CROSS-BORDER EDUCATION IN ASEAN COUNTRIES

Dr. Libing WangAPEID Coordinator & Senior Programme Specialist in Higher EducationUNESCO Bangkok

7th CRISU-CUPT Conference Challenges of ASEAN Higher Education in Globalized

World

Contents

I. Trends of Regional Integration II. Education Harmonization in

ASEAN Countries III. Cross-border Higher Education IV. UNESCO’s Work V. Concluding Remarks

Trends of Regional Integration

Part 1

1.1 Regional Integration for Peace and Development

Regional integration (RI) is the high level of international cooperation, covering all aspects of social life, including education

Lessons from the two World Wars suggest that war comes from clear separation and narrow conception of nation state and exclusive pursuit of the so-called national interests

RI is an important way to achieve peace and development in a region

1.2 Story of European Integration

The integration process in Europe started with the establishment of three supranational institutions

- European Coal and Steel Community (1951-2002) - European Economic Community (1958-) - European Atomic Energy Community (1958-)

Make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible - Robert Shuman, ECSC advocator and then French Foreign Minister

European Integration (Cont’d)

Source: Wiki ????

RI is a multi-facet process with harmonization in different social and economic aspects supplementing each other to achieve the overall goal of peace and development

Integration and harmonization should be based on consensus among member states, and should not be at the expenses of national traditions and identities

European Integration (Cont’d)

Unity within diversity

1.3 Emerging ASEAN Integration

Aims of ASEAN - Accelerating economic

growth, social progress, cultural development among its members

- Protecting regional peace and stability

- Providing opportunities for member countries to discuss differences peacefully

Source:

Emerging ASEAN Integration (Con’td)

Bali Summit (1976), economic corporation The Common Effective Preferential Tariff

(CEPT, 1992), ASEAN Free Trade Area Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone

Treaty (1995) Agreements and partnerships in

environment, democracy, investment, and trade in services

ASEAN Charter (2008) with the aim of moving closer to “an EU-style Community”

ASEAN Community by 2015. Three pillars including AEC, APSC, and ASCCSource:

4. Implications for HE

More active roles of education/HE as grounds of economic integrations

Education as a determinant of human development

HE as one of possible ways to facilitate mutual understanding and/or to nurture next generations with regional identity, etc.

Educational Harmonization in ASEAN Countries

Part 2

2-1 Efforts towards Int’l Cooperation in ASEAN and beyond

Discussion at ASEAN Education Ministers Meetings • At the1st Meeting in 2006 building of ASEAN social and

cultural community awareness and education quality for national development were discussed

• At the 2nd Meeting in 2007 discussed the fostering of ASEAN citizens, the importance of cultivating ASEAN identity and education, the continuation of the ASEAN Student Exchange Programme, the formation of high school networks on science and math, educational cooperation with participating nations of the East Asian Summit, cooperation with SEAMEO, fortifications of the AUN and the promotion of “ASEANness” among students

Source: Miki Sugimura (2012), Possibility of East Asian integration through the regional networks and universities’ cooperation in higher education

ASEAN adopted the Vision 2020 in 1998 to present ideal state of regional cooperation in various area of politics, economy, culture, etc.

ASEAN ED Ministers Meeting and Other Regional Networks

ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting (Cont’d) • At 3rd meeting in 2008 agreement was reached on

progressing regional networks in HE, further strengthening the relationships between ASEAN and SEAMEO Multi-layered nature of regional

networks • e.g. ASEAN, SEAMEO RIHED, AUN (ASEAN

University Network) and AUN SEED-Net, etc. • Mutually intimate and overlapping networks

supporting regional cooperation

Source: Miki Sugimura (2012)

Regional education harmonization tools

Student Exchange Programs

Credit Transfer System

Quality AssuranceGuidelines

M-I-T Program (AIMS) and other exchange programs

ASEAN Credit Transfer System (ACTS), UCTS, etc.

AUN-AQ Guideline, UNESCO-APQN Toolkit: Regulating the Quality of Cross-border Education, etc.

