Development
The ASEAN University Network emerged from a highly ambitious idea of the ASEAN leaders and the ASEAN Subcommittee on Education (ASCOE) to establish an ASEAN University. A year after this idea was launched, it became clear that this would present too many problems concerning funding, location and leadership. Therefore, in 1994, it was decided that the founding of a network of existing institutions would be more feasible. In its early years (1995–1999), the AUN focused mainly on the sharing of knowledge and experiences and on small-scale student and staff exchange. As from 1999, the collaborative activities became more complex with programmes like joint curriculum development, cooperation in ICT and the establishment of sub-networks. This is not only the case for intra-ASEAN cooperation but also for the activities with the dialogue partners.
This also led to the establishment of a permanent secretariat in Bangkok in March 2000. Although there existed a secretariat since 1997, this secretariat was temporary. With the permanent office also came an increase in structural funding for the secretariat. In addition to the operating costs for the AUN secretariat, also the financial support for AUN activities increased substantially since 1999. In addition to a growth in financial terms, projects also became more comprehensive. In particular, the AUN Quality Assurance programme has very ambitious goals with consequences that transcend the disciplinary boundaries. This can also form a turning point in the sense that through such projects all members of the participating universities will be affected. Many of the current activities are focused on particular individuals of the universities, and many other students and staff that are not involved in activities are not familiar with AUN and its activities. Most exchanges and gatherings for instance, although successful, have been modest in its impact on the universities as a whole. An explanation for this lies in the top-down character of the activities, with a high involvement of the university’s central level (and in some countries the ministry level) and only modest involvement of the faculties.
Source: Beerkens, H.J.J.G. (2004) Global Opportunities and Institutional Embeddedness; Higher Education Consortia in Europe and Southeast Asia (PhD Dissertation). Enschede: Cheps/UT. Available at: http://www.beerkens.info/files/phd.pdf
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