A collaboration between Asean and the European Union (EU)’s Support to Higher Education in Asean Region (SHARE) is helping solve this. The second SHARE Policy Dialogue was held yesterday at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

The forum included the representatives of 10 Asean member states, the Asean University Network and six EU education agencies to foster the educational collaboration in Asean.

However, MR Kalaya Tiansabadh, Chulalongkorn University Office vice president, stated that in order to achieve the goal of educational connectivity and comparability across the region, the quality of the educational disparities must be addressed to allow for credit and grade transfers between the universities.

“The principle of this project is not new. We have been trying to promote collaboration with other universities in Asean and many of our students have already been sent to study abroad, but unfortunately due to the difference in academic quality, we could not transfer the credits from other universities,” Kalaya said.

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“This is the main problem that we are discussing and trying to reach an agreement on under the SHARE framework.”

Team leader Stephen Hell said that SHARE is a framework to support the internationalising of higher education in Asean by raising education quality, making the courses and degrees comparable, and encouraging students to study abroad in the Asean region.

“This ambitious project will help increase the employability of the graduates and enhance the competitiveness of Asean member states,” Hell said.

EU Ambassador to Thailand and Laos Jesus Miguel Sanz emphasised the importance of the connected education system that it was one of the essential factors for the integration of the EU and he was pleased to see a similar mechanism being built in Asean.

SHARE is supported by six EU educational organisations: British Council, German Academic Exchange Service, Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education, Campus France, European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and European University Association. It was granted 10 million euros (Bt39 million) financial support from the EU.