The Asia-Europe Foundation had the privilege of participating in the 2nd EU–ASEAN Policy Dialogue: The Sustainable Connectivity Showcase on Higher Education held in Brussels, Belgium from 26–28 May 2025.
Convening policymakers, higher-education leaders, industry representatives, and international organisations, the dialogue provided a timely platform to advance strategic discussions on EU-ASEAN cooperation in higher education, with a particular focus on sustainable connectivity, innovation, and long-term partnership building.
The event opened with warm welcoming messages from the Malaysian Ministry of Education, ASEAN Secretariat, and European Commission. This was followed by an insightful keynote address on third spaces and the future of EU-ASEAN educational collaboration by Prof Emeritus Robert John COELEN, one of today’s foremost experts on international cooperation in education and research.
Throughout the policy dialogue, there were incredible panel discussions on current insights, trends, and developments in higher education, TVET, and skills recognition in both regions. A session was also dedicated to the important work of identifying synergies and aligning actions, specifically through developing proposals for Erasmus-supported programmes, frameworks for skills recognition, and graduate employment.
ASEF’s Education Department joined and contributed to a series of intensive workshops on strategic pathways for sustainable connectivity, focusing on mobility, skills and employability, and youth. These workshops explored:
- Actionable strategies to strengthen intra-ASEAN collaboration, with a focus on student mobility, skills alignment with market needs, and strengthening youth participation
- Areas for EU-ASEAN collaboration through exploration of good practices and lessons learned
Finally, the policy forum concluded with a session that wove together inputs gathered from the panel discussions and workshop series into a collection of proposed policy recommendations. This was followed by a closing message from the SCOPE-HE Programme’s Team Leader, Mr Frank FEULNER, extending his gratitude and acknowledgment to partners and participants, highlighting key learnings, and drumming up the next policy event in Malaysia.
The official policy brief of the 2nd EU-ASEAN Policy Dialogue is available to access here.
Our participation in this event is made possible through the framework of our work in the 10th ASEF Regional Conference on Higher Education (ARC10) Project.