From 3-5 June 2018, the Intermediate Senior Officials Meeting (ISOM) took place with almost 150 participants from Europe and Asia: senior officials, stakeholders and rectors of Indonesian universities. The ISOM was succesfully hosted by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (MORTHE) of Indonesia in the prestegious Fairmont hotel in Jakarta.
Introduction
After the welcoming words by the ASEM Education Secretariat, HE Mohamad Nasir, Minister of Research Technology and Higher Education Indonesia (MORTHE) provided the participants an introduction in the realizations of the Indonesian Higher Education in ASEM and in international cooperation and mobility as well as Indonesian programs on innovation and business engagement in education and the structure of TVET in Higher Education.
The ASEM Education Secretariat provided a short overview of the start-up of the Secretariat and the ASEM Education initiatives between the ASEMME6 and this ISOM, with a focus on the conclusions of the TVET Seminar in Latvia.
For the plenary morning session, external experts, partners and stakeholders were invited to provide the participants more insights in different topics under the four ASEM Education priority areas, each starting from their specific expertise and experience. The aim of these presentations was to provide participants ‘food for discussion’ for the thematic afternoon workshops to explore common challenges, ambitions and aspirations for future collaboration.
Plenary Session on ‘Quality Assurance and Recognition’ and ‘Balanced Mobility’
In the first plenary session, Prof. Intan Ahmad, DG of the Learning and Students Affairs of MORTHE brought the participants more insights in the Quality Assurance System of Indonesian Higher Education and the Indonesian Mobility Program with its challenges and recommendations for the future. Magalie Soenen, from the expert group on Regional CreditTransfer Mechanisms and Learning Outcomes provided a presentation on the new structure of and the timing for a renewed compendium for which the support of all ASEM partners is requested.
Mr. João Pinto, President from the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) presented an overview of the tasks and achievements of the ESN and gave the participants some ideas on how such a network could contribute to a better balanced mobility by supporting exchange students in Asia. Strategies for better mobility between Asia and Europe, from the perspective of the Asia-Europe Institute were presented by Dr. Nurliana Kamaruddin.
Plenary Session on ‘Lifelong Learning including TVET’ and ‘Engagement of Business and Industries in Education’
The second half of the morning sessions started with a the presentation on the strategic program of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education for strengthening the Indonesian innovation system, by Prof. Jumain Appe from the MORTHE.
In order to explore opportunities in ASEM Education on collaboration, 2 external experts were invited. Manuela Prina from the European Training Foundation, introduced the participants in the participatory approach for the analyses of VET policies supported by ETF in European and Central Asian countries, better known as the ‘Torino Process’. Rauza Shirgitova from the Ministry of Education in Kazachstan concretized this framework with a presentation of the experience from Kazachstan. To close this session, Claus Holm of the ASEM Lifelong Learning HUB provided a presentation the strategic objectives and the future role of the ASEM Lifelong Learning HUB.
Workshops
In the afternoon, all participants were actively engaged in 2 workshops: one workshop combined the themes ‘Quality Assurance & Recognition’ and ‘Balanced Mobility’ and another one ‘Engaging Businesses and Industries in Education’ and ‘Lifelong Learning Including TVET’. In both workshops, the experts from the morning session participated as panelists. In the workshop on Quality Assurance and Balanced Mobility, the experts deepened the content from the plenary session and there was some room for questioning and discussion between the participants and experts. The workshop on Lifelong Learning and TVET started by questioning the panel experts followed by in depth discussions on particular questions in smaller groups: each group of participants received a question to discuss. The experts guided the discussion tables and provided feedback of the discussions in plenary.
Concluding Plenary session (Day 2)
The outcomes and conclusions of both workshops were presented on the 2nd day in the morning. A report with the conclusions of the workshops will be published soon.
Further on, the plenary session on the 2nd day provided room to discuss further on content (based on the feedback of the workshop) as well as operational procedures for future meetings, initiatives and the ASEM Education Secretariat. Mr. Friedrich Faulhammer from the Danube University Krems, the host institution for the SOM1 in Austria, presented the venue for the SOM1 in October: the Danube University for Continuing Education. The Ministry of National Education Romania announced, as host, the dates of the SOM2 and the ASEMME7.
This successful intermediate senior officials meeting was closed by Prof. Ainun Na’im Secretary General of the MORTHE who gave a good overview of the conclusions of the ISOM, which can be read in a summary report that will be distributed soon to all participants, and will be made available on this website.
The links below redirect you to the documents of the ISOM.