From 25 April to 4 May 2013, Assoc. Prof. Chailerd Pichitpornchai, M.D., Ph.D., President of STOU, led a delegation to Indonesia to strengthen collaboration efforts with various universities in Indonesia and the region.

On 26-27 April, Dr. Chailerd, along with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Porphant Ouyyanont from the School of Economics and Ms. Rattip Phukkeson, Head of International Affairs, participated in a meeting of five open universities in Southeast Asia in an ongoing effort to create a joint international program in ASEAN studies. This was the 10th meeting of the universities, which include STOU, Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia), University of the Philippines Open University, Open University Malaysia (Malaysia) and Hanoi Open University (Vietnam). Course production is currently underway, with each university responsible for different subjects.

During the above meeting, Dr. Chailerd signed MOUs with three of the universities: Universitas Terbuka, University of the Philippines Open University and Hanoi Open University. The other university at the meeting, Open University of Malaysia, has already signed an agreement with STOU. These agreements have the concrete goals of increasing collaboration among ASEAN countries in the areas of developing curricula and educational materials, research cooperation, and the exchange of students, faculty and staff. The MOUs will also encourage the sharing of research information and benchmarking data among all five of the participating open universities.

 

On 29 April, Dr. Chailerd and Ms. Rattip met with Prof. Tian Belawati, Rector of Universitas Terbuka (UT), and a team of administrators to exchange knowledge and experiences regarding internal and external educational quality assurance. The visit also included an opportunity to observe various university operations.

From 30 April to 3 May, the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning (ASAIHL) 2013 International Conference was hosted by Universitas Airlangga in Surabaya, Indonesia. On the first day, Dr. Chailerd and Ms. Rattip attended the international office meeting on the topic “International Ranking vs. International Recognition” to discuss the importance of global recognition and acceptance for universities. On the following day, Dr. Chailerd and Ms. Rattip were joined by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suree Khemthong, Dean of the School of Management Science, in attending the main conference for three days. The theme of the conference was “Advancing Collaborative Strategy for Achieving Excellence” and topics included teaching and learning management, research, the use of ICT, educational quality standards and student mobility.

On 3 May, Dr. Chailerd, Dr. Suree, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chow Rojanasang and other STOU staff visited STIE Perbanas, a higher education institution in the field of business and banking, also located in Surabanya. During the visit, the two parties discussed preparations for the 3rd International Conference on Business and Banking, to be held in Thailand in 2014.