APEC CCHE 2012

Description 

Senior education and trade officials, academics, and private sector representatives from a number of APEC economies met in Vladivostok, Russia, on 9-10 July 2012, to discuss ways to enhance education cooperation within APEC. Conference participants recalled the outcomes from the 5th APEC Education Ministers Meeting (AEMM), where Ministers noted the critical role education plays in facilitating regional economic integration and enhancing prosperity among the APEC economies. Ministers acknowledged the need to continue developing strategies for collaborating among people, sharing resources, and building networks between institutions in APEC member economies, and noted the work of officials in exploring a number of proposals for research, information, capacity building and knowledge sharing in the field of education services. The total number of participants was 108, representing 11 APEC economies (Australia; Brunei; Hong Kong, China; Korea; Malaysia; New Zealand; Russia; the USA; Thailand; Philippines; Japan).

Results

These priorities will be presented to the APEC Ministers and Leaders at the AMM and AELM for consideration, after which they could be taken forward by economies on a voluntary basis through the HRDWG, the Group on Services, and other relevant APEC working groups.

1. Enhancing the mobility of students The mobility of students could be enhanced through closer cooperation on course accreditation and quality assurance. This could include benchmarking and identification of best practices for APEC economy course accreditation and quality assurance systems, as well as targeted capacity-building projects. This work could also include the development of models to guide reform and transparency, drawing on case studies of domestic education providers. APEC economies could also explore ways to increase the transparency of student visa regulations.

2. Enhancing the mobility of researchers The mobility of researchers could be enhanced by building on existing academic exchanges and joint research activities among education providers in APEC economies. APEC economies could also explore ways to improve the mobility of the academic and TVET workforce.

3. Enhancing the mobility of education providers The mobility of education providers could be enhanced with the exchange of best practices for market access, capacity building, mapping of existing regulations for the establishment of foreign providers, and benchmarking and identification of best practices in APEC on quality assurance system. The APEC Services Trade Access Requirements (STAR) Database, which by the end of 2012 will include information on requirements for the supply of higher education services through commercial presence, would be a useful tool for this work.

4. Increasing the interaction between higher education institutions This could include enlarging the existing network of bilateral agreements between universities into an APEC-wide voluntary mechanism; examining issues (including government policies where possible) related to the flexible design and delivery of educational content (such as online courses) between APEC economies and exploring the possibility of an APEC database of educational programs.

5. Increasing data collection on trade in education services APEC economies could share best practices and utilize the capacity building to enhance data collection on cross-border student and provider mobility in the APEC region, including estimates of the economic impacts and benefits of student and provider mobility. Such work could eventually facilitate the collection of cross-border education data and deeper regional economic integration through the identification of patterns of supply and demand in education and new opportunities for investment and innovative learning and teaching practices in APEC economies.