AUN News

The Asia Universities Summit, 2022, was held at Fujita Health University, Japan, by Times Higher Education from 31 May to 2 June, with the theme “Facing the future, creating academic talent.” Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, the ASEAN University Network (AUN) Executive Director, was a keynote speaker at the summit, highlighting issues related to university leadership, governance and quality standardization.

On 17 May in Barcelona, the Global University Associations Forum (GUAF) was formally constituted. The Forum brings together representatives of university associations in Africa, the Americas, the Arab region, Asia and Europe. In light of this first successful physical meeting of Forum members, chaired by EUA and hosted by University Ramon Llull, the Forum released its first press release affirming the first meeting's focus in enabling international collaboration and exchange in higher education.

Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, the Executive Director of the ASEAN University Network, delivered his pertinent remarks at the roundtable discussion regarding Governance in Higher Education on Thursday, May 19, 2022. This session was a part of UNESCO World Higher Education Conference 2022 (WHEC2022).

In a first for Mahidol University, the Mahidol family and local community gathered on the Metaverse for the Healthy Mahidol in the New Normal. The Metaverse exhibit and health promoting activities drew in over 2,000 participants including university administrators, staff, and students representing 44 faculties, institutes/colleges. The event and exhibition was made possible with the financial support of the ThaiHealth.

Due to pandemic conditions, the 10th ASEAN+3 Heads of International Relations Meeting (IRO+3 Meeting) was redesigned to be a series of meetings comprising 4 “Working Groups in preparation for the IRO+3 Meeting” that culminated with a final meeting that presented the findings from the groups.

Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, AUN Executive Director, delivered his keynote speech at the University of Santo Tomas Model ASEAN Meeting (UST Model ASEAN Meeting) under the theme of “ONE ASEAN, ONE HEALTH: Overcoming COVID-19 Adversities through Regional Cooperation and Development”. The UST Model ASEAN Meeting was conducted by the UST Asian Studies Major on February 3rd-5th 2022 via Zoom Meeting Conference with the aim to improve the public awareness of ASEAN and its relevance to the community. Dr. Choltis put emphasis on the challenges faced by the education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of regional cooperation to push forward the development in the ASEAN region. He also laid the AUN’s concern for students to have the capacity to learn and be proactive with a strong sense of global citizenship.