CROSS-BORDER EDUCATION IN

ASEAN COUNTRIES

7th CRISU-CUPT Conference

Challenges of ASEAN Higher Education in Globalized World

Dr. Libing Wang

APEID Coordinator & Senior Programme Specialist in Higher Education
UNESCO Bangkok
 Contents

I. Trends of Regional Integration

II. Education Harmonization in ASEAN
Countries
III. Cross-border Higher Education
IV. UNESCO’s Work
V. Concluding Remarks
Part 1
Trends of Regional Integration
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 ????

European Integration (Cont’d)

 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

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 ASCC
Source:
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.
Part 2
Educational Harmonization
in ASEAN Countries
 2-1 Efforts towards Int’l Cooperation in
ASEAN and beyond
ASEAN adopted the Vision 2020 in 1998 to present ideal state of
regional cooperation in various area of politics, economy, culture, etc.
 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 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)

Activities of Regional Networks in the
Field of HE in ASEAN and Beyond
 Regional education harmonization tools

Student Exchange M-I-T Program (AIMS) and other

Programs exchange programs

Credit Transfer ASEAN Credit Transfer System (ACTS),

System UCTS, etc.

AUN-AQ Guideline, UNESCO-APQN

Quality Assurance
Toolkit: Regulating the Quality of Cross-
Guidelines
border Education, etc.
 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 Cross-border Consumption Commercial Presence of natural
market access supply abroad presence 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 Unbound, except as indicated
venture with foreign in the horizontal section
equity not exceeding 49%

Indonesia None None As indicated in the Unbound, except as indicated in

horizontal commitments the horizontal section

Lao PDR None None As indicated in the Unbound, except as indicated in

horizontal commitments the horizontal section

Thailand None None At least half of its Unbound

director(s), and if applicable
its managing director, must
be the person of Thai
nationality
Part 3
Cross-border Higher Education
3.1 Internationalization of HE: Student
Mobility in the World
Number of Tertiary Students studying abroad in 1999 and 2007
2007 1999
900
808
Number of outbound mobile students (1000)

800

700

600

500
406 444
421
400 318
300 218 247 250
168 194
200 199 185
94 97 135
100 121 101
100
64 56
0
North Central Asia Latin Arab States Sub-Saharan South and Central and Western East Asia unknown
America America and Africa West Asia Eastern Europe and the
the Europe Pacific
Caribbean

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

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
 Flowing out more than flowing in
19

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

Share of mobile
students
Studying within
their region of
origin

Share of mobile
students
Studying outside
their region of
origin

19
Increasing Mobile Students within the Region
Source: UNESCO-UIS (2009), Global Education Digest 2009

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

20
Students flow in 1997 and 2007 Between
ASEAN, China, Japan and Korea

Source: Kazuo Kuroda (2010)

21
3.2 Programme Mobility in the AP

 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

22
3.3 Provider/Institution Mobility in the AP

 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
23
 3.4. Challenges
 Very diverse education systems in this region
How 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?
Part 4
UNESCO’s Work
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

 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
 ‘Students/learners protection’ from the risks of misinformation, low-quality
Objectives 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
Standards Setting (Cont’d)
28

 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
http://www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/087/APQN_Toolkit.pdf
UNESCO Regional Conventions
29

 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)
State Parties to 1983 AP Convention
30
The Revised Convention

 RevisedAP Convention adopted in the International

Conference of States held in Tokyo, Japan in Nov 2011
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.

31
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
33

 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)

For more information :

http://www.unescobkk.org/education/epr/epr-
partnerships/eri-net/
Part 5
Concluding Remarks
 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