AUN News

Following the success of the 246th AUN-QA Programme Assessment (Online/Remote Site Visit) at the National University of Laos (NUOL) on 14 – 18 February 2022, the AUN-QA would like to share experiences and impressions emerging from NUOL personnel during the university’s first official AUN-QA Programme Assessment. These fresh perspectives will provide an insight as to what the experience working with the AUN-QA is like and why quality assurance is essential to the development of higher education for the future.

Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, AUN Executive Director, delivered his keynote speech at the University of Santo Tomas Model ASEAN Meeting (UST Model ASEAN Meeting) under the theme of “ONE ASEAN, ONE HEALTH: Overcoming COVID-19 Adversities through Regional Cooperation and Development”. The UST Model ASEAN Meeting was conducted by the UST Asian Studies Major on February 3rd-5th 2022 via Zoom Meeting Conference with the aim to improve the public awareness of ASEAN and its relevance to the community. Dr. Choltis put emphasis on the challenges faced by the education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of regional cooperation to push forward the development in the ASEAN region. He also laid the AUN’s concern for students to have the capacity to learn and be proactive with a strong sense of global citizenship.

As the first half of February 2022 flew by, the AUN-QA is leaving behind a trail of sparkling success in its mission to provide quality assurance services to universities in the ASEAN region. Over the past couple of weeks, two AUN-QA Programme Assessments (Online/Remote Site Visit) have been accomplished, namely the 258th AUN-QA Programme Assessment at Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and the 246th AUN-QA Programme Assessment at National University of Laos (NUOL).

The AUN-QA held the 1st AUN-QA Training Workshop for Accomplishing Programme Assessment Version 4.0 (AUN-QA Tier 1 Training) virtually on 13 December 2021 – 24 January 2022. Following the success of the training course in quality assurance, the AUN-QA is delighted to share a few perspectives emerging from the training course based on the participants’ feedback and experiences.

The constraints of the pandemic alongside the rise of technology made it necessary to transition to a “Hybrid World”, where structures in human lives are changed from the emergence and accommodation of cyberspace. Challenges of transitioning to a Hybrid World include lack of digital communication equipment for all, limited universal digital literacy skills, and risks of cybersecurity threats. Possible solutions towards this transition may involve sustained funding for research and innovation, more inclusive and collaborative science and technology systems, and maintaining the continuation of healthy societal communication.

AUN-QA is on fire in its mission to offer quality assurance services to higher education institutions across the ASEAN region upon successful conduction of two more AUN-QA Programme Assessments, namely the 256th and 257th AUN-QA Programme Assessments respectively for De la Salle - College of Saint Benilde and Chulalongkorn University.