The Final SHARE Newsletter - December 2022

The Conclusion of the SHARE Programme

The EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE) Programme officially concluded its second phase on December 27th 2022.

Since the launch of the first phase in August 2015 at the inaugural SHARE Policy Dialogue at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, the SHARE Programme consortium worked concertedly with The ASEAN Secretariat, SEAMEO Regional Centre for Higher Educaton and Development (RIHED), and other regional partner organisations to enhance the quality and internationalisation of ASEAN higher education.

In September of 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were adopted by world leaders at a historic UN Summit. A matter of months later the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Higher Education Plan of Action 2025 would be launched and the regional organisations and institutions in Southeast Asia embarked on initiatives to address and incorporate both agendas in their action plans

Seven years on and we occupy a very different context. The world has changed and higher education must change with it to be of service to society in meeting the challenges ahead. The landscape of higher education in Southeast Asia has changed utterly. Covid-19 aside, the objectives and plans within the KL Declaration and the relationships amongst the organisations delivering it needed to be revisited and reassessed to meet the needs of our new reality.

In this final SHARE Newsletter I would like to provide an overview of the Programme's activities with our partners in 2022, specifically those leading to the development of a sustainable Common Higher Education Space for the region.

I would also like to take the opportunity acknowledge the immense contributions of the many regional organisation partners, higher education policymakers, SHARE Experts, University practitioners, and Programme Participants, Students and Alumni, as well as the EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE) Programme Consortium team members that made the Programme such a success over the past seven years.

January

SHARE Consortium Partner colleagues from the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) continued with a series of four training sessions for the Secretariat of the ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN).

In this series, four capacity building workshops were planned to ensure future sustainability and local ownership of the external quality assurance of QA agencies. This second workshop focused on the screening of self-assessment reports for ASEAN Quality Assurance Framework (AQAF) Agency Reviews.

On January 18th, SHARE Programme Consortium Partner Nuffic supported by SHARE Experts Keiko Ikeda and ABDUL LATIFF AHMAD launched the 6th Batch of the SHARE Scholarship and the first such initiative in Southeast Asia to be mediated through Virtual Exchange (VE) / Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).

The introductory information sessions were facilitated by SHARE VE/COIL experts Dr. Keiko Ikeda and Dr. Abdul Latiff Ahmad.

The sessions were attended by 58 university representatives and more than half of the 235 students participating in 5 VE/COIL courses developed by 6 SHARE Partner Universities from across Southeast Asia. This was in effect the beginning of the scaling of the VE/COIL movement in the region.

February

February saw the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrated their 45 years of partnership.

The two regions consolidated their longstanding relationship by becoming Strategic Partners in 2020 and this is reflected in the breadth and depth of the cooperation between the two regions which has seen the EU become ASEAN's most comprehensive partner. This was highlighted by EU Ambassador to ASEAN, H.E. Igor Driesmans in his article entitled 'The EU and ASEAN: Turning 45 and Stronger Than Ever' wherein he referenced the SHARE Programme's positive impact on the region and people's lives.

In February SHARE published two reports it had commissioned in 2020 on digital transformation initiatives in Southeast Asia.

The first of these reports, the 'Mapping and Identification of Digital Credit Transfer System Needs in ASEAN', provided recommendations on the deployment of digital credentials and enhancing their recognition throughout Southeast Asia.

The study by Anthony Fisher Camilleri, an EU expert on digital credentials, and Dr Sintho Ardie, a lecturer at Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia, found that digital credential recognition in the region can be significantly boosted by leveraging existing global standards, software, and networks.

The second study published in February was the 'Study of Virtual Exchange Schemes in ASEAN' written by Dr Keiko Ikeda of Kansai University, Japan and Dr ABDUL LATIFF AHMAD, director of the International Relations Centre at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

They found there is a strong potential for Virtual Exchange and Collaborative Online International Learning (VE/COIL) programmes to be developed and rolled out across Southeast Asia. VE/COIL will have an opportunity to grow in a niche of its own and complement physical mobility programmes as an inclusive opportunity for more students to experience internationalisation and develop inter-cultural competences.

