4 August 2022

2nd AUN-HPN HURS Workshop Continues in Strengthening Health Promotion Capabilities of Universities

By
Patitin Lertnaikiat
AUN Programme Officer;

The 2nd Healthy University Rating System (HURS) workshop was held on 1 August, 2022 through online means using the Zoom Meeting Platform. More than 70 participants from 8 and 24 universities attended the workshop. Following the 1st HURS workshop organized on 29 March, 2022, the second aims to further improve on the “Monitoring of Healthy University Framework Implementation: Healthy University Rating System (HURS)”. 

This HURS workshop is a part of ASEAN University Network - Health Promotion Network’s project in improving Health Promotion within universities. The speakers that attended the workshop were Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, AUN Executive Director; Dr. Nuttapun Supaka, Director of Partnership and International Relations Section, Thai Health Promotion Foundation; Dr. Wiwat Rojanapithayakorn, Advisor of Executive Director of AUN-HPN; Prof. Dr. Chartchalerm Isarankura-Na-Ayudhya, Dean of Faculty of Medical Technology, Mahidol University and Chair of the Committee on HURS Development; and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phudit Tejativaddhana, Director of ASEAN Institute for Health Development, and Executive Director of AUN-HPN.

The purpose of the 2nd workshop was to monitor the implementation and fulfill the current objectives of the Healthy University Framework (HUF). The HUF has 4 objectives, the first being to set standards for health promotion in the ASEAN region. The second is to raise awareness of the threat of unhealthy behaviors and poor environments that impact the health of people; and the need to address them. The third is to promote the role of AUN member universities in the area of health promotion within and outside the universities. The final and fourth goal is to scale-up health promotion activities in all ASEAN+3 universities. Completion of the objectives will achieve the goal of enhancing the quality of health and greatly improving quality of life for university personnel.

HURS is a tool developed based on the Healthy University Framework (HUF) by the AUN-HPN that is used to assess how a university is promoting healthiness and dealing with health concerns. The sessions during the workshop gave participants the opportunity to discuss and share crucial knowledge in utilizing the HURS. Following this, the virtual interactive workshop enabled participants to learn and experience how to log in to the system in order to input data correctly.  When the system is set up, universities enrolled in the HURS network will be able to share their best practices of healthy university aspects with others through international or local workshops held by the AUN-HPN or local host universities.

Following the workshop, participants will now be more familiarized with HURS. It can be a powerful tool in assisting universities in Health Promotion. The significance of the workshop will be reflected in how universities will successfully utilize HURS and take what is learned, shared, and discussed to improve the life of students, lecturers, staff, and all involved university personnel in the ASEAN region.