EU-ASEAN pre-summit higher education 12 Dec 2022

This year marks 45 years of dialogue relations between the EU and ASEAN. The EU-ASEAN Strategic Partnership is dedicated to advancing mutual understanding, peace, prosperity, sustainable development, rules-based multilateralism, and free and fair trade. Cooperation on higher education and research, including through people-to-people connectivity, is central to the Strategic Partnership. It has resulted in multiple benefits for both regions including increasing the mobility of students and professionals alike, to facilitate the flow of ideas, cooperation and innovation between the EU and South-East Asia.

Since 2015 the EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE) Programme, a 15-million-euro EU-ASEAN initiative, has brought the experience and knowledge from Erasmus Programme and the Bologna Process to support ASEAN to strengthen the capacity of its own higher education integration. During the same period, the Erasmus programme has continued to invest in initiatives supporting student mobility, staff exchange, capacity building, and cooperation partnerships between ASEAN and EU within the field of higher education and research.

In this context, the European Commission and its partners invite you to reflect upon higher education and research as a channel for EU-ASEAN cooperation. We will take stock of the successes and benefits of SHARE and ERASMUS+ programmes for researchers, higher education institutions and students in both regions. We will also discuss the future of EU-ASEAN cooperation in the fields of higher education and research in the context of wider strategic priorities such as the EU’s Global Gateway and ASEAN’s Connectivity Master Plan 2025, covering skills, citizenship education and employability; health; the green transition; and digital connectivity.

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Celebrating EU-ASEAN. People-to-People Cooperation on Higher Education
Prof. Ronald Holzhacker

The theme of my contribution on this panel is How EU & ASEAN, as regional organizations, representing their citizens and societies, can help us build strong partnerships, enabling us to confront global challenges together.

They have placed our universities as ‘leading actors’ , key institutions to foster dialogue, discussion, education and research, on ‘societal challenges.’

Read prof. Holzhacker's full contribution

High Level Opening, ‘EU – ASEAN Cooperation on Higher Education: Achievements and Perspectives.’ Audience: 150 persons live, 300 on-line, in advance of the EU-ASEAN Summit of Heads of State

H.E. Dato Lim Jock Hoi (Secretary-General of ASEAN), Jutta Urpilainen (Commissioner, International Partnerships, European Commission) and H.E. Dr. Hang Chuon Naron (Cambodian Minister of Education, Youth and Sports)

Session One ‘Enhancing the EU and ASEAN’s Higher Education Integration’. Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva (Director Innovation, Digital Education and International Cooperation, DG EAC), Prof. Ronald Holzhacker (University of Groningen, Director SEA ASEAN) and Thida Sann Cambodian Alumnus of SHARE, with Professor Cynthia Bautista (Vice President, University of the Philippines) and Chris Humphrey (Executive Director of the EU – ASEAN Business Council)

Last modified:

20 December 2022 11.26 a.m.