(KPL) Two Laotian university members of the AUF (the National University of Laos (UNOL) and the University of Health Sciences) are taking part in the biggest regional forum dealing with higher education and research.

Held under the theme: Today and Tomorrow’s University in Pacific-Asia, the 12th Conference of the Rectors from the Member Universities of the Agence universitaire de La Francophonie (CONFRASIE) will take place on the 4th of April 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand.

About a hundred representatives of higher education and research establishments from Cambodia, the Republic of Korea, China, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, New-Caledonia, Thailand, Vanuatu and Vietnam will attend this remarkable meeting.

This conference will be an occasion for universities to exchange views on academic and research policies as well as the challenges that need to be faced, such as: the quality of training and research, employability of graduates and the universities’ social responsibility.

Six workshops will be held within this Conference in order to discuss the themes determined as the main issues for higher education and research in Pacific-Asia.

Those themes include: training, research and the challenges of a management focused on quality; innovation and the culture, practice and promotion of entrepreneurship; the university as an operator of local and global development and the partnership strategies; the university governance and the strategic plan of development within evolving environments; graduates’ employability as an answer to socio-economical challenges; the rectors’ conference serving the dialogue between actors from the academic world and the political world.  

“Doing so, we can agree on a lot of issues and this conference can help members to act together. The CONFRASIE is a major force in that it carries out projects as a group regarding for example the learning of and in French. If we are able to organize seminars and researches, we can create a reciprocal force. It is also a good thing for teachers and students from Laos to get out of their country in order to learn from our neighbours. We need to keep acting in this way because all of this will come to an end if there is no continuity, or no dynamic of cooperation,” said M. Phetsamone, Adviser for the National University of Laos (NUOL)’s President.

The CONFRASIE is a biannual event that has been organised since 1999. It is a place where representatives of academic establishments from several countries in the region can have exchanges on several topics.

It plays a major part in the identification and the promotion of possible fields of expertise among its members, as well as in the definition of strategic orientations in the field of higher education and research.

It also supports innovation in the field of academic governance of its member institutions through its offer of French-speaking expertise.

KPL