D.  Role of SEAMEO in EAGA’s Human Resource Development:

SUBREGIONAL COOPERATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION
IN SEAMEO MEMBER COUNTRIES

Dr. Tong-In Wongsothorn,
Director, SEAMEO Regional Centre for
Higher Education and Development (RIHED),
Bangkok, Thailand

The main theme of this paper is subregional cooperation in higher education in SEAMEO Member Countries. It presents the development of higher education in the region, discusses subregional cooperation in general, and focuses on subregional cooperation in higher education.

The SEAMEO member countries consist of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In SEAMEO member countries, there are about 2,500 institutions of higher education. If junior colleges and other post-secondary nonbaccalaureate institutions are included, there will be much more than this. There are variations between countries in terms of number and types of institutions. Brunei and Lao PDR each has one state university while the Philippines and Indonesia have a great number of public, as well as, private institutions of higher education.

Many changes and innovations are taking place in higher education in this region as the countries move forward into the 21st century. Brunei established the University of Brunei Darussalam in 1986 as the focus and sole higher education institution. Lao PDR has recently set up a national university, merging colleges from different ministries. Cambodia is now in the process of restructuring higher education and has established the National Higher Education Task Force to draft the necessary action plans.

Indonesia’s national agenda on higher education includes expansion of opportunity with a target of about 25 percent in the year 2020 and the increasing participation of private higher education institutions. Malaysia has corporatized all public universities. The Philippines has created the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to supervise all types of institutions of higher education.

Singapore has stressed the concept of "centre of excellence." Thailand has experimented with the concept of a public autonomous university and is now launching the information technology (IT) campuses. Vietnam has reorganized its higher education system by merging higher education institutions into multi-campus national and regional universities. In short, higher education in this region is making good preparation for the 21st century.

At the Penang Conference in July 1996, the Hon. Dato Sri Mohd.. Najib, Minister of Education of Malaysia, raised some of the critical issues in higher education, as follows:

The daunting task confronting decision-makers, planners and managers of institutions of higher education in some of the countries in this region, including Malaysia, is to make quantum leaps in terms of enrolment and output at tertiary level. The obvious solution is to establish new public universities as well as to further increase private sector participation in the provision of higher education. But the question is: are we optimizing the utilization of our existing resources? Is it not possible to do more with less?

Apart from making a quantum leap in output we are also faced with the challenge of making quantum leaps in terms of the qualitative aspects of higher education. The issue of quality has to be addressed in terms of teaching, learning, delivery systems, research, staffing, and management. ¹

From this statement, it could be seen that higher education in this region is facing both qualitative and quantitative problems. The two types of problems are related to efficiency, relevance, and globalization of higher education. The critical issues could be grouped into five important areas, namely: expansion and equality, increasing efficiency, enhancing relevance, improving the quality, and globalization of higher education.

¹ SEAMEO RIHED, Reengineering of Higher Education for the 21^st Century: Keynote Speech and Resolution of the Conference, 1996, P.3.

These five issues should be considered as challenges in subregional cooperation.

Issues

Priorities

1) The Greater Mekong Subregion (the GMS)

The Greater Mekong Subregion is composed of six countries, namely: Cambodia, China (Yunnan Provinc), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. At the Third Conference on Subregional Economic Cooperation in Hanoi, Vietnam in April 1994, the delegates from the six countries met and identified numerous areas for cooperation. For subregional cooperation in the human resource development sector, the following were identified as common issues facing all or the majority of the countries in the subregion:

• Managerial and technical work force

• Trained environmental personnel

• Financial and staff resources for higher education development

• Access to education and training by minority and hill area groups

• Communication/language

• HIV / AIDS

At the following meeting, the Ministerial Meeting of the "Forum for Comprehensive Development of Indochina" held in Tokyo, Japan on 26-27 February 1995, delegates from various countries including those from SEAMEO, and concerned agencies such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) attended the meeting. Regarding human resource development, four themes emerged as needs and priorities of the three countries of Indochina. These were:

² Summary and Conclusions of the Ministerial Meeting at the Third Conference on Subregional Economic Cooperation held in Hanoi on 22-23 April 1994.

³ The Ministerial Meeting of the Forum for Comprehensive Development of Indochina, Tokyo, Joint Statement, 27 February 1995.

