In the previous issue of inspired, I touched on relationship-building as a means of achieving progress in higher education. I also shared how partnerships have laid the foundation for OUM to provide learning opportunities to people in diverse communities, and promote open and distance learning (ODL) as a viable pathway alongside conventional or mainstream options. Over the years, we have been privileged to work with like-minded partners in such countries as Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bahrain, Yemen, and more.

Having said that, I do believe we can facilitate more tangible, localised benefits by building relationships with our closest counterparts and neighbours.

As a nod to our Southeast Asian heritage, OUM ascribes special significance to our ties with other open universities in this region. Our membership in the OU5 group, for instance, is particularly meaningful as it gives us a unique opportunity to further the cause of ODL in Southeast Asia alongside the four other institutions that make up this group: Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU, Thailand), University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU, The Philippines), Universitas Terbuka (UT, Indonesia), and Hanoi Open University (HOU, Vietnam).

OU5 is small yet productive: for almost ten years now, the five open universities have cooperated in multi-country research and consultancy projects, sharing of data for comparative studies, and academic staff exchange.

OU5 would not exist if not for an idea that germinated back in 2009, when OUM, UPOU, and STOU decided to work together to share knowledge, ideas, and experiences in ODL through a dedicated journal. This has evolved into the ASEAN Journal of ODL (AJODL), which remains an active publication with 19 issues to date.

UT and HOU joined the trio later in 2015. One of the earliest initiatives taken by the newly formed OU5 was the joint development of the Master of ASEAN Studies programme, a postgraduate qualification currently offered at UPOU meant to promote global understanding of ASEAN countries’ common historical, cultural, and regional identity.

OU5 meets annually to discuss updates and share study findings. OUM hosted the most recent meeting right here in Malaysia, where research coordinators presented reports on current projects in innovative pedagogy, sustainable development, the Metaverse in effective learning design, indigenous people, and disaster management. In the coming months, the group plans to publish an e-book, and initiate new research on inclusive education, artificial intelligence, sustainable industrialisation, counselling, and preservation of Asian cultures in the digital age.

As a nod to our Southeast Asian heritage, OUM ascribes special significance to our ties with other open universities in this region.

Whether through OU5 or other avenues, the value OUM has put on collaboration stems from an awareness that, in the face of common goals and challenges, organisations would fare better presenting a united front, rather than isolating as individual silos. I personally believe that strengths can be lent from one to another, gaps and weaknesses can be addressed in unison, new opportunities can be shared, and threats or problems can be faced in a concerted way.

In higher education, specifically, collaboration is also a necessary starting point towards realising a regional framework for mutual recognition of qualifications and harmonised quality assurance (QA) standards.

Admittedly, this idea is not a novel one. The ASEAN QA Framework was established back in 2008 with the hopes of mirroring the Bologna Process in enabling mutual recognition of qualifications across the European Union. Though the Framework has been lauded as a major move towards encouraging regional sharing, it has yet to succeed quite like the European model, due mainly to inconsistencies in domestic QA mechanisms across Southeast Asia.

Nevertheless, I remain hopeful that this crucial initiative will not be abandoned. As I see it, harmonisation of qualifications is one of the best ways that all Southeast Asians, at least in terms of mobility and career development, can reap the benefits of collaboration in higher education.

From our vantage point in Malaysia, we see no reason to shy away from any opportunity to engender a more nuanced understanding of what different universities and countries need, and subsequently, identify the ways we can each harness our strengths to help fulfil those needs.

Given OUM’s experience, we could assist other institutions in setting up e-learning platforms, or implementing accreditation of prior experiential learning. In turn, we could certainly benefit from adopting best practices on catering to geographically disparate learners from institutions like UT, or on introducing inclusive study approaches for disadvantaged individuals and marginalised communities from institutions like STOU.

Ultimately, collaboration will always be part of OUM’s underlying philosophy that sustains our initiatives and activities, be it for improving teaching and learning, achieving operational excellence, and reaching out to the communities that we serve, or even those that we may not directly serve.

As an open university that strives to embody the open, borderless, flexible, and accessible qualities of ODL, OUM should endeavour to lend support to others, while remaining open-minded and humble about learning from others as well. This, I believe, is the essence of collaborative success.

I wish all inspired readers a wonderful and productive May semester.

Prof Dr Ahmad Izanee Awang
President/Vice-Chancellor