Background

Since the end of Indochina’s devastating 30-year- battle in 1975, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia have been making immense efforts to develop their respective countries, in order to catch up with the development trend of the other South-East Asian countries. As a consequence of the serious conflicts in the peninsula, there were innumerable drawbacks: a high rate of poverty, an extremely high rate of analphabetism, high mortality rates for vulnerable groups of people, low life expectancy, food insecurity, and almost non-existent public utility.

In the period of reconstruction an economic model of central planning was introduced and adopted in Laos that was characterized by collectivisation of agriculture in the form of agriculture cooperatives and nationalisation of all economic entities (state-owned farms and enterprises). After one decade, in 1986, following the trend, especially of former socialist countries, the notorious NEM policy (New Economic Mechanism or PIANE PENG MAI) was adopted by the Government of Laos. Market economy was introduced and a series of changes took place: decollectivisation of agriculture, privatisation of farms and enterprises, household-based production units with usufruct land ownership. Since 1995, the economy has been more and more liberalised; and the development strategy of creating a business environment that can attract domestic and foreign investments was initiated.

Comparative advantage-based economic development would be, for example, the basic principle of conceiving development any project; harnessing the country’s natural resources, exploiting the mineral deposits, electricity generated from hydro-potential energy, land-linked locality advantages that are currently prioritised for development of corridors, e.g. EWEC, the Indonesia-China Corridor through Laos as a gateway to ASEAN countries, which is now being constructed, or the high speed train railway.

The need to exploit the resources sometimes becomes, however, abusive, thus restricting the chances of future generations. As a consequence, the economic growth has been fluctuating, i.e. could not be kept in steady pace, making Laos still lag behind its goals. The HDI ranks Laos at the lower part of a medium-income country, with the value of HDI accounting for small progress and, in some years, regress as well. It could hardly be said the development pattern adopted resulted in sustainability.

In the education sector, the first and the most prioritised strategy during the late 1970s; in the first five-year plan, was Education under the headline “EDUCATION, ONE STEP FORWARD BEFORE ALL” which was officially declared by the first Minister of Education in the new regime. All the resources were mobilised to eradicate the analphabetism of Lao people under 30 years. Nowadays, the literacy rate of Lao people is 72%. Under the Multilateral Agreement Assistance Scheme (MAS) during the 1980s, many study opportunities were offered for graduates from high schools to enroll in oversea study programs; especially in former eastern European countries including East Germany and Russia, and also in China and Vietnam.

This signifies that internationalisation has always been emphasised in the development process; improving the quality of education, especially that of vocational and higher education. Nowadays, internationalisation for Laos means to network with educational institutions in the region and globally, as well as developing study programs which are taught in foreign languages. An example of networking in the region is ASEAN University Network (AUN), and internationally, the collaborations with European universities under the ERASMUS+ programme are to strengthen the capacity for improving, in particular, the Higher Education Institutions in Laos.

This internationalisation is to help Laos achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the field of education – a great challenge. The SDG for Laos consists of 18 goals of which the numbers 4 and 17 relate most directly to education. SDG4, improving the quality of teacher education, deals with access to quality education including inclusive and equitable access, life-long learning opportunities, and developing skills and entrepreneurship for economically active people. These are very relevant to the present issues Laos is facing. SDG17 is about the internationalisation of higher education, partnership development, capacity building and technology sharing. Indirectly, all the 18 SDGs are related to the work of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), since the human resources who are needed to attain the SDG’s goals are trained by HEIs.

The symposium on Sustainable Development and Internationalisation of Higher Education addresses these issues and is co-hosted by two Erasmus+ partners. The plenary session opens the symposium with 2-3 speakers. Then five parallel strands follow: (1) Social Development, (2) Economic Development, (3) Environmental Issues, (4) Sciences and Transition Technology and (5) Educating the Global Citizen. These strands are also co-chaired by the Erasmus+ partners. Accepted applicants will present their papers in the strands. The deadline for submissions of abstracts is 30^th May 2019 ( Abstract submit extension by 30th June 2019 ) and for submission of the full papers and or PowerPoint presentations 31^st July 2019.

Send your abstract and specify the strand to the coordinator Mr.Phoutthavong SENGSOURIYA by email: skulaos10years@outlook.com or visit our website to submit your paper by clicking here .