Both studies were covered in an article by University World News, by Mr. Kalinga Seneviratne entitled 'Digital Transformation of International HE Gathers Momentum'. 

March

The Programme held its first Policy Dialogue of 2022 as a hybrid event in Bangkok between the 29th and 31st of March. The 14th SHARE Policy Dialogue was implemented in partnership with SEAMEO Regional Centre for Higher Educaton and Development (RIHED), the The ASEAN Secretariat's EYSD, UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, the ASEAN University Network, ASEFEdu amongst other partners and will brought together key stakeholders to share information, exchange views, and propose strategies for further higher education partnerships towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

You can view the highlights of the Policy Dialogue at the link below:

An article covering the Policy Dialogue written by Yojana Sharma was published on 5 April 2022 in University World News. 

April

In April we were pleased to receive a report on the successful completion of the first of a series of COIL collaborations developed and implemented by Phnom Penh International University (PPIU), Cambodia and De La Salle University (DLSU), Philippines under Batch 6 of the SHARE Virtual Exchange / COIL Scholarship Programme. 

Held between January 29th and February 25th, 123 students from the two universities participated in the three courses from Introduction to Asian Culture to Economics, and Introduction to Operating Systems. Over the course of a month, the students of each institution engaged in various cross-cultural learning activities with their counterparts. 

Following the Capacity Building Workshops led by SHARE Virtual Exchange Experts Keiko Ikeda and ABDUL LATIFF AHMAD in March, the Programme kicked off its 7th batch of the SHARE Scholarship and the 2nd batch to be implemented through Virtual Exchange (VE) / Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) through information sessions held on April 14 and 18, 2022 with SHARE Scholarship Batch 7 COIL Awardees and SHARE Partner Universities. 

Building on the success of the inaugural Batch 6 of the SHARE VE / COIL Scholarship, which benefited over 250 student awardees, Batch 7 of the scholarship will involved approximately 600 student awardees from 9 COIL courses with 18 collaborating lecturers from eight SHARE partner universities.

May

The 3rd UNESCO World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022) took place in Barcelona from the 18th - 20th May. It brought together relevant stakeholders to define and prepare a roadmap for a new era of higher education. This roadmap will respond to the challenges faced by humanity and the planet, with special attention to the global disruption created by the COVID-19. UNESCO organised WHEC2022 to offer new knowledge, innovative ideas creative alliances, and produce an enlarged and reinvigorated coalition of the global higher education community in favour of the 2030 Agenda for Development and beyond.

The work of the SHARE Programme and its regional partners was represented at the conference through a Regional Consultation Report formulated in the final session of the 14th SHARE Policy Dialogue. The jointly formulated document entitled “SHARE Policy Dialogue – Consultation Report: Higher Education Partnerships to Achieve the SDGs in Southeast Asia” was subsequently submitted to the UNESCO WHEC 2022 Committee. A copy of the document can be found here.

The SHARE Higher Education Harmonisation Community of Practice (CoP) continued to gather in two peer learning sessions in May, moderated by SHARE's Community of Practice expert, Mr. Andy Gibbs. The 5th peer learning session since the establishment of the Community was held on 24 May 2022 with the theme “The Transformation of Internationalisation in Higher Education – A consultation event with the ASEAN Secretariat”. This ninety-minute session provided an opportunity to discuss, reflect on, and shape ASEAN policy on the Internationalisation of Higher Education. The session provided an opportunity to feedback issues and challenges to the ASEAN Working Group on Higher Education Mobility.

The Third Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Higher Education Mobility (AWGHEM) 2025 was held in hybrid modality on 31 May 2022 at the ASEAN Secretariat.

