To provide opportunities for educational institutions to learn the practices on virtual academic and cultural mobility & exchange programmes during the COVID-19 challenges, the SEAMEO Secretariat replayed the “SEAMEO Partner Schools, Colleges, and Universities Summit 2021 (Revisit)” on 8 July 2021 through the SEAMEO Secretariat youtube live channel. The session also gave chance for interested institutions in Southeast Asian countries to register and express an interest in joining the following SEAMEO virtual academic and cultural mobility programmes.

  1. SEAMEO Educators Exchange & Development (SEED), starting September 2021
  2. SEAMEO TVET Exchange Programme (STEP), starting October 2021
  3. SEAMEO Smart Camp Programme (SCP), starting November 2021 

 

Click to view the session:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has practically cancelled all activities that require physical interaction, all in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. 

The schools in all levels had to migrate from the physical classroom platform to be online and teachers were struggled to find the way to teach and provide their students with academic virtual mobility in lieu of the traditional method.

With lockdowns, enhanced quarantine measures, and school closures, everyone is affected.  Concerns are mounting up on school closures’ unintended effects on learning.  Questions such as access to, quality, and effectiveness of non-traditional modes such as distance education, alternative learning modalities, flexible learning options, homeschooling, and blended learning emerged.  Doubts on how assessments can be done and the acquisition of necessary competencies of learners and the readiness of teachers to transition to online learning and parents to home-based learning, proved to be challenging in the COVID-19 world.

SEAMEO Academic Mobility Programmes were affected as the highlight of the programme includes exchange of students of partner universities in Southeast Asia.  SEAMEO’s Academic Mobility Programme, SEA TVET programme and SEA-Teacher programme which addresses two of the SEAMEO Council of Ministers approved Priority Area Number 04: Promoting Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Priority Area Number 05: Revitalising Teacher Education, were also canceled since March 2020 due to the pandemic. 

The SEA-TVET Exchange Programme is a part of the umbrella SEA-TVET programme, which includes High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET, SEAMEO Polytechnic Network Meeting, SEA-TVET Student Exchange programme and SEA-TVET Teacher Exchange programme to promote internationalization of TVET schools, colleges, polytechnics and universities in Southeast Asia through cross-country collaborations and academic mobility programmes. 

The SEA-TVET Student Exchange programme has started since 2018.  The field and degrees in focus for the exchange are Diploma, Higher Diploma and Bachelor in Engineering, IT, Agriculture, Business, Multimedia, Health Science.  The students would be doing the exchange for one month through internship.  The total number of exchanged students in 2018-2019 is 1,143 students.  While, teacher exchange programme was scheduled to take place for 14-21 days during March-August 2020 and was postponed due to the pandemic.           

The SEA-Teacher Academic Mobility Programme provides opportunity for pre-service student teachers among universities in Southeast Asia to do their practicum (teaching experiences) for one-month in schools in other countries in Southeast Asia.  It started in 2015 with 11 universities.  In 2017, the number of HEI partners increased and to date, 2,295 pre- service student teachers benefited from the programme. 

The postponement of the virtual mobility programme was consistent with the feedback that SEAMEO Secretariat received from the SEA Academic Mobility survey in 2020 among the participating universities to determine their readiness and future plans regards the internship programme.  All of them cited the following considerations: increasing COVID-19 cases, countries and schools in lockdown, postponement of academic mobility programmes to 2021 or until a cure or vaccine is available, and the possibility of having a virtual programme.  COVID-19 has changed the educational landscape globally.

Therefore, SEAMEO Secretariat would like to prepare for the new normal of academic mobility with SEAMEO Partner Schools, Colleges and Universities in the Virtual Summit 2021 catering to the needs of all educational institutions within SEAMEO School Networks on academic virtual mobility and regional approach of academic mobility. 

Objectives

The SEAMEO Partner Schools, Colleges and Universities Summit 2021 serves as a platform to promote regional dialogue about best practices, to recognise possible virtual mobility, and to promote innovation and educational engagement on a regional scale.  More specifically, it is hoped that the summit will enable the participants to:

  1. explore the possibility of doing virtual mobility with the partners;
  2. gain broader regional perspectives and world view on higher education and TVET; and
  3. share and demonstrate diverse teaching and learning situations and opportunities, and the value of flexibility in the post-COVID-19 era.

Target Participants

All registered SEAMEO School Network, SEA-Teacher and SEA-TVET/Polytechnic Network would be invited to join SEAMEO Partner Schools, Colleges and Universities Summit 2021.  The updated number of registered institutions in SEAMEO School Network are 1,077 (Oct 2020-May 2021).

Speakers

The SEAMEO Partner Schools, Colleges and Universities Summit 2021 will have four prominent speakers as follows:

  • Dr Libing Wang
    Chief
    Section for Educational Innovation and Skills Development (EISD)
    UNESCO, Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education
    Thailand

  • Asst Prof Dr Romyen Kosaikanont
    Centre Director
    SEAMEO Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development (RIHED)
    Thailand

  • Mr Simon Young
    Portfolio Director, BTEC Asia
    Pearson Education South Asia
    Singapore

  • Dr Michael Medley
    Course Coordinator in Development Project Management
    Chulalongkorn University
    Thailand

e-Certificate of Participation

The e-Certificate of Participation will be provided to the eligible audience who fill up the “Certificate Validation Form,” of which details will appear during the event.

Venue

SEAMEO Partner Schools, Colleges and Universities Summit 2021 is Free of Charge and will be convened fully virtual through the existing online meeting platform such as Zoom and streamlined via YouTube.  The meeting link will be sent to your email in due course after registration. 

Contacts

Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Secretariat
(SEAMEO Secretariat)
920 Sukhumvit Road, Klongtoey, Bangkok, 10110, Thailand
Email: webinar@seameo.org
Website: www.seameo.org