversity in the education sector, and highlighted the importance of international cooperation & strengthened partnerships in the ASEAN region, as well as the voice of the youth stakeholders in moving forward towards Agenda 2030 for Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Higher Education.
You can watch the recording here.
During the Panel, the audience were asked to contribute to the discussion through a few polls. You can see the results below or here:
