INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
ASEAN COMMUNITY 2015: CHALLENGES FOR COMMUNICATION
EDUCATION
THE ROLES OF COMMUNICATION EDUCATION IN
PROMOTING ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL
COMMUNITY: A MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE
BY
PROF DR ADNAN HUSSEIN
UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA
4 JUN 2013
OUTLINE

The ASEAN Community – An Introduction

ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Blueprint

The Role of Higher Education

Education Networks
 Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO)
 ASEAN University Network (ANU)

Trends of Global Education: Challenges

Communication Studies in Malaysia

Moving Forward

Conclusion
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN COMMUNITY: AN INTRODUCTION
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The ASEAN Leaders adopted the Declaration of ASEAN Concord II (Bali
Concord II) in Bali, Indonesia on 7 October 2003 to establish an ASEAN
Community by 2020.
ASEAN Community Goals
 The ASEAN Community shall be established comprising three pillars, namely
political and security community, economic community, and socio-cultural
community that are closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing for the
purpose of ensuring durable peace, stability, and shared prosperity in the
region.
To support this ASEAN is proactively and harmoniously guiding policies to
expand access to benefits in area of human, cultural and natural resources.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY:
THE BLUE PRINT
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In 2009, a blueprint was agreed upon, setting out strategic objectives to build a
caring, sharing and inclusive society with the well being, livelihood and welfare of
the people are in our hearts.
A central feature of this, rest in human resources development, social welfare and
protections, social justice and rights, ensuring environmental sustainability, building
the ASEAN identity and narrowing the development gap.
Through the cooperation areas of education, sports, cultural and arts, information,
labour, food, women, civil services, and science and technology, proposal for
providing the regions human capital needs, now and into the future, are shared
and plan are drawn up for region-wide implementation.
Also implemented are a wide range of cooperation in social welfare and
development, health, disaster management, ran down the haze, pollution,
environment and rural, development and poverty eradication
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY:
THE BLUE PRINT
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For the ASEAN socio-cultural community, policy and programmes must be people
oriented, and socially responsible and aim at achieving enduring solidarity among
the people and member states of ASEAN
The ASEAN Socio-cultural envisioned an ASEAN community, and identified with
high human development, strong social justice and narrowed development gap,
good social welfare, and environmentally sustainability.
Overall, for ASEAN to be an effective fulcrum for the region’s architecture for
cooperation and coordination ASEAN strive to into account all elements, views,
concerns and needs.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY:
THE BLUE PRINT

The 13th ASEAN Summit
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
Formulate and adopt The ASCC Blueprint ensures that concrete actions are
undertaken to promote the establishment of an ASEAN Socio-Cultural
Community
ASCC Education Objectives:
 creating a knowledge based society;
 achieving universal access to primary education;
 promoting early child care and development; and enhancing
awareness of ASEAN to youths through education and activities to
build an ASEAN identity based on friendship and cooperation.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY:
THE BLUE PRINT

Actions

in close collaboration with the Southeast Asia Ministers of
Education Organization (SEAMEO) and the ASEAN University
Network (AUN);
Promote and continue education networking in various levels of
educational institutions;
 Enhance and support student and staff exchanges and professional
interactions;
 Create research clusters among ASEAN institutions of higher learning;
and
 Strengthen collaboration with other regional and international
educational organisations to enhance the quality of education in the
region;

© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN COMMUNITY, THE PILLARS & THE
PLATFORM
ASEAN COMMUNITY
EDUCATION
NETWORKS
HIGHER EDUCATION
© Adnan Hussein 2013
THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
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Education underpins ASEAN community building
It lies at the core of ASEAN’s development process,
creating a knowledge-based society and contributing to
the enhancement of ASEAN competitiveness.
Education as the vehicle to raise ASEAN awareness,
© Adnan Hussein 2013
THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
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Higher education goals in ASEAN countries should strive
towards better understanding, promoting sense of
ASEANness, sharing of knowledge and expertise,
creating and promoting common core values and cultural
practices, creating harmonious and stable countries,
respect the sovereignty of each individual country,
greater sharing of cultural products and artifact, through
communication channels
Good and adequate knowledge of the diverse cultural
practices and beliefs.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

