With so many Australian universities having transnational operations in Southeast Asia, including a growing number of branch campuses, I was very surprised at how few of them had representatives at the ASEAN Australia Education Dialogue in Vientiane last week.
The Dialogue was a joint undertaking of Michael Fay OAM from the ASEAN Focus Group, and the ASEAN Universities Network (AUN). It was co-hosted by the National University of Laos.
It was an excellent event canvassing a range of topics of keen interest to Australia and Australian higher education leaders – as much as to leaders across the AUN network. The Dialogue included sessions on:
- Research opportunities and challenges
- Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals
- Student mobility between ASEAN and Australia
- Strengthening ASEAN Australia business and industry links with higher education
- Developing future-ready universities
- Quality assurance
- Climate change and environmental management
- Strategies for strengthening alumni networks and enhancing graduate employability
- Generative AI in higher education
- Key drivers for ASEAN Australia education partnerships in 2025, and
- A site visit to the National University of Laos (where the Australia Awards and the Laos-Australia Inclusive Education Center are clearly highly valued).
The AUN are keen to engage with Australia and, in my view, we are missing a huge opportunity by not using events like this to strengthen and formalise our relationships with universities in Southeast Asia and with ASEAN. Congratulations to Study NSW (and particularly the NSW Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner for ASEAN, Andrew Parker who attend the full two days of the Dialogue – not just his own keynote address session), RMIT Vietnam, OpenLearning, NEAS, and University English Centres Australia as the Australian agencies which sponsored the Dialogue.
Some Koala readers may be surprised to know that the University of Nottingham, Malaysia (UON, Malaysia) was also a sponsor – because of their view of their role in the region and the importance of their relationship with the AUN and its members.
On this, UON Malaysia is not alone. There are in fact 21 non-ASEAN universities who are part of the AUN’s +3 members – universities from China (5 universities), South Korea (6 universities) and Japan (10 universities) who have formal, official partnerships and engagements with the AUN and its members.
It was great to hear during the Dialogue from representatives from Macquarie University College, RMIT Vietnam, the University of Wollongong College and the Vietnam Policy Manager of Monash University’s Climateworks Centre, but sadly, despite the great work individual Australian universities are doing in the region, Australia remains a fringe player in its engagement with the AUN.
The AUN has 19 Thematic Networks (established to foster academic cooperation on specific academic topics/issues). The networks present a key opportunity where Australian academics could be involved and benefit from the expertise across the members of the AUN, as well as sharing their own expertise. And as Andrew Parker challenged in his address – there’s not only an economic imperative in Australia engaging more with ASEAN and the region, there’s a moral obligation as well.
The AUN’s thematic networks cover:
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A couple of final thoughts on the Dialogue:
- If you’re working on issues related to digital transformation in higher education, the Indonesia Cyber Education Institute is keen to partner with Australian universities. I would be happy to provide an introduction to any Australian university or private higher education provider who may be interested,[3] and
- I was disappointed to hear that budget constraints might have been a reason why there were relatively few Australian university participants at the Dialogue. To which I can only say that if a one-woman consulting operation can pay her own costs to attend, because she sees value in understanding the issues impacting universities in Southeast Asia – then our universities with their healthy bank balances can afford to send a representative (even when finances look extremely difficult this year).
Thanks to the AUN, the National University of Laos, and to Michael Fay OAM for the opportunity to participate. And thanks to all of the new colleagues and friends I met during the course of the Dialogue – it was a privilege to be there.
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[1] I chaired the panel discussion on Future-ready universities and equipping staff and students with essential AI skills at the Dialogue, and the Chair of this new AUN Digital Transformation network, Assoc Prof. Wongsirichot from Prince of Songkla University, Thailand was one of the panellists. The work that he and his fellow members of the AUN have done already on this topic is very impressive.
[2] This concept is barely discussed in Australia. It’s a type of AI, (reactive machine AI not generative AI) and has been proven to enhance student learning. It has been rolled out right across the Singapore school education system, has been encouraged by UNESCO as a means of lifting educational attainment in developing countries, is starting to be used in parts of the further education (VET) system in the UK and parts of Europe, and in universities across the world… but not so much in Australia… although I note that the University of South Australia has recently been looking for a PhD student to work on research on this topic.
[3] For the avoidance of any doubt – although I am an independent consultant I would not of course look to charge anything for such an introduction. The work the Institute is doing looks very impressive and I think that as much as they would have things they could learn from Australian universities, there is also much our universities could learn from them. I would be happy to make a connection to get great people learning from one another.
Photo credit: The Koala has used an image posted on LinkedIn by Hossein Davari, Director, School of English & University Pathways, RMIT Vietnam