The Meeting was co-chaired by the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN Foundation with the SHARE Programme as the Technical and Operational Advisor to the group. The Meeting provided updates on follow-up actions since the Second Meeting of the AWGHEM in November 2021 and further discussed the draft Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025 and its implementation plan. AWGHEM Members from ASEAN Member States as well as invited participants from China, Japan, Korea, the ASEAN University Network – ASEAN Credit Transfer System Secretariat (AUN – ACTS Secretariat), UNESCO, SEAMEO RIHED, ASEAN Human Development Organization (AHDO) the ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN) Secretariat, and ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework (AQRF) Committee attended the meeting.

June

SHARE was invited by UNESCO to host a hybrid side event at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference (APREMC II) in Bangkok on 5 June 2022. The event was entitled “Digital Transformation and the Future of Higher Education.”

The expert panel of Paulina Pannen, Keiko Ikeda, Wesley Teter, Roger Jr Chao, Anthony Fisher Camilleri, and Herman de Leeuw explored the role of utilising digital technologies in the context of higher education transformation at global and regional levels.

Training on Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) for SHARE Partner Universities was held online between 8 to 15 June 2022 as a series over the course of six training days, attended by 31 participants representing 16 SHARE Partner Universities from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Led by Ms. Petra Pistor and Dr. Sonja Mikeska from FH Münster University of Applied Sciences, Germany, participants engaged in highly interactive group work activities to delve deeper into various topics related to IQA, such as study programme development, evaluation, external quality assurance, quality culture, change management, as well as comparative case studies of IQA systems in different countries. Participants were also prepared to implement their intended post-training IQA activity in their respective institutions.

The SHARE Programme was one of only two EU programmes in Southeast Asia selected to participate in the European Development Days (EDD) 2022 in Brussels on 21 – 22 June 2022.

The SHARE Programme was showcased at the EDD Global Village under the theme Education and Research. We were pleased to welcome Mr. Jean-Louis Ville, Acting Director of Middle East, Asia and Pacific, Directorate-General for International Partnerships at the European Commission, to the SHARE stand.

July

The second SHARE National Seminar entitled “Microcredentials in Thai Higher Education: Opportunities, Challenges, and Outlooks from ASEAN and Europe” was held in cooperation with King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) Thailand both online and on-site in Bangkok, Thailand on 20-21 July 2022.

Featuring a mix of speakers and participants from academia and business/industry, the seminar explored the relevance of the trending topic of micro-credentials in Higher Education for the academic community and for industry stakeholders, especially in addressing the skills gap and in supporting lifelong learning.

The 15th SHARE Policy Dialogue was conducted over the course of two days, 27 – 28 July 2022. SHARE Policy Dialogue 15 was held in a hybrid format in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, under the theme “Envisioning the Future of a Common Higher Education Space in Southeast Asia”.

The Dialogue was co-hosted with the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam and organised in partnership with the Education, Youth, and Sports Division of the ASEAN Secretariat (EYSD ASEC), SEAMEO RIHED, the ASEAN University Network, and UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, and Asia-Europe Foundation Education Department ASEFEdu

Held on Wednesday, 27 July 2022, during the 15th SHARE Policy Dialogue in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, the ASEAN Secretariat, the SHARE Programme and the members of the ASEAN Working Group on Higher Education Mobility (AWGHEM), including SEAMEO RIHED, the ASEAN University Network and UNESCO, officially launched the ‘Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025 and its Implementation Plan.’ 

The Roadmap envisages a resilient and sustainable Common Space for Higher Education in Southeast Asia that enables greater harmonisation and internationalisation of the region’s higher education systems. It is reflective of the new reality for education worldwide and proposes adaptive and sustainable approaches in responding to the changing context of higher education. This includes augmenting access and inclusion to internationalised higher education provision by students through digital transformation.

The launch was officiated by H.E. Dr Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Viet Nam, H.E. Mr Giorgio Aliberti, EU Ambassador to Viet Nam, and H.E. Dato’ Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary General of ASEAN. The launch was followed by congratulatory remarks by the regional stakeholders including; Mr Lukas Gajdos (Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the EU Delegation to ASEAN), Mr Philip Masterson (Officer in Charge, SEAMEO RIHED), Dr Choltis Dhirathiti (Executive Director, ASEAN University Network), and Mr Libing Wang (Chief, Section for Educational Innovation and Skills Development, UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Thailand).