At the 11th Summit in December 2005
 to enhance regional cooperation in education, the ASEAN
Education Ministers identified four priorities that ASEAN
cooperation on education would address
 (i) Promoting ASEAN Awareness among ASEAN citizens,
particularly youth;
 (ii) Strengthening ASEAN identity through education;
 (iii) Building ASEAN human resources in the field of education;
and
 (iv) Strengthening ASEAN University Networking.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN EDUCATION NETWORKS
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Higher education needs to move beyond national borders.
The priorities of ASEAN cooperation on education would
be undertaken through collaboration with Southeast Asian
Ministers’ of Education Organisation (SEAMEO).
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN EDUCATION NETWORKS

Cross-Border Higher Education
Higher education needs to move beyond national borders.
 Requires cooperation between countries and agreements
between universities
 Use ASEAN dimensions as platform to develop cross-border
education initiatives
 Regional Credit Transfer System (SEA-CTS)
 Regulation / recognition framework should be developed
 Organizing summer workshops for academic exchange on
academic topics.

© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN EDUCATION NETWORKS
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Research and Innovation Collaboration between competent
research teams from multiple universities National and
international networking
Key Capacity Building needs quality assurance training
Intergovernmental Organisations
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Establish ASEAN standards for HEI’s including curriculum, equipment and
facilities
Revise curriculum and delivery modes in all programmes to meet labour
market needs
Promote academic exchange and student mobility
Develop regional quality control and assurance system Introduce a
mechanism for good governance and management of higher education
© Adnan Hussein 2013
ASEAN EDUCATION NETWORKS

The ASEAN University Network (AUN)
 The AUN was established to serve as an ASEAN mechanism to
 Promote cooperation among ASEAN scholars, academicians,
and scientists in the region;
 Develop academic and professional human resource in the
region;
 Promote information dissemination among the ASEAN academic
community; and, (iv) Enhance the awareness of regional identity
and the sense of ‘ASEANness’ among members
(www.aun-sec.org)
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Trends of Global Education Thrusts

Common Higher Education Challenges in Southeast Asia
 Generally `young’ universities with very limited teaching experience
 Ensuring equitable access for all students
 Geographic spread and diversity of universities
 Limited research expertise
 cope with meeting demand, need for infrastructure, larger teaching corps.
 Increasing competition for scarce resources, ranking, decline in academic
community.
 Policies and projects to respond to globalisation including mobility projects,
branch campuses overseas and inter-institutional partnerships
 English as the dominant language
 Benchmarks and standards required to properly evaluate unfamiliar foreign
qualifications
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Trends Of Global Education Thrusts

Mobility
 More than 2.5 million students studying out of their home country,
estimated at 7 million by 2020.
 Mostly South-North phenomenon.
 Challenge of making mobility available to all, to ensure equity.
 Call to expand programmes to include vocational placements and
lecturer programmes.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Trends Of Global Education: Challenges

Teaching, Learning & Curriculum
 Developing nations require specialists trained for science and
technology and strong leaders with generalist knowledge who are
creative and adaptable.
 Teaching and learning has a direct impact on completion rates.
 New professional related fields and diverse student populations
require academic support and innovative pedagogy.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Trends Of Global Education: Challenges
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
Quality Quality assurance, accountability and qualification frameworks

The need for internationally recognised standards among and between nations has
become urgent.
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Explosive growth of providers raises questions in regards to quality.
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Mobility has made comparability of qualifications a key area to be identified.

