Tomorrow Today

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capital and creating a dynamic education climate. The

SEAMEORIHED roadmap for the harmonization process in

higher education in Southeast Asia is designed to reinforce

the three pillars of the agendas for the ASEAN Community

in 2015, which foster SD. Our attempt to create a common

space for HE in SEA has been advanced by identifying and

implementing the following areas:

• Student and staff mobility

• ASEAN Quality Assurance Framework

• Southeast Asia Credit Transfer System

• Leadership development programme

• E-learning and mobile learning

• ASEAN research clusters.

These are the mechanisms prioritized by SEAMEO

RIHED to establish a Southeast Asian Higher Education

Area (SEAHEA), which will be the overarching infra-

structure to support HESD. They will help create a highly

skilled workforce to serve cross-border employability,

ongoing productivity and stable economic growth.

Student and staff mobility

In 2009, SEAMEO RIHED developed the M-I-T (Malaysia-

Indonesia-Thailand) Student Mobility Pilot Program,

which is our attempt to overcome the limitations of previ-

ous projects (which were restricted to selected HEIs) by

working with governments and HEIs at a regional level.

This project has impacted positively on both academic and

socio-cultural development in the region, helping to nurture

a sound and innovative environment for promoting HESD.

ASEAN Quality Assurance Framework

The ASEAN Quality Assurance Network was initiated in

2008 to share good practices of quality assurance (QA),

recognize HE qualifications and facilitate cross-border

mobility. This mechanism ensures a standardized HE

system and educational quality. The goal of developing

the ASEAN QA Framework will help shape and estab-

lish HESD in the region.

whole region needs to be defined and clarified so that each nation will

head in the same HESD direction.

Stage 2: Cooking HESD

The process of implementing HESD needs involvement both at decision-

making and higher education institution (HEI) levels for policy synergies

and common practices. Funding sources, independent bodies, profes-

sional bodies and communities must participate as stakeholders in the

process to ensure the alignment of HESD and local and regional context.

Sharing of responsibility among ministries of education, environment,

commerce, state, health and culture is crucial to combine expertise and

resources to build better quality HESD. Furthermore, sharing good prac-

tices of curriculumdevelopment and pedagogicmethods among regional

HEIs is another way tomake HESD sustainable. An informed societywith

various relevant stakeholders could collaboratively assist in developing

realistic strategies to build human capacity equippedwith knowledgeable

and capable leadership. The capacity-building process can occur through

academic training as well as teaching and learning. Financial andmaterial

resources for higher education must be developed by national and local

governments and the development of curricula, materials and human

resources, including administration, must be funded at both levels.

Stage 3: Serving HESD

In order to deliver HESD to the public effectively and successfully, the

most important factor is popularity. HESD should use ‘bottom-up’ prac-

tices by promoting the concept of sustainability in popular culture and

government policies. For instance, His Majesty the King of Thailand’s

sufficiency economy philosophy,

which emphasizes SD, has been

shaped and encouraged at both local and national levels. Its practices

of moderation, reasonableness and self-immunity are woven into Thai

people’s daily lives. Moreover, the adoption of the philosophy into the

HE curriculum by some Thai HEIs

shows remarkable outcomes at

government level. In order to bring about major changes in HESD, state

and community need to nurture a climate of creativity and safety that

allows risk-taking to achieve new educational and sustainability goals.

The role of SEAMEO RIHED in HESD

In an effort to promote HE cooperation in the SEA region, SEAMEO

RIHED’s activities benefit SD goals in terms of producing qualified human

The 2010 ASEAN Quality Assurance Network roundtable meeting, 29-30 July 2010, Jakarta, Indonesia

Image: SEAMEO RIHED