On 24 January 2020, Beni Suryadi, Manager of Policy Research and Analytics Programme of the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), in his capacity as Programme Manager of the ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT) paid a courtesy visit to the ASEAN University Network (AUN), and met with Choltis Dhirathiti, Ph.D., AUN Executive Director.

AUN is a major higher education collaboration with most of the greatest success stories in ASEAN. It has come a long way since 1995 with leading universities in ASEAN working together. When the ASEAN Charter was signed by the Ministries of 10 ASEAN Member States in 2007, AUN became tasked as a key implementing agency of ASEAN in the Socio-cultural portfolio. AUN conducts programs and activities to encourage and promote higher education cooperation and development to enhance regional integration in achieving global standards. Our current activities are categorized into five areas covers (1) Youth Mobility, (2) Academic Collaboration, (3) Standards, Mechanisms, Systems and Policies of Higher Education Collaboration, (4) Courses, and Programmes Development and (5) Regional and Global Policy Platforms.

The AUN’s strategic focus built on those identified by ASEAN to facilitate regional cooperation in developing:

• To strengthen the existing network of cooperation among universities in ASEAN and beyond;
• To promote the collaborative study, research, and educational programs in the priority areas identified by ASEAN;
• To promote cooperation and solidarity among scholars, academicians, and researchers in the ASEAN Member States; and,
• To serve as the policy-oriented body in higher education in the ASEAN region.

Yielding concrete results from the cross-border collaboration is not an easy task, but under the leadership of Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti in the AUN Secretariat, it has been able to achieve its goals through its core member universities working with each other, working with its partners, and working with the AUN Secretariat. AUS is also the prime mover and strategic alliance for the advancement of higher education in ASEAN.

Building from the existing solid networks of AUN on the researchers in Southeast-Asia, AUN welcomed and supported the initiative from ACCEPT to engage the researchers to be more active in conducting the researchers that could be connected to the policy makers.

ACCEPT, as it aims to achieve the synergy on energy and climate change issues in ASEAN, is actively engaging various key stakeholders, including the universities and academic communities. ACCEPT views, as written by Dr. Hoyyen Chan, ACCEPT Senior Researcher, “Energy and climate education still missing in Southeast Asian universities”.

Through this collaboration, ACCEPT also call for interest for all researchers in the AUN circle to get involved in various studies supported by ACCEPT. In the long term, this collaboration is expected to strengthen the connection between ASEAN Policy Makers and its Academic Communities.