CRRU President Thosapol Arreenich (extreme left, partly shown) introduces UP President Alfredo Pascual to Thai university officials. Photo by Bong Arboleda.
The UP System Office of International Linkages (UP-OIL) hosted the 12th international conference under the Inter-University Cooperation Program headed by Chiang Rai Rajabhat University (CRRU) of Thailand.
With the theme, “Asian community knowledge networks for the economy, society, culture, and environmental stability,” the conference brought together researchers, experts, NGOs, and government and intergovernmental organizations to exchange ideas and build networks for understanding issues confronting the Asia-Pacific, the Greater Mekong Sub-region, and the ASEAN.
From June 6 to 11, 2016, around 180 participants from 25 institutions in more than four countries traveled to different locations in Metro Manila and nearby provinces to share 116 papers and to make historical, technical, and tourist visits, said CRRU President Thosapol Arreenich.
Parallel sessions were held to present papers on protecting migrant workers and marginalized sectors, integrating tourism development and standards in the region, protecting the environment, developing human resources, and strengthening institutions. Papers also updated participants on techno-scientific progress, climate change, renewable energy, health-care policy, and socio-economic and political challenges in the region.
The academic presentations began in Century Park Hotel and ended in UP Diliman with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between UP and CRRU for an exchange program. Arreenich and UP President Alfredo Pascual signed the MOU.
UP President Alfredo Pascual bids the international conference participants “Padayon” in their efforts to contribute to the well-being of the region as advocates, scholars and experts. CRRU President Thosapol Arreenich listens on the panel. Photo by Bong Arboleda.
Plenary highlights
UP and CRRU organized the conference in association with the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Kathmandu University (KU) of Nepal, and Huntington University of Canada. Top officials of the Thai embassy, CHED, CRRU, and KU delivered messages during the opening plenary.
Thai Ambassador Thanatip Upatising commended the expansion of the CRRU-led inter-university cooperation program to include 35 academic institutions, saying that networks can help transform knowledge into development action. Engineering Professor Bim Prasad Shrestha of KU cited the help of the academic network in dealing with the Nepal earthquake of April 2015 and its aftershocks.
In welcoming the participants on behalf of UP President Pascual, UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies Executive Director Edna Co reiterated the contributions of academia to solving development challenges: knowledge-sharing, collaborative interrogation, and cooperation.
CHED International Affairs Director Lily Freida Macabangun-Milla, speaking for CHED Chair Patricia Licuanan, gave an update on various CHED initiatives to work for ASEAN integration of higher education, participate in its planning, and internationalize Philippine higher education.
UP-OIL Deputy Director Aaron Joseph Villaraza, speaking on behalf of Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Rhodora Azanza, said the Philippines was an appropriate venue for the conference, “having served as the bridge between East and West for half a millennium.”
So was UP, which has played “a key role both in understanding, preserving, and promoting cultural diversity, between the different islands of the nation and the rest of the world, and in the transmission and exchange of ideas among different thought traditions,” Villaraza added.
True to its mandate to be the country’s global university, UP has had 351 academic partners across the globe. Recently, its collaboration with Tohoku University and Hokkaido University resulted in the construction of Diwata 1, the first ever Philippine microsatellite now encircling the globe.
For more photos of the event, please click through the album below.