 2) The East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA)

The area is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. EAGA was established to promote subregional cooperation among the four member countries. The national EAGA committee is established in each member country to promote closer collaborations.

3) The Indochina-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (the IMT-GT)

The IMT-GT area consists of two Indonesian provinces of northern Sumatra (Medan and Aceh) with a population of 13.6 million; four northern Malaysian states (Kedah, Penang, Perak, and Peris) with a population of 4.6 million; and five provinces of southern Thailand (Narathiwat, Patani, Satum, Songkhla, and Yala) with a population of 2.9 million. (Note: West Sumatra joined the IMT-GT in December 1995). The IMT-GT activities were divided into six working groups, namely: tourism; investment, trade and industry; agriculture and fisheries; services; infrastructure; and human resources development. ⁴

The need for subregional cooperation in higher education was identified as one of the priority areas at the Third Conference on Subregional Economic Cooperation in Hanoi, to wit:

"Higher education development with networking of subregional institutions to help reform processes and quality improvement through curriculum development and teacher training, exchange of students and staff, common research, and other relevant activities in the fields of management, science, and technology."

Recognizing the importance of university networking for the development of the Greater Mekong Subregion, SEAMEO RIHED,

⁴ IMT-GT Uninet Signing Ceremony of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle University Network, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand, 26 July 1996.

in cooperation with Khon Kaen University in Thailand and with the support from SEAMES and UNDP, organized a seminar at Khon Kaen on the role of universities in the development of the Mekong River Basin. Participants were from six Mekong riparian countries: Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. SEAMEO associate member countries and concerned agencies such as UNESCO and ADB were also invited to send their delegates. Seven recommendations were adopted as strategies for cooperation in higher education, as follows:

This network was formed in line with one of the recommendations adopted at the Khon Kaen Seminar in Thailand in June 1995. The objectives of the network are to share information, ideas, and experiences in the development of the transitional economies of the Mekong subregion and to cooperate in the development of economics curricula and improvement of teaching and learning for transitional economies.

Six countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion are involved, namely: Cambodia, China (Yunnan Province), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. With the support and cooperation from UNESCO PROAP, SEAMEO RIHED, and the Department of

⁵ SEAMEO RIHED and Khon Kaen University, The Role of Universities in the Development of the Mekong River Basin, Final Report 1995, p.59-67.

Technical and Economic Cooperation of Thailand (DTEC), a network of subregional cooperation among economic education institutions in the development of economics teaching and training for transitional economies has been developed and promoted. Following are the previous activities of the network:

This network espouses subregion cooperation in the development and improvement of training programmes for rural development agents. At the first stage, only selected institutions from Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam will be involved. The first training programme will be organized at SEAMEO SEARCA in May 1997.

Details of the networks are presented in Table 1.

Networks/Objectives

Countries/Member Institutions

Objectives
1)  To share information and ideas on economic
     reform for the development of the Greater
     Mekong Subregion

2)  To cooperate in the design of curricula,
     preparation of instructional materials,
     improvement of teaching and learning, and
     organizing training programmes for the
     development of transitional economies
     among higher education institutions in the
     Greater Mekong Subregion

China
1)  Yunnan University
2)  Yunnan Polytechnic University
3)  Yunnan Institute of Nationality

Lao PDR
    Faculty of Economics and Business,
    National University of Laos

Myanmar
1)  Institute of Economics, Yangon
2)  University of Mandalay

Thailand
1)  Thammasat University
2)  Khon Kaen University
3)  Maha Sarakham University

Vietnam
1)  National Economics University, Hanoi
2)  University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City

Objectives
1) To cooperate in the improvement of teaching
    and learning in engineering and technology
    education

2) To promote subregional cooperation
    in linking and matching among engineering
    institutions, government, and private sectors

Lao PDR
    Faculty of Engineering, The National
    University of Laos

Thailand
1)  King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology,
     Northern Campus
2)  Suranaree University of Technology

Vietnam
1)  Hanoi Institute of Technology
2)  Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Technology

Objectives
1)  To cooperate in the improvement
     of teaching and learning in distance
     education

2)  To promote subregional cooperation in
     providing distance education to the people in
     the subregion

Myanmar
University of Distance Education

Thailand
1)  Ramkhamhaeng University
2)  Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University

