Introduction

Facing the rapid expansion and globalization of higher education throughout Asia and the Pacific, new quality tools are critical to ensuring equitable access to quality higher education for all. As the only UN agency with a mandate in higher education, UNESCO is well positioned to accelerate cooperation through the development of regional tools that strengthen quality assurance and promote the cross-border mobility of students.

With support from the Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust (KFIT), UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education is launching a new initiative to take stock of best policies and practices and develop guidelines for regional cooperation. The project, Developing Regional Quality Tools to Facilitate the Cross-Border Mobility of Students in Asia and the Pacific (KFIT Higher Education Project), will serve as a laboratory for the development of new resources and tools to promote cooperation and build capacity in higher education. The first priority of the KFIT Higher Education Project is to take stock of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) as a baseline for the development of regional guidelines, which will be drafted and introduced in 2016. The Expert Meeting in Bangkok will identify and deliberate on existing national and regional approaches to define the scope, values, and priorities of regional guidelines on NQF going forward.

In this regard, Member States in the Asia-Pacific region have made significant progress and contributions to the development of NQF in recent years. The initial goal of the KFIT Higher Education Project is to explore these norms and principles, as well as criteria to assess knowledge, skills, and attitudes of national practices and policies within the Asia-Pacific region. To do so, 11 Member States representing a range of different experiences within the region have been identified and invited to join the Expert Meeting on Developing Regional Guidelines on NQF (Bangkok, July 2015).

Through collective knowledge building, participants will guide the development of regional guidelines on NQF with the end goal of reducing barriers to recognition of foreign qualifications and boosting the cross-border mobility of students. Given the diversity of the region, there will be flexibility for Member States to localize norms, principles and common elements in their own national and institutional contexts. Through regional stocktaking and deliberation, the KFIT Higher Education Project will also advance UNESCO’s efforts to facilitate cooperation and the implementation of the Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications. 

The KFIT Higher Education Project will begin with a bottom-up stocktaking exercise to collect existing best policies and practices of Member States within the region. This effort will encourage key stakeholders to reflect on their successes and future plans for NQF as well as shape the development of guidelines for the Asia-Pacific region. This development process includes:

1. Taking stock of best policies and practices from countries that have already developed and implemented NQF

2. Developing regional guidelines to be used for capacity building of participating countries, especially those that have not yet developed their own NQF

3. Organizing country-level training workshops to support and reflect on implementation of regional guidelines

4. Promoting experience sharing in the implementation of regional guidelines among the participating Member States

5. Designating an open access online repository of best policies and practices on NQF

Objectives of the Meeting

• Introduce and launch the new KFIT Higher Education Project
• Take stock of the status, diverse norms and principles of NQF in Asia and the Pacific
• Develop a framework and proposed outline for national case studies to be completed in 2016
• Conduct a baseline analysis for drafting regional guidelines on National Qualifications Frameworks for the Asia-Pacific region

Key Outputs

• Synthesis report on best practices and policies of NQF in Asia-Pacific
• Finalized guidelines for national case studies on NQF
• Timeline for developing regional guidelines and conducting country-level training workshops to support implementation and piloting

Participating Countries and Stakeholders

The target groups for the Bangkok Expert Meeting are government Ministries, quality assurance officials and researchers involved in NQF at system and institutional levels. The invited Member States to participate in the initial stocktaking exercise and meeting include: 

• South Asia: India, Sri Lanka, Nepal
• Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand
• East Asia: China, Japan, Republic of Korea
• Pacific: Australia

Organisers and Donors

UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok, Thailand 

with financial support from the Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust (KFIT)

Dates  |  Venue

27-29 July 2015  |  Holiday Inn Bangkok Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand

For further information, please contact:

• Mr. Libing Wang, APEID Coordinator, Senior Programme Specialist in Higher Education, UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Bangkok 10110, Thailand; tel: +66 2 391 0577 ext. 212; fax: +66 2 391 0866; email: l.wang@unesco.org 

• Ms. Eunsun Lee, Associate Programme Specialist, APEID Unit, UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Bangkok 10110, Thailand; tel: +66 2 391 0577 ext. 204; fax: +66 2 391 0866; email: eu.lee@unesco.org

Resource

• Programme  [.pdf, 200kb]