The highlights of Policy Dialogue 14 and the launch of the Roadmap can be viewed on SHARE's Youtube Page

August

With success in organising the Virtual Exchange Students and Alumni Summit in May 2022, the European Union Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE) Programme invited alumni from Europe and ASEAN to Jakarta, Indonesia, to participate in the 2nd SHARE ASEAN – EU Exchange Students and Alumni Summit with the theme of “Youth and Digital Connectivity” from 8 – 10 August 2022, coinciding with ASEAN Day on August 8th.

Over 60 students and alumni from Southeast Asia and Europe participated in the Summit. This Summit brought together the youth from Europe and Southeast Asia to foster stronger ties between their respective regions. The Summit provided a physical platform that engages young leaders from Southeast Asia and Europe to learn from each other and develop networks for collaboration. You can see the highlights of the event here:

September

SHARE participated in the Study in Europe 2022 Fair organised by the European Union (EU) Delegation to Singapore on Saturday, 24th of September between 10 am to 6 pm (GMT+8) officially opened by H.E. Ambassador Igor Driesmans, the EU Ambassador to ASEAN. SHARE presented its VE/COIL initiatives between ASEAN institutions through three iterations of the VE/COIL collaborations.

Held on 29 September 2022, the AQAN-ENQA Strategic Policy Workshop was designed to support AQAN in its strategic reflections and work promoting quality assurance in the ASEAN region. The third meeting provided information on and reflected upon ENQA’s services to members and affiliates (apart from coordination of agency reviews in the EHEA and beyond). Furthermore, the meeting explored how the association contributes to European policy-making; discussed AQAN’s organisational and financial independence and sustainability in the provision of services in the ASEAN region; and discussed future cooperation between AQAN and ENQA. 

October

SHARE held the “SHARE Roadshow: Research Study Consultation & Alumni Engagement Workshop” on the 5th and 6th of October 2022 in hybrid form in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Designed with two activities, the alumni engagement was held to integrate the action plans of SHARE students and alumni network with the SHARE Higher Education Harmonisation Community of Practise (CoP). While the “Study on Strengthening the Internationalisation Capacity of Higher Education Institutions in CLMV Countries: Assessment of Enabling Factors and Potential Capacity Building Activities” research study consultation was conducted to assess challenges and provide solutions to the capacity development of higher education institutions in CLMV countries to attract more ASEAN and non-ASEAN student to CLMV as study destinations.

Expertly facilitated by Reka Tozsa of Asia-Europe Foundation & SHARE Expert Andy Gibbs, the steering group of SHARE students & alumni network agreed to establish the South East Asian Students & Alumni Network (SEASAN) with the aim to contribute to the Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025 and its implementation plan.

In collaboration with the ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN), SHARE conducted the “Women in Quality Assurance (QA) Forum” on 11-12 Oct 2022 in Bangkok. It was the first ASEAN event for female QA leaders and teams to learn from each other's experiences in QA. 

November

The SHARE programme has long recognised that youth engagement and collaboration is critical to creating sustainable regional integration. We caught up with some of our students and alumni in November to hear their thoughts on participating in the programme and building the Common Higher Education Space for Higher Education in Southeast Asia.

Since 2016, SHARE provided 590 intra-ASEAN and ASEAN-EU Mobility scholarships for ASEAN university students; and 1586 students from ASEAN were awarded virtual exchange (VE) and collaborative online international learning (COIL) scholarships. On the next batch of VE/COIL, SHARE will provide 250 scholarships for ASEAN students by the end of November 2022.

