Regional Higher Education Conference

Regional Higher Education Conference
Strategic Choices for Higher Education Reform
Regional Higher Education Conference “Strategic Choices for Higher Education Reform” will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from December 3 – 5, 2007 under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and the World Bank.

The main objective of this conference is to share information on promising experiences with higher education reform across the Asian and Pacific Island and South Asian countries that emphasize ways of ensuring the quality of higher education outcomes, but also the importance of improving system and institutional governance and finance. Background

In early May 2007, the MOHE discussed the opportunity for a regional conference on higher education reform with World Bank staff from the East Asia and Pacific region. The MOHE expressed their strong interest in hosting such an event. A motivating factor for this conference was the critical importance of higher education in preparing Malaysia to become competitive in the global knowledge economy, as well as positioning Malaysia at the center of higher education discussions for the entire East Asia and South Asia regions. The timing of the event also coincided with the completion of an Economic Planning Unit/World Bank research paper on “Malaysia and the Knowledge Economy: Building a World-Class Higher Education System”. Countries in East Asia (Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam) and South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) have also expressed interest in World Bank assistance for higher education reforms. The confluence of events and interest expressed by clients across Asia has served as a catalyst for this conference.

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Participants

The conference is targeted at key government officials involved in the guidance and supervision of higher education, as well as top administrators of higher education institutions across East and South Asia. These target groups will include secretaries of higher education; leaders in higher and technical education including vice chancellors, university presidents, rectors, senior deans, registrars, and department heads. Representatives from the private higher education institutions and employers are also encouraged to participate.

Participants list MS Excel | Local Participants

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Focus/Themes

The conference will encompass the following main thematic areas in higher education:

1. increasing role that knowledge plays in national development;
2. governance of higher education systems and institutions;
3. linkages between higher education and the labor market;
4. the importance of quality assurance mechanisms and accreditation in higher education to ensure favorable learning outcomes, identify key competencies of graduates, and engender a system which permits labor mobility and recognition of qualifications;
5. financing and management of higher education;
6. effective linkages between universities and the national innovations system; and
7. the implication of borderless higher education on the region

The conference will highlight the need for improvements in the quality, relevance, efficiency, and flexibility of higher education systems in order to stimulate a country’s engagement with the global knowledge economy.