THE Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) envisions a regional educational hub to actively promote higher education. "The time has come for countries in Southeast Asia to think in terms of a regional educational hub," says MQA Chief Executive Officer Datuk Dr Syed Ahmad Hussein.

The idea was broached at the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Quality Assurance Agencies Roundtable Meeting held recently in Kuala Lumpur.

Organised by MQA in collaboration with Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development, the meeting was attended by quality assurance agencies and ministry officials from Southeast Asia.

Representatives from Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam agreed to adopt the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of Asean Quality Assurance Network (AQAN).

The move to form AQAN was inspired by regional quality assurance agencies in Europe, Southern Africa, the Gulf States and South America.
AQAN hopes to promote an Asean caucus which facilitates closer regional collaboration in tertiary education in areas such as mobility, quality framework and capacity building.

To address the shortage of assessors in Southeast Asia, MQA has approached qualification agencies in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand to assist in developing a series of training courses for evaluators.

"This is one of the first few activities that we hope to conduct after the declaration on the formulation of AQAN has been ratified."

The next step is to implement AQAN and work towards the (Asean Quality Assurance) framework.

"Hopefully one day Malaysian undergraduates can study in Thailand through credit transfers," says Syed Ahmad.