SOUTHEAST Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and The Head Foundation (THF) partnered in running the 2024 Leadership Development Program for Higher Education Institutions (LDP-HEIs) in Southeast Asia with 23 higher education institutions (HEIs) represented via Microsoft Teams.
SEARCA director Glenn Gregorio said this five-month hybrid program which kicked off on March 14, 2024 will run up to July this year with online and face-to-face sessions, including keynote addresses from renowned HEI leaders and one-on-one coaching sessions with thought leaders in HEI management and leadership.
Gregorio said the LDP-HEIs is now on its sixth run with 33 participants across six countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam composed of university presidents, faculty deans department heads and other HEI leaders with administrative positions.
He said the SEARCA-THF partnership for the LDP has been running since 2019 and annually receives significant interest and applications from HEIs across Southeast Asia.
In his opening message, Vignesh Louis Naidu, THF operations director, said tTHF's partnership with SEARCA has been "built based on the belief in the value of HEIs as key drivers of transformation and change in developing Southeast Asia.
"The goal is to empower HEIs to make the changes that will benefit not just the schools but the communities they serve and the communities around them," he added.
SEARCA deputy director for programs Nur Azura binti Adam said this learning event is an opportunity for the participants "to identify the role of HEIs and their interdependency with key stakeholders, explore potential collaboration with different universities, and become strategic-thinking leaders."
Kicking off on March 14, 2024, the first session featured program introductions and discussions about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis for the participants to reflect on and examine their own HEI context.
On March 21, the second online session with a keynote address about driving change in HEIs was given by Prof. Ismi Arif Ismail, deputy vice chancellor of academic and international of the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
According to SEARCA, the participants currently engage with asynchronous learning resources and assignments to help them prepare for the online sessions and reflect further on their leadership journey.
Anchored on a general theme of "Designing and Leading your University to a Desired Future," the LDP-HEIs participants will design and implement a Re-Entry Action Plan (REAP), a customized and contextualized plan tailored to their HEI.
Gregorio noted that in May 2024, the group is slated to convene face-to-face in Thailand for a three-day REAP pitching and refinement, site visits and guest lectures. He said the participants will then implement incremental improvements to their REAP and consult key stakeholders to enhance the design and implementation of their REAP and present their final REAP in July 2024 and share best practices to sustain change after REAP implementation.
The program is guided by the LDP faculty composed of seasoned experts including N. Varaprasad, founder and partner at Singapore Education Consulting Group, and the program's technical coordinator; Calvin Chan, Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) assistant provost (curricular and student matters); and Rebekah Lim, SUSS director of the Teaching and Learning Center.