The ASEF Regional Conference on Higher Education (ARC) is the “Official Dialogue Partner of the ASEM Education Ministers Meeting (ASEMME)” and the only bi-regional multi-stakeholder dialogue platform for university and student leaders, policymakers and ministers to discuss higher education issues and shape the education landscape in Asia and Europe.
What is the ARC programme?
For the past 15 years, ARC has continuously evolved and contributed with various outputs (policy recommendations, research, and events) to the ASEM Education Process, and created opportunities for key Asian and European stakeholders to connect. ARC’s role as a valuable dialogue partner has been reiterated in all ASEMMEs, and its outcomes and outputs helped to sustain a dynamic ASEM Education Process. Take a look at the past editions here.
The ARC programme cycle covers two years and is aligned with the timeline of the ASEMMEs. Its results, including research, and policy recommendations, feed into the preparations for ASEM Education Senior Officials’ Meetings (SOMs) and the ASEM Education Ministers’ Meetings (MEs), which ARC experts are invited to attend.
Now running on its tenth cycle, ARC’s objectives are ►
Knowledge Exchange
Inform Policy
Background of ARC10
ARC10 revolves around the future of higher education in Asia and Europe, given the trends and developments that higher education must cope with. Climate change, geopolitical disruptions, inequalities and disparities on various fronts, digital transformation, and the possibility of failing to meet the SDGs. Guided by ASEM’s directives and priorities on Education that stand as ASEF’s guideposts, our work in ARC10 answers the call to explore substantive changes to reinvent higher education given its key role in transforming our collective future.
In these two years we work through debates, webinars, policy dialogues, and a publication under the theme “[Un]debated Ways of Rethinking Higher Education” which has three sub-themes that explore what the ASEM Education Space hopes to achieve by 2030 and beyond where deeper global conversations are needed.
By focusing the discussions on these subthemes, we explore questions such as:
► Will teaching and learning benefit from AI in the next decade?
► Who has more responsibility in making higher education more equitable and accessible: universities or policymakers?
► Does TNE bring more opportunities or risks in ensuring balanced mobility of people and knowledge?
► How will universities become real lifelong learning institutions?