Proactive move

Happy Monday na ka. I was far too active last week to write and now I'm getting a cold that has resulted in losing my voice.....good thing I still have some energy to type ka!

I was invited by one of our leading universities in Thailand to discuss freely how the university should lead to become proactive.

Some of the key things I learned na ka:

- We learned about how Lee Kwan Yew school of public policy managed being truly autonomous with huge endowment fund of about US$300 million: very high salary with bonus, prevention of conflicts of interest through contract and HR support, effective process of recruitment (short, negotiable, use of headhunters and poaching, etc.), support to have organized training on teaching and learning from NUS's center for developing teaching and learning.....teach to transmit, not translate issues/knowledge, investment in graduate studies, etc.

- Almost, if not all, agreed that the faculty members were the key to university development and that this was the group that effective communication was mostly needed.

- A remaining challenging question was how to handle outdated curriculums that no longer responded to the real needs....yet, senior professors tended to hold on to them??

- Leadership, governance, Flexibility in administration,  with less specialization could be key to the university growth. Stanford sees itself not offering specific undergraduate degrees in the next 6 years, which means it plans to tear down the walls among faculties so students benefit from taking a variety of courses of their interest and usefulness.

- We're very much used to the world of 'template' but using it wisely by making it broad enough to fill in individual differences may become useful.

 

- Lacking the link about the big picture of the university management poses challenges.

- Teaching with passion is the best way to convey issues and attract attention from the students.

- Proactive search for potential students was crucial.

- Still very important was the sending of young faculty abroad.

- Internationalization was raised (envi, more teaching in English, encourage various nationalities to attend) and I couldn't be happier though I think understanding about IZN needs to be reached to ensure meaningful implementation!

This was the first of the series this university wishes to do so I hope it will be able to form some solid ideas for more actionable approaches ka.

My first interaction with Bhutanese

Dear all, Hope you're enjoying your day ka.

My day starts a little later with some family business to tend to and now I have some time to prepare several presentations I have to give this month.

Today, I'd like to share with you about my session with Bhutanese university administrators who  ka.

My talk was on internationalization and as usual, I combined some quality/EdPEx aspects to make a closer link and integration to synergize all the efforts aiming at the good of the institutions.

Here are the things I was truly impressed with ka:

- None seemed to struggle interacting in English. They seemed to be quiet like us. Yet, once they got a bit more comfortable (I allowed them to sit anywhere during the group work so one group decided to sit on the floor), they seriously discussed among themselves and came up with fine results that could reflect their actual stages of their institutions.

How I wish some of our senior administrators had similar level of proficiency and comfort as well as the openness to ideas and the engagement when discussing with their younger colleagues ka.

- They were very humble and so very polite, making me feel even more grengjai talking with them.

- It wasn't that obvious at all to identify who was the lead of the team and I like it that way for authentic leaders to stay humble, enabling their less seniors to feel comfortable especially in the discussions.

- When talking about ranking, they had very little interest and most of them, if not all, chose to be internationalized their own ways so the term, 'Glocalization' was the one they agreed to consider. They do know their need to stay sufficient and in consistent manner ka.

- I offered several toolkits for them to determine their IZN level. One group turned out to rate exactly the same level on all the items. They were thrilled to find out their understanding was quite common and I sure was happy for them.

I left that venue, feeling fortunate to have such a nice opportunity to get to know and appreciate Bhutanese much better.