“I participated in VE/COIL Programme on Writing for Transnational Business Management course. There are so many benefits that we gained through this course. First, I learned how to write effective business letters, memos, and emails, which I found essential for an economics student like me to have these competitive advantages to enter the labour market in the future. This course encouraged me to improve my writing, presentation, and teamwork skills. Second, I made many friends from other ASEAN countries and have kept in touch until now. Third, the lecturers made the learning process enjoyable, and all the materials are accessible online, which allowed us to learn independently.” - Tri Kien Bui, SHARE VE/COIL Awardee, Vietnam

“I feel very empowered to learn the topic through a cross-cultural learning experience with friends from PPIU, and the lecturers were very detailed in explaining the materials. The assignment forces us to think critically and break the barrier between students as we all have to collaborate to work on the assignments.” 

- Kevin Naufal, SHARE Alumnus, Indonesia

Between November 21st and 23rd, three events were organised at the Le Meridien Hotel, Jakarta by SHARE Consortium Partner, DAAD. The SHARE Networking Conference on Qualifications Frameworks (QF) and Quality Assurance (QA) held on November 21st served as the regional closing conference for SHARE activities under result areas 2a (QF) and 2b (QA).

On the 22nd of November, in cooperation with BINUS University the “Enhancing Graduate Employability in ASEAN through Internationalisation of Higher Education” Seminar was convened to explore the opportunities and challenges in boosting graduate employability through internationalisation initiatives and offer perspectives from ASEAN and Europe.

The 23rd of November saw the launch of the “Graduate Employability in ASEAN – The Contribution of Student Mobility” MPAC 2025 Research Report. The study maps the student and labour mobility trends in the ASEAN region and examines the supply side and demand side perspectives on the value of intra-ASEAN student mobility on graduates’ career outcomes. Furthermore, it provides recommendations to further enhance and understand the links between mobility and employability. Congratulations to Miguel Antonio Lim and his team for an excellent report. This study and other SHARE publications can be found at the following link: https://www.share-asean.eu/publications/reports

SEAMEO Regional Centre for Higher Educaton and Development (RIHED)'s Inter-Regional Research Symposium was relaunched on 23-25 November 2022 at the Asia Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand with a renewed emphasis on the contributions of higher education towards sustainable development.

The Inter-Regional Research Symposium was organised through partnership with the SHARE Programme and other regional organisations and will now be organised on a biennial basis from 2022 to 2030 to expand the inter-regional focus through partnerships in higher education by providing an enhanced opportunity to learn from Southeast Asia and other regions of the world collectively. The outcomes of the Symposium were covered in an article in University World News article by Yojana Sharma and Kalinga Seneviratne in University World News under the title 'Bridging the gap between research and policy on SDGs'

The 2022 Inter-regional Research Symposium also introduced new platforms and opportunities to review and update regional progress in higher education as well as develop research capacity among new and emerging researchers in addition to the presentation of original research. One such initiative is the RIHED SHARE Platform which was launched at the Symposium.

RIHED SHARE serves as a knowledge platform and builds on the work of the SHARE Higher Education Harmonisation Community of Practice, launched by the SHARE Programme in November 2021 and facilitated by SHARE Expert Mr. Andy Gibbs and the Community of Practice Steering Group. This initiative contributes to the sustainable development of a Common Higher Education Space for Southeast Asia.

The occasion of the Inter-Regional Research Symposium also saw the launch of the twelfth edition of Higher Education in Southeast Asia and Beyond (HESB) as a joint effort of the SHARE Programme, The HEAD Foundation, and SEAMEO RIHED. Entitled 'Partnerships in Higher Education' the publication brought together experts from the Southeast Asian higher education community to reflect on the progress the region is making towards a shared vision of a common higher education space and to share more about their initiatives and experiences in boosting regional cooperation amongst regional higher education institutions and students. Many thanks to ChangDa WAN, Vignesh Louis Naidu, and Hoe-Yeong Loke, The HEAD Foundation for this collaboration.

