AUN News

The 13th AUN Rectors’ Meeting was conducted in Vientiane, Lao PDR, hosted by National University of Laos and co-hosted by the AUN Secretariat. In this year’s Meeting, eleven Presidents, Rectors, Vice Chancellors, and more than fifty representatives from twenty-eight AUN Member Universities across ten ASEAN Countries participated in the Meeting, which was held under the encompassing theme “University Excellence and the Next Frontiers of ASEAN Higher Education: How AUN Member Universities Think, Lead, and Manage”.

September rounded up with AUN-QA having provided two more quality assurance services to ASEAN higher education in the 295th and 296th AUN-QA Programme Assessments, respectively, at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) and Far Eastern University (FEU).

On September 27, this year’s edition of the ASEAN-Korea Youth Summit, with the theme Carbon Neutrality and ASEAN-Korea Youth, officially concluded via the ZEP platform. Participants from ASEAN countries and the Republic of Korea graced the closing ceremony. This year’s summit winning team was from the Philippines, and their project was entitled "The Aftertaste of Food Waste," which focuses on reducing the bitter side effects of inefficient food production and consumption. To end the ceremony, Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, Executive Director of the ASEAN University Network, delivered the congratulatory message to all the winners of the closing activities and to all the participants who successfully finished the whole summit, and Ms. Jessica Lee, MC of the summit, delivered the closing remarks.

On the occasion of the 13th ASEAN University Network Rectors’ Meeting, AUN - Disability and Public Policy Network (AUN-DPPnet) launched “The Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework of Inclusive Higher Education in ASEAN Countries”—a guidebook for fostering a disability-friendly environment. The book is published under TILE Project (Toward Inclusive Learning Environment), a collaboration among five essential universities: University of Malaysia, Mahidol University, Airlangga University, Vietnam Japan University, and Ateneo De Manila University.

Environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation are crucial for the livelihoods of all citizens of ASEAN countries. Our current and future leaders ought to find the balance between socioeconomic development and the protection of remaining natural resources. The global conversation surrounding our climate laws and regulations now must center on disasters, displacement, and mitigation. The ethics webinar offered a platform for the contemplation of the ethical responsibility of environmental sustainability and a deep reflection on the current systems of production that produces such crises.

On 14 - 16 September 2022, Burapha University hosted the 3rd ASEAN University Network-ASEAN Youth Cultural Forum: Thailand Chapter (AUN-AYCF: Thailand Chapter) to promote the ASEAN identity, cultures and showcased the talents of Thai youths, as well as the performance for the upcoming international AYCF in Indonesia. Behind the immense success of this project lies the commitment and passion of students, alumni, and professors to pass on the legacy of Thai culture to the future generation and to share the cultures of ASEAN countries with a wider community of Thailand.