27 April 2022

AUN ED presented challenges and opportunities in a state of disruption towards higher education to ASEAN delegates for Y20 Summit 2022

By
AUN Writer Team

By Salsabila Nurul Falah, AUN Intern

  • ASEAN delegates for Y20 Summit 2022 held a kick-off event “ASEAN Y20 Focus Group Discussion: Harnessing The Power of Youth Voices” on 16 April 2022. The event aims to discuss the 4 (four) tracks of Y20 Summit 2022 with the high-level speaker and youth leaders from the ASEAN member states.
  • Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, Executive Director of ASEAN University Network (AUN ED), delivered his remarks as a speaker and highlighted the current situation faced by higher education institutions and the obstacles and opportunities for young people in assisting the development of higher education.
  • In his speech, Dr. Choltis also explained several issues that are widely experienced bystudents and young people; some of which can be included as part of the concerns for the delegates of Y20 Summit to discuss this year.

On April 16, 2022, the ASEAN Delegation for the Y20 Summit 2022 held a pre-summit event in the form of the ASEAN Y20 Focus Group Discussion entitled “Harnessing The Power of Youth Voices” with the aims to discuss the 4 (four) tracks of Y20 Summit 2022 together with high-level speakers and youth leaders from the ASEAN member states. The Executive Director of ASEAN University Network, Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, delivered his remarks as a speaker and highlighted the current situation faced by higher education institutions and the obstacles and opportunities for young people in assisting the development of higher education.

Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti conveyed that nowadays higher education in the ASEAN Region is in a state of technological disruption and repositioning. Coupled with the current global pandemic, the situation serves as an important factor as well as a challenge in changing teaching and learning methods along with how higher education institutions work together. Indeed, higher education institutions that are more adaptive and resilient to counter and overcome these challenges will likely be able to get back on track more quickly. They are also likely capable of repositioning themselves in the international higher education field.

The AUN Executive Director highlighted several opportunities that could be taken from this state of disruption and repositioning of technology to develop higher education. One of such opportunities is internationalization in which the level of academic mobility can also increase for inbound and outbound students and academics in the region. In addition, the current state of ASEAN higher education and the pandemic can also lead to pedagogical developments where there is an evaluation related to traditional teaching and learning methods. Moreover, current circumstances surrounding ASEAN higher education can also lead to more collaboration between institutions in the wider area.

Dr. Choltis also brought up some of the regional challenges in developing higher education in the region, including the different levels of capacity and commitment to regional initiatives, consensus, policies, or declarations from each ASEAN member state. As each still upholds a different approach and level of commitment to the cause, combined with different levels of socioeconomic development and government support in each member state, such circumstances serve as one of the major challenges to the development and harmonization of higher education in the region.

At the end of his speech, Dr. Choltis mentioned several other challenges such as the problem of inequality that can hinder the capacity of the students to carry out virtual learning. Another problem mentioned was related to the teaching and learning process in which some learning processes cannot be replaced by online classes to maintain and achieve the expected learning outcomes. These issues are widely experienced by students and young people and can be one of the concerns for the delegates of Y20 Summit to discuss this year.