December

The 4th Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Higher Education Mobility 2025 (AWGHEM) was convened in hybrid modality on 5 December 2022. The meeting was organised by the ASEAN Secretariat, in collaboration with the ASEAN Foundation and the SHARE Programme. The Meeting was chaired by Dr. Yang Mee Eng, Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation and the ASEAN Secretariat were represented by Ms. Rodora "Dhors" Babaran and Dr. Roger Jr Chao.

This would be the final AWGHEM Meeting for the SHARE Progranme as Technical and Operational Advisor of the Working Group, but provided an opportunity to present numerous successful initiatives and outcomes of the SHARE Programme and be reassured that the future of SHARE initiatives and the objectives of creating a common space for higher education in Southeast are being pursued with renewed vigour in the spirit of partnership by regional partners. The outcomes of the Programme were presented by result area as per the below:

Dr. Miguel Antonio Lim, SHARE Expert and Senior Lecturer in Education and International Development, University of Manchester, presented the results of the study on the State of Higher Education in Southeast Asia. The report is a systematised review of related literature on Higher Education in Southeast Asia. And was structured around 5 themes: (i) equality, diversity and inclusion; (ii) relevance to the changing world of work; (iii) internationalization; (iv) regionalization; (v) systems restructuring and reform. Below are some of the key findings of the study that were shared at the Meeting: 

The study put forward the following recommendations: (i) balance the expansion of educational access with equitable policies and practices in higher education; (ii) leverage the fast-growing digital economy and sustain post-pandemic growth by investing in digital and 21st century skills in partnership with public and private stakeholders; (iii) promote increased people-to-people connectivity through virtual and hybrid mobility programmes within Southeast Asia and with other regions; (iv) support the systematic collection of data and research on Southeast Asian issues on higher education, including EDI, mobility, and post-graduation trajectories.

Dr. Keiko Ikeda, SHARE Expert and Professor of Kansai University, Institute for Innovative Global Education, delivered a presentation on the progress of the Building Education Content Curation Support for Virtual Exchange/Collaborative Online International Learning through the AVEC (ASEAN Virtual Exchange and COIL) Platform. Through the COIL initiative, students and teachers are given opportunities to develop various 21st century skills such as global citizenship and digital literacy. Between 2021-2022, 1686 students participated in 31 COIL or virtual exchange courses with 319 faculty members and international relations officers (IROs). Dr. ABDUL LATIFF AHMAD and Kamarul Adha also contributed significantly to this component of the SHARE Programme.

Mr. Anthony Fisher Camilleri, SHARE Expert and Senior Partner of Knowledge Innovation Centre, Malta updated the Meeting on the objectives of the Digital ASEAN Europe Credit Transfer System (DAECTS) platform, its components and subsystems and next steps. The work on this component of the SHARE Programme was comprehensively delivered by the team of Anthony, Carmen L. Padron Napoles of KIC and Kilian Klein of EUF - European University Foundation.

The objectives of the Platform are to (i) create digital administration flow for student mobility for transnational mobility; (ii) support both physical and virtual mobility; (iii) provide predictable and standardised mobility flows for mobilities; (iv) convert credit systems between different national and institutional systems; (v) pilot digital work of higher education institutions to inform further digital transformation of ASEAN higher education and (vi) promote global interoperability through reuse of global standards and tools.

It was confirmed that all of SHARE’s initiatives are owned by regional entities and sustainable going forward. Both the AVEC and DAECTS platforms are being transferred to the stewardship of University of Indonesia within the ASEAN University Network framework. Additionally the experts have committed to providing the level of expertise that would be required to ensure sustainability of these initiatives. These initiatives will also be brought forward under the framework of the ASEAN Working Group on Higher Education Mobility 2025 (AWGHEM) in the context of the Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space.  

Dr. Chao updated the Meeting on the progress of the Concept Note on the Development of an ASEAN-SEAMEO Joint Declaration on a Common Higher Education Space in Southeast Asia which is expected to further enhance synergy and collaboration between ASEAN education sector and SEAMEO higher education. He conveyed that the development of the concept note was noted by the 17th SOM-ED on 11 October 2022, and discussed at SEAMEO RIHED Governing Board Meeting on 28 October 2022 and received positive support.   

