ASEAN ROADMAP 2025 to realize a common higher education space in Southeast Asia

The ASEAN Secretariat, the EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE) Programme, and the members of the ASEAN Working Group on Higher Education Mobility (AWGHEM) officially launched the ‘Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025 and its Implementation Plan,’ on 27 July during 15^th SHARE Policy Dialogue.

The launch was officiated by Dato’ Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary-General of ASEAN; Dr Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Viet Nam; and Giorgio Aliberti, EU Ambassador to Viet Nam.

The Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space 2025 contributes to the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the strengthening of future resilience through enhanced people-to-people connectivity and improved access and recognition of higher education in the ASEAN region. It envisages a resilient and sustainable ASEAN Higher Education Space that enables greater harmonization and internationalization of the region’s higher education systems.  It is reflective of the new reality for education worldwide, and proposes adaptive and sustainable approaches in responding to the changing context of higher education. This includes augmenting access and inclusion to internationalized higher education provision by students through digital transformation.

At the launch, Secretary-General Dato’ Lim Jock Hoi, stated that, “the ASEAN Secretariat recognizes the crucial importance of synergy and working together to ensure efficient use of resources and maximize impact of our initiatives in the region. The Roadmap on the ASEAN Higher Education Space and its Implementation Plan is also our attempt to synergize our work, consolidate our efforts, and appreciate the valuable work that has been done by the ASEAN Member States and regional partners on implementing a common higher education [space] in Southeast Asia.”

The SHARE Programme was launched in 2015. SHARE is the European Union’s flagship higher education programme with ASEAN and has worked alongside the ASEAN Secretariat and regional partners to strengthen regional cooperation and enhance the quality, regional competitiveness and internationalization of ASEAN Higher Education institutions and students.

The 15^th SHARE Policy Dialogue, entitled ‘Envisioning the Future of a Higher Education Common Space in Southeast Asia,’ is co-hosted by the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam and is organized in partnership with the Education, Youth, and Sports Division of the ASEAN Secretariat, SEAMEO RIHED, the ASEAN University Network, and UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education.

Asian Journal of Communication: The voice of communication theory, research, and education in Asia

By Peng Hwa Ang, Editor, Asian Journal of Communication

The Asian Journal of Communication is the flagship journal of AMIC. It was founded in 1990 by Professor Emeritus Eddie Kuo of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the late Anura Goonasekera, who was then Head of Research at the Asian Media Research and Information Centre, which later became AMIC.

They were visionary because communication as a field in academia was in its infancy in Asia. Since then, as the field of communication has grown and flourished, so has the journal. Today, it is published by Taylor & Francis and its annual revenue helps support the AMIC secretariat in Manila.

The Journal is jointly owned by NTU and AMIC. My colleague Xiaoming Hao took over as editor from Eddie Kuo in 2010. I was handed the editorship in 2019 when Hao retired. NTU’s support has been and continues to be substantial. Although it is entitled to half the royalties, it has not collected a cent; instead, I am given a course waiver as editor and a doctoral student is assigned as an editorial assistant.

Last year, we received some 450 submissions and this number looks to increase. Unfortunately, we can only publish fewer than 10% of the submissions. The high quality as a result of this filtering is a rising impact factor, currently at 2.074. If the joke about academic writing is that only the author’s mother reads, an IF of more than 2.0 suggests that someone other than the author’s mother is reading the journal. That’s heart-warming.

The rise of the impact factor could be attributable to the pandemic, when we, along with many other quality journals, received more submissions and citations than the year before. But it may also be due to our attempts to promote authors’ works over Facebook and Twitter. Our social media editor, Earvin Cabalquinto (Deakin University), has been instrumental in ensuring that every published article gets due exposure in those platforms.

Many of our authors are junior scholars, which augurs well for Asian communication scholarship. But they also need some handholding. For example, I have taken it on myself to go over manuscripts and edit them for readability.

The Journal continues, in the vision of the founders, to be a voice of Asia in communication. Being a journal oriented to a region, it would be pointless to try to “compete” globally. In fact, I have directed articles from my friends and colleagues to more internationally-focused journals.

So what is the Asian focus of the Asian Journal of Communication? The Journal is focused on theory. That is, submissions must critique, refine or extend theory. Merely confirming a theory is not enough. Using Asia as a test-bed or a source of data to confirm a theory is not enough. There must be contribution to theory and with an Asian connection. This is thought leadership with an Asian perspective.

For example, we have a special issue on anti-Asian racism. Interestingly, the associate editors advised that the guest editors should also include intra-Asian racism, that is racism by an Asian against another Asian.

Also in progress is one on Islamic communication research, led by Indonesian researchers. In Indonesia, academics in Islamic universities are calling the politicians to account. They are using Islamic norms on probity to address such issues as corruption. I thought it was important to bring to larger attention the contribution of our colleagues with a different tradition and background in communication.

The perspectives and approaches in Islamic communication research would, I imagine, be different from those we are familiar with in Western communication research. Such differences reflect the diversity in Asia and can only enrich our understanding of communication.

In the Western convention, many of the articles are quantitative, given  the centre of gravity in communication being the US. But I note that many Asian scholars write scholarly essays. I have appointed an associate editor, Terence Lee (Sheridan Institute), to consider such scholarly essays.

In the next issue, I will answer the commonly asked questions of how to get published in the AJC.