Activities of Regional Networks in the Field of HE in ASEAN and Beyond

ASEAN Framework Agreement on Trade in Services (AFAS)

AFAS adopted in Bangkok in 1995, resulting in commitments in service sectors liberalization after 6 rounds of negotiations

Limitation on Limitation on market access market access

Cross-border supply

Consumption abroad

Commercial presence

Presence of natural persons

Cambodia None None None Unbound, except as indicated in the horizontal section

Myanmar None None As indicated in the horizontal commitments

Brunei None None Only through a joint venture with foreign equity not exceeding 49%

Unbound, except as indicated in the horizontal section

Indonesia None None As indicated in the horizontal commitments

Unbound, except as indicated in the horizontal section

Lao PDR None None As indicated in the horizontal commitments

Unbound, except as indicated in the horizontal section

Thailand None None At least half of its director(s), and if applicable its managing director, must be the person of Thai nationality

Unbound

Cross-border Higher Education

Part 3

Number of Tertiary Students studying abroad in 1999 and 2007

94 97

168 194218 247

318

406

808

250

64 56100

135 121 101

199

421 444

185

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

North America

Central Asia Latin America and

the Caribbean

Arab States Sub-Saharan Africa

South and West Asia

Central and Eastern Europe

Western Europe

East Asia and the Pacific

unknown

Nu

mb

er

of

ou

tbo

un

d

mo

bile

stu

de

nts

(1

00

0)

2007 1999

Source: UNESCO-UIS (2009), Global Education Digest 2009

3.1 Internationalization of HE: Student Mobility in the World

17

Student Mobility in the Asia-Pacific

Major 15 sending countries account for 44% of the world’s mobile students Largest outflow: China(421K), India(153K) and Korea(105K)Source: UNESCO-UIS (2009), Global Education Digest 2009

18

Region of origin, 1977 and 2007 and distribution of the destination of mobile students by their region

19

Flowing out more than flowing in

19

Share of mobile studentsStudying within their region of origin Share of mobile studentsStudying outside their region of origin

Composition of study destination by students’ region of origin, 2007

Source: UNESCO-UIS (2009), Global Education Digest 2009

Increasing Mobile Students within the Region

20

Students flow in 1997 and 2007 Between ASEAN, China, Japan and Korea

Source: Kazuo Kuroda (2010)

21

Franchise e.g. “London External Degrees” in many countries, “Stanford

Executive MBA” in Singapore

Twinning e.g. “2+1 Programme” in many of the private colleges in

Malaysia and “2+2 Programme” in Korea

Double or joint degrees e.g. many MBA degrees in private universities in Malaysia

E-learning or distance learning e.g. “U21 Global” by Universitas 21

3.2 Programme Mobility in the AP

22

Branch campuses Provider in country A establishes a satellite campus in

country B to deliver courses and programs to mainly local students in country B / qualification awarded is from provider in country A

E.g. Monash University in Malaysia, RMIT University in Vietnam, Nottingham University in China

Independent institution Foreign provider A (a traditional university, a network or

commercial company) establishes in country B a stand-alone HEI to offer courses/ programmes and awards

E.g. Bright University in Cambodia

3.3 Provider/Institution Mobility in the AP

23

3.4. Challenges

Very diverse education systems in this regionHow to harmonize different systems not compromising

diversity? Lack of trust and/or information-sharing among

countries and institutions How to promote information-sharing and to build trust by

establishing QA systems and other recognition tools? Students tend to destine to English-speaking/western

countries. Not so many interested in further studying within this region though this trend is changing slowly

How to facilitate mobility within ASEAN countries?

UNESCO’s Work

Part 4

UNESCO’s Work

Standards Setting UNESCO-OECD guideline on the provision of CBE Convention on the recognition of HE qualifications

Capacity Building Workshops to raise awareness of Regional Convention

etc.

