ESU is lending its support to a second European Commission-funded project aimed at fostering greater international cooperation in higher education. Funded under the branch of the Erasmus Mundus Programme that is designed to enhance the attractiveness of European higher education, the ACCESS-ASEAN project is seeking to build relationships with HE institutions in South-East Asia.
Under a banner of, ‘promotion through partnership and mutual benefit proposition,’ the project methodology is one of a collaborative approach that facilitates mutual knowledge and information exchange. Specific activities will include a comprehensive survey of South-East Asia higher education stakeholders and students towards European HE, as well as on the idea of creating a common EU-South East Asia HE area. The promotion component of the project will see 10 ‘best practice’ videos made to showcase the successful experiences of SEA students already studying in Europe, and the organisation of three promotion and partnership-building events in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. The other two elements of the project relate to the creation of a policy dialogue on European-SEA HE cooperation through the development of a White Paper, plus a policy seminar in South-East Asia and a final workshop in Brussels, and a web portal to support long-term EU-SEA cooperation on higher education. Each of these different workstreams will contribute to the primary outcome of the ACCESS project; an ‘engine’ to promote long-lasting partnerships between the EU and South-East Asian universities in terms of student mobility, research collaboration, the development of joint-learning actions, and curriculum and joint titles developments.
The South-East Asia region (SEA) is considered to be an area of primary interest for Europe, because it can make a considerable contribution to consideration of how a cohesive information society can be built, capable of expressing high value education and research and potential and original approaches. The project builds on a European Commission Communication on a ‘New Partnership with South East Asia’ which sets out a comprehensive strategy for future EU relations with the region.
The project is being partnered by MENON, with the other partners consisting of the University of Reading (UK), Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain), ASEAN University Network (Thailand) and the South East Association for Institutional Research (Malaysia).
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