Media Asia marks 50th year in 2023

By Danilo Araña Arao
Editor, Media Asia

Volume 50 in 2023. Next year is an important milestone for Media Asia as the quarterly peer reviewed journal marks its golden anniversary.

As of this writing, there are 18 accepted manuscripts lined up for next year, 17 of which have already been published online under the journal’s “online first” system. The editorial team has also planned the themes and sequencing of articles for the March and June 2023 issues and has started to line up articles for the September 2023 issue.

That the journal is publishing its issues ahead of schedule is due to the respectable turnaround time in handling manuscripts. Based on those included in Volume 49 (2022) and lined up in Volume 50 (2023), the average turnaround time from submission to online publication is 247.95 days for refereed Original Articles. As regards non-refereed Editorials, Commentaries and Reviews, it is pegged at 49.35 days.

Most submissions from 2020 to 2022 already have final editorial decisions (i.e., Accept, Reject, Withdrawn). There are only a few pending manuscripts submitted in 2020 (0.00%), 2021 (2.86%) and 2022 (13.43%). This means that only one out of every 10 submissions is currently being revised, edited or evaluated.

For manuscripts with final editorial decisions submitted so far from 2020 to 2022, the journal’s acceptance rates are computed at 10.57% for refereed manuscripts and 41.97% for non-refereed ones.

Based on the full calendar year data, new manuscript submissions increased by 209.68% in 2020 and 191.67% in 2021 compared to the respective previous years. For the full calendar year of 2022, the number of submissions is projected to be the same as 2021 even if there were no new calls for papers in 2022.

As the journal marks its 50th year in 2023, the editorial board remains committed to further improving the journal’s reputation globally.

The journal’s editorial board is composed of nine women and three men who are based in nine locations in Asia, Europe and North America. At present, the Editor is Danilo Araña Arao (University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines). The Associate Editors are Lisa Brooten (Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA), Roselyn Du (California State University Fullerton, USA), Paromita Pain (University of Nevada Reno, USA), Ma. Theresa M. Rivera (Far Eastern University Manila, Philippines) and Nick Y. Zhang (Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong). The members of the Editorial Advisory Board are Sarah Cardey (University of Reading, UK), Ataharul Chowdhury (University of Guelph, Canada), Minjeong Kim (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea), Eunice Barbara C. Novio (Vongchavalitkul University, Thailand), Sheau-Wen Ong (Wenzhou-Kean University, China) and Deborah N. Simorangkir (Swiss German University, Indonesia).

Published since 1974, Media Asia is a peer reviewed quarterly journal that focuses on practices in journalism, advertising, public relations, entertainment and other aspects of media in Asia. It publishes relevant media-related studies in Asia like freedom, ethics, working conditions, ownership, campus press, community press, corporate media, alternative media, literacy, language and culture of impunity.

AMIC to host Talk ASAP – Asia-Africa & the Pacific Dialogue

Asia and Africa experience many common media issues and concerns but there is no platform for sharing of lessons and experiences in addressing these issues.

To fill this gap, AMIC has adopted Talk ASAP – ASia-Africa & the Pacific Dialogue as its theme for the AMIC 29^th Conference scheduled in 2023, said AMIC Secretary-General Ramon Tuazon.

He said countries in Africa and Asia-Pacific share many commonalities.

For example, many countries in both continents experience poverty amid bountiful human and natural resources. These countries have to address political and economic inequities.

At the same time, they share some common positive developments: expanding democratic space, women empowerment, and greater freedom of expression.

According to Statista (see report here), majority of the emerging and developing countries are from these two continents (i.e., 29 from Asia and 22 from Africa). As of 2020, the combined population of these two continents represent 77% of global population.

Talk ASAP is envisioned as a comprehensive AMIC program in cooperation with  Asian and African-based partners.  The 29^th Conference will jump start the program. Other program components are the following: Offline/online forums (including seminars/webinars) and training courses, collaborative research and development, joint publications and exchange (e.g., online/offline books and journals), and faculty/scholars/students exchange.

According to Tuazon, the pioneering dialogue between the two continents was the 1955 Asian-African Conference popularly known as the Bandung Conference. 

To celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, the Indonesian government hosted in 2015 a series of commemorative events, including the Asian-African Summit. Two related initiatives were the Africa-Asia  University Dialogue for Educational Development in 2004-2007 and the Africa-Asia Dialogue Network (AADN) held in November 2021. No forum was held to discuss common communication media issues.

The Annual Conference is AMICs flagship program. It features plenary and parallel sessions. It is hosted in rotation by countries across the Asia Pacific region. Recent conferences were held in Vietnam, Thailand, India, Philippines, and United Arab Emirates.

Over 500 resource persons and participants, mostly coming from Africa and Asia Pacific, attend the annual event. They come from the academic community, journalism/news media sector, other communication and ICT professions and government information offices.

Among the proposed topics for plenary and parallel sessions are the following: State of freedom of expression and of the press; safety and protection of journalists; priority areas for news reportage (e.g., poverty, corruption, sustainable development); journalism education: challenges, opportunities, and trends; mobilization of community media for civic engagement; media and information literacy for sustainable development and intercultural dialogue; and Communication for Development (C4D).

According to SG Tuazon, there will be simultaneous plenary and parallel sessions in Asia and Africa.

AMIC is currently negotiating with two higher education institutions from Asia and Africa as co-hosts.  UNESCO will be invited as lead partner. Africa is one of the two global priorities of UNESCO. The other priority is gender equality.

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