29 September 2022

13th AUN Rectors’ Meeting and 37th AUN-BOT Meeting successfully held in Vientiane, Lao PDR

By
AUN Writer Team

By Chanya Chinsukserm, AUN Programme Officer

The 13th ASEAN University Network (AUN) Rectors’ Meeting and the 37th ASEAN University Network Board of Trustees (AUN-BOT) Meeting, hosted by the National University of Laos (NUOL) and co-hosted by the AUN Secretariat, were successfully held on 27 - 28 September 2022. While the 12th AUN Rectors’ Meeting and the 36th AUN-BOT Meeting were organised virtually in 2021 due to the health and safety concerns during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Meeting returned to its on-site format in Vientiane, Laos PDR. On top of that, eleven (11) Presidents, Rectors, Vice Chancellors, and more than fifty representatives from twenty-eight (28) AUN Member Universities across ten ASEAN Countries participated in the 13th AUN Rectors’ Meeting to discuss and share their good practices, analyses, initiatives, and recommendations on AUN-related projects, programs, and activities. 

The AUN-BOT Meeting is one of the AUN's flagship meeting platforms, conducted annually back-to-back with the AUN Rectors’ Meeting. Similar to last year’s meeting, the 37th AUN-BOT Meeting was arranged in a lean format to report the key results of AUN in the past year and to discuss a direction for future collaboration of the AUN Member Universities towards the path of regional higher education within ASEAN and beyond. The AUN-BOT consists of fourteen representatives, one designated from each of the ten ASEAN Member Countries; the Secretary-General of ASEAN; the Chairman of the Senior Officials Meeting on Education (SOM-ED); the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Thailand, as an ex-officio member and the Chairman of the AUN-BOT; and the AUN Executive Director. The Presidents, Rectors, Chancellors, and Vice-Chancellors of the AUN Member Universities were cordially invited to participate in the 37th AUN Board of Trustees Meeting as observers.

On the other hand, the AUN Rectors’ Meeting is the AUN's presidential gathering platform, which is intended to serve as a stage for showcasing past accomplishments and future strategies of AUN-related projects, programs, and activities organised by the AUN Member Universities and various stakeholders. The Meeting’s activities are designed to initiate a fruitful and engaging dialogue among Presidents, Rectors, Chancellors, and Vice-Chancellors of the AUN Member Universities who are thought-leaders and significant contributors to the work and success of the Network. Most importantly, they gathered together in this Meeting with the commitment to achieve the goal of paving ways for a better future of ASEAN Higher Education. Six key informative and discussion sessions were included for the Meeting’s deliberation, namely:

  • Driving University Talents Through Technology
  • Driving University Through Competition and Cooperation in Rankings/Ratings
  • Driving World-Class Study Programme and Student Mobility
  • Interdisciplinarity and the Future of ASEAN Higher Education
  • Data Strategies and the Achievements of High-Impact University Missions
  • The Current Progress of AUN and the Immediate Ways Forward

In the upcoming issues of our news articles, all the insights collected from our honourable participants from the 13th AUN Rectors’ Meeting and the 37th AUN-BOT Meeting will be shared thoroughly here in this series. Stay tuned to find out more about the fruitful discussion and presentation from both momentous onsite meetings!