Vietnam
1)  Hanoi Open Learning Institute
2)  Ho Chi Minh City Open University

Objectives
1)  To cooperate in organizing collaborative
     programmes for training rural development
     agents

2)  To promote subregional cooperation in the
     improvement of training programmes for
     rural development agents at both national
     and subregional levels

Thailand
1)  Kasetsart University
2)  Khon Kaen University

Vietnam
-   Agriculture University No. 1
-   Can Tho University

Philippines
1)  UP Los Banos
2)  Mindanao College of Agricultur

To share experiences and expertise in university administration and management;

At the third SEAMEO RIHED Governing Board Meeting in July 1995, the Board discussed and endorsed the proposal to organize a seminar on the role of universities in the development of EAGA, in cooperation with the other SEAMEO centers. Being a RIHED member and a component of EAGA and with the support of Dato Abu Bakar Apong, the Vice-Chancellor of University of Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam was chosen as a venue for the seminar and the university as the organizers in cooperation with SEAMES, SEAMEO BIOTROP, SEAMEO RIHED and SEAMEO SEARCA.

⁶ Memorandum of Understanding, Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle University Network, Article II: Objectives of Cooperation.

The seminar was held on 22-23 October 1996, at the University of Brunei Darussalam. Participants were from the universities and concerned ministries, national EAGA committees in each of the member countries, private sectors, and concerned agencies and organizations.

Specifically, the seminar aimed:

The higher education and research institutions which were invited to send participants to this seminar include University of Brunei Darussalam; Hasanuddin University, Samratulangi University, and Mulawarman University, all in Indonesia; University of Malaysia (Sarawak), University of Malaysia (Sabah), all in Malaysia; and University of the Philippines Mindanao and Mindanao State University, both in the Philippines.

It is expected that this seminar will become a springboard for future cooperation between and among higher education and research institutions for human resource development in the region.

E) THE IMPORTANCE OF REGIONAL AND SUBREGIONAL COOPERATION

Regional and subregional grouping is a necessity in this borderless world. This grouping is considered as a region state that can provide the opportunity for prosperity in the region.

" Region states need not be the enemies of central governments. Handled gently, region states can provide the opportunity for eventual prosperity for all areas within a nation’s traditional political control. When political and industrial leaders accept and act on these realities, they help build prosperity. When they do not - falling back under the spell of the nationalist economic illusion - they may actually destroy it." ⁷

The three subregions, EAGA, IMT-GT, and the GMS have been created and formalized by member countries for promotion of economic and social development of the subregions. Properly handled and managed, they can provide the opportunity for eventual prosperity. The important question is how human resource development could be made to meet the urgent needs of the subregions.

UNESCO has given emphasis on regional and international cooperation in education. In the report of the International Commission on Education for the 21^st Century, the Delors Report, the regional and global dimensions of education were emphasized, as follows.

u

⁷ Kenichi Ohmae, "The Rise of the Region State," Foreign Affairs, July 1993, P.84.
⁸ Delors Report

From these recommendations, it is clear that regional cooperation in education is a must for the 21st century. For universities, the new mission is to promote regional and international cooperation. This is a challenging task. It is even more challenging when we consider that subregional cooperation in higher education is one of the important avenues for the development of the subregion.

F)  PRINCIPLES AND MODALITIES

Principle

What are the guiding principles? At the Penang Conference on Higher Education, four different ways were suggested as lines of action for regional cooperation:

When the IMT-GT UNINET was created, partners agreed to develop linkages under the principles of mutual understanding, shared benefit, common interest, and mutual complementarity.

All of these principles can be used as a framework for subregional cooperation in higher education, taking into consideration the special problems, needs, and social and cultural factors of that particular subregion. Take the principle of common issues as an example, there are five important issues identified earlier. Higher education institutions in the subregion could work together to address these problems.

Modality

One of the modalities suggested here is that these issues could be conceptualized as outputs of cooperation efforts in the cooperation system as shown below:

⁹ First SEAMEO-UNESCO PROAP Regional Conference on Higher Education, Penang , Malaysia, July 1996, Final Report, Report of the Panel Discussion on Internationalization and Regional Cooperation.

INPUT

PROCESS

OUTPUT

u Support of
     member
     countries