Universities in ASEAN have been collaborating closely to encourage students mobility around ASEAN member countries. Member of a consortium, ASEAN University Network (AUN), with more than 30 members, are in close collaboration to make the idea a reality. We already have our credit transfer system called ASEAN Credit Transfer System (ACTS), where within the framework, students from ASEAN can study in different universities in ASEAN and the credit of subjects they take will be recognised by their home university. Universitas Gadjah Mada is a party to that system.
On 3 to 4 July 2017 I was assigned to represent Universitas Gadjah Mada in my capacity as the Head of the Office of International Affairs in a meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We discussed the progress and development of ACTS and each university had to present reports illustrating how they have implemented ACTS. It was interesting to observe that mobility of students in ASEAN needs a lot of improvement. We need more students traveling among ASEAN countries in order of young people to understand each other better. We are now facing ASEAN Economic Community so we need to collaborate. Collaboration without mutual understanding is impossible.
Btw, it was my second visit to Cambodia and it was fun. My message to ASEAN students: travel more and know your neighbours, please 🙂