ARC7 Rectors’ Policy Recommendations
The 7th ASEF Rectors ‘Conference and Student´s Forum (ARC7) took place last 11-14 of May in Bucharest, Romania. The event brought together more than 150 university leaders, experts, and policymakers along with 51 student leaders from the 51 ASEM partner countries.
One of the major highlights of the conference was the Commitments by higher education institutions (HEIs) from both regions, and also proposed Policy Recommendations to feed into the deliberations and outcomes of the 7th ASEM Education Minister Meeting (ASEM ME7). You can take a look to both here: https://arc.asef.org/rectors-policy-recommendations/
The 7th ASEF Rectors´Conference and Students´ Forum invited Asian and European higher education and student leaders to share how their organizations contribute to policy development and take action towards the Agenda 2030. The attention was driven to three core areas: 1) Institutional governance, 2) societal impact, 3) international partnerships. In fact, it was a pleasure for the higher education community and the ARC7 to host several Ministers that recognized in their speeches the value of engaging students and rectors in the dialogue process.
The conference also explored how the university and student leaders from both continents can collaboratively work towards a desirable future for all. ARC7 explored three different dimensions of action to achieve SDGs:
- Taking action at home— SDGs as Core Pillars of University Governance
- Taking action at the community level— SDGs as Drivers of University Social Impact
- Taking action at the international level — SDGs as a Catalyst to Reorient Internationalization
In the framework of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Josep M. Vilalta, GUNi Director and Executive Secretary of the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) participated during the “Partnerships are crucial for achieving the SDGs: Should universities play a managerial or a participatory role?” along with the collaboration of Prof Dato´Dr Imran Ho Abdullah- Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Partnerships) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; Chair, University Social Responsibility and Sustainability Thematic Network, ASEAN University Network (AUN)- and Prof Joshi LOKESH -Vice-President for Research, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland.
