The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and The Head Foundation (THF) kicked off the 2024 Leadership Development Program for Higher Education Institutions (LDP-HEIs) in Southeast Asia with 23 HEIs represented on 14 March 2024 via Microsoft Teams.
The participants, faculty, and organizing team at the opening program of the 2024 LDP-HEIs in Southeast Asia.
Now on its sixth run, this cohort is composed of 33 participants across six countries, including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. They are composed of university presidents, faculty deans, department heads, and other HEI leaders with administrative positions.
Dr. Nur Azura binti Adam, deputy director for programs of SEARCA, encouraged the participants to take this learning event as an opportunity to "identify the role of HEIs and their interdependency with key stakeholders, explore potential collaboration with different universities, and become strategic-thinking leaders."
The five-month hybrid program runs from March to July 2024 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.
The first session on 14 March featured program introductions and discussions about SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for the participants to reflect on and examine their own HEI context. In the second online session held on 21 March, a keynote address about driving change in HEIs was given by Professor Dr. Ismi Arif Ismail, deputy vice chancellor of academic and international, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
Keynote address on driving change in HEIs by Professor Dr. Ismail of UPM.
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. With a general theme of "Designing and Leading your University to a Desired Future," the LDP participants will design and implement a Re-Entry Action Plan (REAP), a customized and contextualized plan tailored to their HEI.
The cohort is slated to convene face-to-face in Thailand in May 2024 for a three-day REAP pitching and refinement, site visits, and guest lectures. The participants will then implement incremental improvements to their REAP and consult key stakeholders to enhance the design and implementation of their REAP. They will then present their final REAP in July 2024 and share best practices to sustain change after REAP implementation.
The LDP faculty provided some pointers on REAP as a major output of the participants.
The program is guided by the LDP faculty composed of seasoned experts: Dr. N. Varaprasad, founder and partner at Singapore Education Consulting Group, and the program's technical coordinator; Dr. Calvin Chan, assistant provost (curricular and student matters), Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS); and Dr. Rebekah Lim, director of the Teaching and Learning Center of SUSS.
"THF'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," said Mr. Vignesh Louis Naidu, THF operations director, in his opening message. "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.
The SEARCA-THF partnership for the LDP has been running since 2019 and annually receives significant interest and applications from HEIs across Southeast Asia.