The Meeting took note of the proposed activities leading to the development and adoption of the ASEAN-SEAMEO Joint Declaration on a Common Higher Education Space in Southeast Asia would continue into 2023.

To conclude the programme SHARE convened an official closing ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat on Tuesday, 6 December 2022, where partners, higher education institutions, practitioners, and alumni came to witness the handing over of SHARE Programme results to ASEAN entities and their partners.

H. E. Ekkaphab Phanthavong, Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) noted in his opening remarks “Today’s event highlights what the Programme has achieved and will also take stock of lessons learned. As you know, since 2015, SHARE Programme has been instrumental in supporting ASEAN’s ambition to enable greater harmonisation and internationalisation of higher education in the region."

During the closing ceremony, H.E. Igor Driesman, the EU Ambassador to ASEAN stated, “The SHARE Programme has contributed to the Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025 and various frameworks in ASEAN higher education sector. The EU is proud to have provided opportunities to more than 2,000 ASEAN students to study abroad, virtually or in person, both within ASEAN and in Europe through the SHARE scholarships. These scholarships gave the opportunity to the young people in ASEAN to experience personal and professional development and growth."

You can see the highlights of the SHARE Closing Event here:

The final event of the SHARE Programme, in partnership with Erasmus+, took place in Brussels on December 12th under the banner of “Celebrating EU-ASEAN People-to-People Cooperation on Higher Education” as a side event of the EU-ASEAN Commemorative Summit on 14 December by the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat to celebrate their 45th anniversary of dialogue relations.

The event was attended by high level stakeholders, including Commissioner Urpilainen and discussed the numerous gains achieved through higher education and research cooperation, concluding it as a key pillar to the strategic partnership between both regions. Greater mobility of students and professionals was identified as a driver to further knowledge, facilitate the flow of ideas and innovation between the EU and Southeast Asia regions, all which enhance employability, digital transition, and the green agenda.

In her remarks, Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner, International Partnerships, European Commission commended the success of higher education and research cooperation and committed, “to go further…[to] take our cooperation on education, connectivity, and research to new heights” via the Global Gateway Strategy. She revealed that on Wednesday the Sustainable Connectivity Global Gateway Flagship will be launched. This will “build on the very successful SHARE programme” and “key priorities include strengthening student and academic mobility, reinforcing cross-regional university networks, and boosting ASEAN vocational education institutions and businesses, notably to support the green and digital transitions.”

H.E. Dato Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary-General ASEAN thanked the EU for its “continued support in the advancement of ASEAN higher education” mentioning a new report on “the current state of higher education in the region [which] highlights key thematic areas including equity, diversity and inclusion, internationalisation and regionalisation of higher education, and sustainability that needs to be addressed to improve ASEAN higher education.”  

H.E. Dr. Hang Chuon Naron, Cambodian Minister of Education, Youth and Sports highlighted the EU and ASEAN are transforming education through the partnerships and “must work together to achieve the SDGs and leave behind a better world for all”.

Coverage of the event by University World News' Yojana Sharma can be read at this link and the full event can be viewed below:

We were pleased to see the work of the SHARE Programme on people-to-people connectivity and intra-ASEAN mobility recognised in the EU ASEAN Commemorative Summit Joint Leaders Statement as follows:

We call on young people and educators to make use of available opportunities for educational exchanges and cooperation through Horizon Europe, the Erasmus+ programme, as well as national programmes in ASEAN and EU Member States. In this context, we note the contribution to intra-ASEAN mobility by the EU higher education programme EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE).

The EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region Programme is proud to have contributed to the process of bringing regional organisations in Southeast Asia closer together to coalesce around the shared goal of developing an inclusive, diverse and sustainable common space for higher education in the region.

As I sign off as Team Leader of the SHARE Programme I would like to express my gratitude to all who contributed their time, energy, and expertise to making the Programme a success.