Regional focus as ASEAN joins global family of engaged universities

With the official launch on 7 May of AsiaEngage, a new regional umbrella organisation to promote higher education-community engagement, the international Talloires Network of engaged universities is strengthening its regional activities.

AsiaEngage encompasses the Asia-Talloires Network of Industry and Community Engaged Universities, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) University Network and the ASEAN Youth Volunteer programme.

This will allow the Talloires Network to better serve its communities on different continents, with their particular problems and characteristics, according to delegates at the "Regional Conference on Higher Education-Industry-Community Engagement in Asia: Forging Meaningful Partnerships”, held in Malaysia from 7-9 May. AsiaEngage was launched at the event.

As recently as a year ago the debate within the global Talloires Network was whether there were distinctly different ways for universities to engage with communities in the global South, with its many developing countries, and the richer North.

But because the economic crisis that has afflicted many developed countries has not affected the global South as intensely, growing regional universities networks in Asia, Latin America and the Arab world are beginning to look to one another for practical examples of how to engage with their communities to solve regional problems.

“A major and very important feature of the global [Talloires] movement is that there is a growing number of both regional networks and international coalitions devoted to elevating the community roles of higher education,” said Janice Reid, vice-chancellor of the University of Western Sydney and vice-chair of the Talloires Network, speaking at the AsiaEngage launch

As an economic powerhouse that is growing in both population and prosperity, “no doubt Asia will shape, inform and influence the nature of university engagement in the Middle East and South America,” Reid later told University World News.

“Asia has more in common with Africa, the Arab world and Latin America than it has with North America and Europe. But it is hard to predict what colouring or flavouring [of the Talloires global network] this could lead to.”

The new partnership between AsiaEngage and the Talloires Network means that any institution joining AsiaEngage automatically becomes part of the Talloires Network.

“This will expand the membership of both AsiaEngage and Talloires and enable both to better support the work of universities in Asia and reinforce the leadership of Asian universities in global forums,” Reid said.

A long way away, but sharing

The Talloires Network – named after the French town where it was launched in 2005, and headquartered at Tufts University in the United States – now has some 240 member institutions in 62 countries with a combined enrolment of six million students.

“The idea of a global network is great, but to be effective you need to recognise the diversity of the regions,” said Maria Nieves Tapia, director of the Latin American Centre for Service Learning in Buenos Aires, which is leading the Iberican-American Service-learning Network of more than 60 NGOs, government agencies and universities in the US, Latin America and Spain.

“I imagine the Talloires Network as a space where everyone can work on issues of importance in the region and also as an international space to exchange the fruits of what we have learned in the regions.

“In Latin America we are trying to build a regional identity. Many of our countries are not viable enough; the economy cannot provide enough jobs for young people if we do not work as a region.

“But regional integration will not be successful if it is only an economic process and universities have a huge role to play in this in helping, through research, our development, and active citizenship,” she said.

Although a long way from home, and almost the only one from the Latin American region attending the AsiaEngage event, “I felt at home here right from the first day of the conference,” said Nieves Tapia, who is also Latin America coordinator for the Talloires Network.

Important issues of sustainable development – such as the environment, food security, water shortages and the need to create micro-businesses – are very similar in Asia and Latin America, despite the different cultural contexts, she said.

“There is a lot in common. It’s not about whether universities are charitable or doing good deeds, but how we can together make sense of the knowledge we are building.”

Distinct issues

Nonetheless, the regional networks respond to their distinctive problems. The Talloires Arab affiliate, the Ma’an Arab University Alliance for Civic Engagement, was formed in 2010 and now has 12 member institutions.

It has a strong Arab Spring focus, tackling academic freedom, democratisation and reform of universities, and concentrating strongly on young people, their voices and their aspirations.

“Youth mobilisation is on the rise and many of the participants in the Arab Spring uprising in 2011 are university students and graduates. They are a microcosm of what is happening on a larger platform within the country,” said Sherine Al Traboulsi, a member of Ma’an, at a recent Talloires Network meeting.

“It is a time of major regional challenges, with universities being called on to contribute more directly to social and economic development. With all the changes in the region, universities have to engage during this call for revolution. The alliance allows them to share their common problems, and then to incorporate the community.”

The other regional networks are also strongly concerned with political and economic characteristics of their areas.

“We’ve always said the Asian way is different,” said Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, vice-chancellor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), which acts as the AsiaEngage secretariat.

“Unlike the Arab world, Asia has had benevolent dictators. Our leaders were elected, but they were elected again and again and again and they used the opportunity to do something for the country. I don’t think the Arab dictators did that,” said Sharifah, a member of the Talloires Network steering committee.

“However, in the Asian region there is still a lot of poverty and marginalisation of groups of people. There are rich countries in Asia, but even in the rich countries there are poor people. And there are countries with lots of resources but coming up, like the Communist states. So we do have a mission.”

In addition, South East Asian countries are moving towards an ASEAN community in 2015, which will provide common social and political goals for the region.

“Universities have a role in sharing the construction [of ASEAN] with the community,” said Nantana Gajaseni, executive director of the ASEAN University Network, one of the partner organisations working under the AsiaEngage umbrella.

Increased student mobility within the region is an aim of ASEAN education ministers, and universities believe that an important way to achieve this is to improve volunteering and community engagement opportunities for students, according to Kamal Mamat of the ASEAN secretariat.

The ASEAN countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Talloires support across the globe

Janice Reid said regional groups would also find support internationally through the global network. “We are supporting each other’s efforts because we are indeed natural allies,” she told the conference.

“Across the globe, the societies in which our institutions are situated are facing daunting economic, social and civic challenges. At the same time, on every continent something extraordinary is under way.

“Universities are mobilising their human and intellectual resources, and increasing numbers of university teachers, and their students are directly tackling community problems – combating poverty, improving public health, promoting environmental sustainability and enhancing the quality of life.

“Brick by brick, around the world the engaged university is replacing the ivory tower.”

She continued: “Imagine what the impact will be when a decisive majority of the 100 million university students in the world – a number that will grow to 200 million by the year 2030 – are educated to be not only competent in their chosen professions but also to become effective agents of change.”