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The ASEAN Community based on 3 pillars:

1. The ASEAN Security Community (ASC) is to maintain and strengthen peace, security and stability and enhance ASEAN’s capacity for self-management of regional security.

2. ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has mission to develop a single market and production base that is stable, prosperous, competitive & integrated with effective facilitation for trade and investment with a free flow of goods, services, investment, skilled labors, and freer flow of capital.

3. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community is for Southeast Asia bonded together in

partnership as “a community of caring and sharing societies”, managing the social impact of economic integration,

enhancing environmental sustainability, strengthening the foundations of

regional social cohesion towards an ASEAN Community.

Promoting ASEAN Awareness among ASEAN citizensStrengthening ASEAN identity

through educationBuilding ASEAN human resources

in the field of educationStrengthening university networking

among ASEAN countries

Education helps forge a shared identity in the region

Education lies at the core of development process

Education creates a knowledge-based society

Education enhances ASEAN competitiveness

Education is a vehicle to raise ASEAN awareness

Education inspires the “we feeling”Education creates a sense of belonging to ASEAN CommunityEducation contributes to understanding of the richness of ASEAN’s history,

languages, culture and common values

Aim of Higher Education policy to expand access and enhance opportunity to pursue and achieve high-quality education and

promote employability and mobility. In a time of financial crisis, universities must preserve access and affordability for low-income students as recession cannot be the rationale for reducing opportunity and increasing the financial burden on students and families.

With rising unemployment, the need and demand for higher education will increase

as displaced workers seek new skills.

Tuition escalated as family income flattened, costs and prices increased, sparking concern among policymakers & the public that sustaining a high quality,

affordable & accessible education is vital.

Equity (equal opportunity) refers not only to the openness of Higher Education in terms of access but also in terms of success

Access is more than “getting through the door”

Higher access rates are not meaningful if they

are combined with high dropout rates Challenge of offering education to everyone maintaining quality standards & relevance

QA in higher education has risen to the top of the policy agenda. An increasing emphasis is being put on

“outcomes” of higher education. OECD’s assessment of learning

outcomes focuses on interaction between student & faculty, career expectation, completion & success in finding a job.

Higher education has a vital contribution to make in realizing an ASEAN of knowledge society that is highly creative and innovative...

ASEAN can succeed if it maximizes the talents and capacities of its citizens and fully engages in lifelong learning as well as in widening participation in higher education.

It is important to harmonize ASEAN education system to facilitate free flow of skilled labor by strengthening quality education through excellent teaching & innovative research.

ASEAN higher education area making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable

& compatible to recognize degrees for student mobility.

ASEAN Recognition Convention stipulates that degrees and periods of study must be recognized unless substantial differences can be proved by the institution.

UCTS or ACTS is a standard for comparing the study attainment and performance of students whose credits are awarded with a grading system to provide a common currency to facilitate the transfer of students and their grades.

Worldwide rankings based on teaching & research performance, citations and

student quality (alumni & staff winning Nobel

prizes) The rankings of academic institutions favor

universities that use English as the main language of instruction and research. The wealth of nations and universities plays an important role in supporting top-quality research universities.

Concentration of talent & abundant resources All indicators are research indicators: publications and citations. Only one indicator is relevant to social

sciences and humanities.  Four indicators are biased toward

science & technology.  Only English language journals are

used for publications and citations.

Higher education must encourage the creation of new forms of knowledge,

dissemination through introduction for innovation, and the training of teachers and students. Structures must be devised that allow all knowledge to be transmitted to the whole of student body.

Stimulate the renewal of knowledge in research institutions, innovation

centers or professional organizations.

Students need to be educated through research to greatest possible extent.

Invention is the production of knowledge, and innovation is the adoption by society of its value as measured by the demand for new goods and products.

The innovative entrepreneur is the intermediary who turns inventions into marketable innovations.

SustainabilityClimate changes Millennium Development Goals that could have impact in the future. Focused on the local application of ASEAN knowledge & the

development of local science & technology

capacities.

A new wave of lower cost, green innovationHarnessing the inventive talent in every universityOpen innovation: new ways to achieve rapid

development of green technologyA roadmap for sustainable success

How to encourage green innovation inside your organizationHow to develop green technology

fasterHow to adapt rapidly to stay ahead,

strengthening your brand & image How to be successful green

entrepreneurHow to create a new green business, and bring green products to market

The consequence of ASEAN Community is to create a more comparable, compatible and coherent system of higher education.

Six strategic policies:1. ASEAN Higher Education Area: harmonization of ASEAN higher education so that academic degree and QA more comparable and compatible

2. ASEAN Recognition Convention: recognize degree and period of studies

3. UCTS or ACTS: a standard for comparing performance of students whose credits are awarded with a grading system for transfer

4. Migration management of growing regional labor market

5. Human-capital pooling: productivity enhancement and recognition of skills

6. ASEAN productivity and standard center for competency development

For sustainability, Universities should promote research to nurture educational innovations and focus on energy efficiency & conservation and understand the theoretical and practical shifts in education from industrial capitalism to green capitalism & from a dependent oil-based economy to an efficient, self-sufficient renewable & green energy system.

In the past 4 conferences, we focused on the need to enhance cooperation in education and research concerning global warming, disaster management, alternative energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, quality assurance and university ranking.

Ambassador Hatta is concerned with the pace of progress in academic co-operation between Thailand and Indonesia with a plan of action.

ASEAN Way is the consensus method of decision making based on persuasion and friendly advice and the preference for informality and loose arrangements depending on personal relations among leaders and peer influence and reliance on agreement of common interests rather than on binding legal commitments.

This is also related to the question of frequent changes of leadership

New Chairman of the Council of Rectors of Indonesian State Universities

New Chairman of the Council of University Presidents of Thailand

New Director-General of Higher Education of Republic of Indonesia

New Secretary-General of the Commission on Higher Education of Thailand

New Ambassadors and Ministers of Education

If we go back to the beginning of ASEAN in 1966 to identify the leaders in ASEAN, the Thai foreign Minister Thanat Khoman drafted the Bangkok Declaration & the Indonesian foreign Minister Adam Malik wrote the concept paper for the new association. Both were visionary leaders in founding ASEAN and today we may witness academic leaders from Thailand and Indonesia to initiate the process to assist in building the ASEAN Community

At the closing of the first Thai-Indonesian RectorConference in Bangkok on 28 December 1995, former Ambassador Ibrahim Yusuf agreed with my proposal to appoint a standing committee to devise a plan of action for the follow up activities:

 

1. Joint degree program.2. Joint research and publication.3. Mutual recognition of degree and credit

transfer for student mobility.4. Exchange program for faculty, staff and

students.5. Exchange in art and culture.6. Establishment of Indonesian and Thai

study centers.

1. Joint degree program.2. Joint research and publication.3. Mutual recognition of degree and credit

transfer for student mobility.4. Exchange program for faculty, staff and

students.5. Exchange in art and culture.6. Establishment of Indonesian and Thai

study centers.

We need to strengthen synergies between our 2 countries by stressing importance of cooperation to address development challenges of the ASEAN Community  

May I bring to your attention the appointment of a longer-term joint coordinating committee to ensure continuity of academic co-operation between Thailand and Indonesia to help in theprocess of building the ASEAN Community.