I was in Myanmar for almost the whole week and came back Saturday. Again, I have so many lessons both about the overall workshops and the country ka.
This was the second Myanmar-Thailand Higher Education Institutions Leadership and Networking Program funded by OHEC for 7 university presidents of the two countries to meet, learn more leadership skills, and share common challenges and possible options.
It was the fourth time I joined them and each time, I feel more and more attached to our Myanmar friends. Basically, on their end, most attended and if the rectors couldn't, they would send Pro-Rectors to participate and when I said, 'participate', they were very active with their curiosity to learn and share more. The Thai side was quite good too though Myanmar's senior leaders' commitment and attendance are much more significant ka.
On the whole, my learning is as follows ka:
1. Myanmar's current higher education reform has focused on systematic thinking and actions so they've thought through what they want to see .......no discrimination, no one left behind, and no dropout, on democratic discipline. One challenging dimension is for leading universities to be autonomous and it's being piloted! Very happy to see internationalization gracefully stay on the priority list ka! They have come up with their national strategic plan from 2016-2021 and will extend it to 2021-2026, highlighting on higher education much further, not as part of the whole education to include basic education.
To deploy the plans, they have several rectors' committees, one chaired by a medical doctor which is a surprise to me, considering the fact that the medical schools are under another ministry similar to ours in the past.
I didn't get to ask about the role as there'll be one high level official from the Union Ministry (Central Government) to be on the committees too ka.
2. Out of many choices of topics the top three the two sides wish to do and share further are research management, finance and fund raising, and coaching, risk management.
3. Both sides seem to need more leadership skills in several ways and they felt that two little exercises we conducted helped them learn about their own selves and how to manage others. I think after all, we only come down to several key issues like, 'learning about 'who am I?' to perform much better from improvement our own selves to interactions with others so leaders could 'put the right man in the right job'.
4. When asked how to manage better, communication seemed to be the key of all the groups. Yet, when it came to choices for improvement, this skill wasn't even on the list, nor was inspiration! Strange to me mak ka!
5. Myanmar's hospitality has always beyond description. One most touching aspect is their 'genuineness' in all they offered ka!
6. My first time to Myanmar was almost 20 years ago when OHEC was forming the ASEAN University Network (AUN). The practice of Buddhism including meditation has remained to be the core of their daily life. Super special jing jing ka!
Let me end here before it goes for too long na ka.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น