Need to integrate national, regional and international efforts.
Financing
 public-good versus private-good debate
 Education viewed as a major engine of economic development, so seen as a public
good.
 Governments can no longer keep up with demand, and provide free education.
 Increasingly seen as a private good, as individual students benefit, so they are being
asked to contribute.
 Growing emphasis on cost recovery.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Trends Of Global Education: Challenges

The Private Revolution
 30% of global higher education enrolment globally is in private
institutions.
 The privatisation of public universities. HEIs are being asked to
earn more of their operating expenditure.
 Can contribute to commercialisation and conflict with traditional
university roles.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Communication Studies in Malaysia

Higher Education in Malaysia

Mixture of public and private universities, colleges, foreign universities, polytechnics,
and community colleges

Aiming for World Class Status by 2020

7 Strategic Thrusts:
 widening access and equity
 improving quality of teaching and learning
 Enhancing research and innovation
 Strengthening higher education institutions
 Intensifying internationalisation
 Enculturation of lifelong learning
 Reinforcing delivery systems of the Ministry
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Communication Studies in Malaysia
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MALAYSIA suffered some setbacks with the breaking up of ministry of education
and minitsry of higher education.
SEAMEO is an initiative under the care of Ministry of Education. Hence the focus is
mainly limited to primary and secondary education.
Malaysian communication studies has not reacted positively to the ASEAN
Community vision, as it did Malaysian development goals in the early 1970s.
Given that the 1970s was a period of rebuilding in Malaysia, and a particular
conception of media role in development was the dominant orthodoxy
(Programme Standards: Media and Communication Studies, MQA, 2013).
No serious initiatives to incorporate ASEAN in the syllabus to promote ASEAN
Awareness.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Communication Studies in Malaysia

The recently concluded workshop on Malaysian
standard of communication studies programme,
made no particular mention about the need of
Malaysian communication studies curriculum to
incorporate ASEAN Community spirit.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Standard Communication Programme
Structure
© Adnan Hussein 2013
© Adnan Hussein 2013
© Adnan Hussein 2013
MOVING FORWARD
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Building ASEAN human resources in higher education, in particular among communication
scholars and practioners.
In line with ASEAN Education minister’s meeting in 2005, education sector in all ASEAN
countries should have ASEAN community in their high education curriculum. For instance, in
the field of media and communication studies, subjects on intercultural communication,
communication and culture, international communications, should focus or given special
emphasis on ASEAN cases, research etc.

Promoting Asian/ASEAN values

Knowledge on cultural practices, history, languages and common values practiced in the
ASEAN member countries
There is no doubt that education, will be the most important deciding factor on the success
of the ASEAN Community vision.
Ultimately, it is the quality of its education, and probably not its economic strengths, that
will define what sort of ASEAN as a community will be like in the year 2020.
© Adnan Hussein 2013
MOVING FORWARD
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Through ASEAN University Network, dean/head of
faculty/schools/programmes, and scholars of
communication in ASEAN countries, formulate a common
courses on ASEAN communication studies.
Training workshop on communication-related
professional practices
Collaborative ASEAN research
Teaching modules on ASEAN values
© Adnan Hussein 2013
THE CHALLENGE
Harvard’s President Charles Eliot
“... a university, in any worthy sense of the term, must grow from seed. It cannot be
transplanted from England or Germany (United States) in full leaf and bearing. ...
When the American (Asia Pacific) university appears, it will not be a copy of foreign
institutions, or a hot-bed plant, but the slow and natural outgrowth of American (Asia
Pacific) social and political habits... The American (Asia Pacific) college is an
institution without a parallel; the American (Asia Pacific) university will be equally
original…”
Quoted by Da Hsuan Feng (2013) Senior Vice President, Global Strategy,
National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu
© Adnan Hussein 2013
Planning and Evaluation
Terima Kasih
Maraming salamat
Kob Khun Khrab
Cám ơn
Aw ko-oon
Khawp jai
Chezu ba
Thank You
© Adnan Hussein 2013