[Video] ASEAN-EU Dialogue Webinar Series 2

Recent decades have seen a rise in regional organisations’ involvement in higher education for the purpose of promoting cooperation within and between Asia and Europe. In both regions, regional institutions with various coordination platforms and policy actors have been engaged in this activity. In Europe, the Bologna Process has led to the European Higher Education Area with students moving freely throughout Europe by means of mutual credit transfers and common degree structures, and staff exchanges among higher education institutions. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has also seen a push towards greater integration with the forming of the ASEAN Community in 2015 leading to similar efforts in creating common higher education areas. Although both regions are diverse, initiatives undertaken by them share an emphasis on intra- and inter-regional mobility, degree recognition, research collaboration together with capacity building.

In this panel, regional and inter-regional dimensions of higher education cooperation that have fostered relations within and between the two regions are presented and discussed. Opportunities that have emerged in recent decades in relation to increased mobility and inter-regional projects in higher education are highlighted. Challenges encountered, together with the impact of Covid-19 on these dimensions of higher education cooperation, are also addressed.