Clearing house: Filling the knowledge gap ERI-net (Educational Research Institute Networking in

the AP) established by UNESCO BKK in 2009

International cooperation

26

Standards Setting in Cross-border HE

27

‘Students/learners protection’ from the risks of misinformation, low-quality provision and qualifications of limited validity Qualifications should be readable and transparent in order to increase their international validity and portability. Reliable and user-friendly information sources should facilitate this Recognition procedures should be transparent, coherent, fair and reliable and impose as little burden as possible to mobile professionals National quality assurance and accreditation agencies need to intensify their international cooperation in order to increase mutual understanding

Objectives

UNESCO-OECD Guidelines on Quality Provision of Cross-border Education (2005) Voluntary and non-binding document Guidelines for governments, HE institutions, student

bodies, quality assurance and accreditation bodies, and academic recognition bodies

Standards Setting (Cont’d) 28

http://www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/087/APQN_Toolkit.pdf

UNESCO-APQN Toolkit: Regulating the Quality of Cross-border Education (2006) UNESCO Bangkok cooperated with Asia-Pacific

Quality Network (APQN) to support the implementation of UNESCO/OECD guidelines

A reference tool to assist governments and policy makers in the development of regulatory frameworks for quality assurance in cross-border education

Partnerships and dialogue between sending and receiving countries emphasized

UNESCO Regional Conventions

UNESCO Regional Conventions on the Recognition of Academic Qualifications in Higher Education• 5 regional + 1 inter-regional: Asia-Pacific, Africa, Arab States,

Latin America, Europe and North America, Mediterranean

• The only legally binding instrument in the world

Revision of Asia-Pacific Regional Convention Current Regional Convention adopted in 1983 and

21 states ratified to date Revision to address challenges such as new

modes of HE and increasing cross-border education, with need for consideration of quality assurance, etc. (Working Group meetings since 2005)

29

State Parties to 1983 AP Convention

30

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Main changes includes: Competent recognition authorities; Basic principles related to assessment of qualifications; Partial studies; Recognition of qualifications held by refugees, displaced persons, and persons in similar situation; And implementation mechanisms etc.

The Revised Convention

Revised AP Convention adopted in the International Conference of States held in Tokyo, Japan in Nov 2011

Follow-ups to Revised AP Convention and Discussion on a Global Convention (GC)32

11th Asia-Pacific Regional Committee meeting in conjunction with expert seminar on National Information Center (Seoul, May 2012) To facilitate dialogue among Member States and to discuss

follow-up actions related to the revised AP Convention Decided to establish AP Working Group and to revitalize the

Asia-Pacific Academic Recognition Network (APARNET, http://www.aparnet.org)

1st Regional Expert Meeting on the Feasibility of a Global Convention (China, Oct 2012) Possibility of the GC raised at Conference in Tokyo in 2011 Regional experts to discuss the feasibilities of GC based on

the comments from the regions

Clearinghouse: Filling the knowledge Gap

Educational Research Institute Network in Asia-Pacific (ERI-Net) since 2009 Established & managed by UNESCO BKK to facilitate regional

collaboration in conducting analytical work pertinent to the region

17 institutions from 15 countries and economies participate Regional seminars to share research findings

The Impact of Economic Crisis on HE and the Use of ICT in HE (2010) International Student Mobility (2011) Public-private partnerships in HE & TVET and Youth Employment (2012)

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For more information : http://www.unescobkk.org/education/epr/epr-partnerships/eri-net/

Concluding Remarks

Part 5

It may be time to think about harmonization of higher education systems in ASEAN countries as there are mounting increase of students and academic mobility in this region. The adoption of the A-P revised regional convention can serve as important platform for regional cooperation.

The convention mainly focuses on academic recognition for further studies and employment opportunities. Recognition of professional qualifications remains untouched and will be subject to separate efforts in which UNESCO can also have a role to play with the collaboration of member states and professional bodies.

Information-based comparison is the main principle for academic recognition. Policy-makers, practitioners, and researchers can work together to provide reliable, transparent, and comparable information for the purpose of academic recognition.

The nature of quality assurance mechanisms is very important for the promotion of mutual trusts between different countries. More efforts should be made to work out a common quality assurance framework in Asia and the Pacific, so that the convention can attract the participation of more member states in this region.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

l.wang@unesco.org