The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Chancellor, Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, spoke at the recently concluded seminar entitled, “Micro-Credentials in Thai Higher Education: Opportunities, Challenges and Outlooks from ASEAN and Europe.” The event was held on 20-21 July 2022 at the Pullman Bangkok King Power Hotel in Thailand.
Dr. Bandalaria was one of the plenary speakers for Session 7 entitled, “ASEAN Case Studies.” Dr. Bandalaria discussed micro-credentialing in the Philippines. She shared about its various articulations, the early models of micro-credentialing at UPOU, the drivers for doing it, the current initiatives and models that are being done by higher education (HE) institutions in the country, the future plans and direction of the University of the Philippines (UP) and the UP Open University (UPOU), the quality assurance practices, and the various challenges and opportunities. During the breakout session, Dr. Bandalaria shared how micro-credentialing helped in addressing the manpower knowledge and skills gap in the Philippines, to be able to meet the huge manpower requirements of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. She also shared the role micro-credentialing plays in fulfilling the mandate of state-owned HE institutions to cater to the needs of the marginalized sector. However, she also acknowledged that there are still issues in communication and funding because micro-credentialing is a new term, thus, it is not yet widely and fully understood by its stakeholders.
Other ASEAN speakers also shared their experiences, practices and perspectives in micro-credentialing. They were Mr. Suresh Punjabi, Associate Dean (Executive & Professional Development), National University of Singapore School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (NUS SCALE); Mr. Datuk Shahul Dawood, Chief Executive Officer, Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp.), Ministry of Human Resources, Malaysia; of Malaysia and Dr. Diah Wihardini, Director of BINUS Global, Bina Nusantara University, Indonesia and Member of the SHARE ASEAN-European Expert Advisory Group.
The seminar was organized to address quality in HE from a new perspective, brought about by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It explored further the consequences of micro-credentialing to ‘traditional’ HE and opportunities to bridge HE with the industry’s needs, consequently, exploring the opportunities and challenges micro-credentials pose to Thai Higher Education and offered perspectives from ASEAN and Europe. The seminar also aimed to enhance the resilience of the higher education system in delivering skills-based outcomes, explore post-pandemic opportunities in international higher education cooperation between Europe and Southeast Asia, discuss opportunities associated with digital learning, and facilitate sharing of perspectives and good practices between Thai stakeholders and ASEAN and European peers on general higher education related matters of interest.
The seminar was organized by the European Union Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE); the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation of the Office of the Permanent Secretary of Thailand; and the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT).
The SHARE Programme is the flagship higher education programme of the European Union with the ASEAN and it has been at work since 2015 and will continue to run until the end of 2022. The SHARE Consortium is composed of the British Council, the DAAD, ENQA, and Nuffic. Its objective is to develop and achieve results in three main components such as policy dialogue, quality frameworks (QF) and quality assurance (QA), and credit-transfer and mobility.
SOURCES:
www.4lifelonglearning.org
“Micro-Credentials in Thai Higher Education: Opportunities, Challenges and Outlooks from ASEAN and Europe” Seminar’s Concept Note and Programme
Written by Pinky Halos
Edited by Myra C. Almodiel and Anna Cañas-Llamas
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