With an acknowledgement of the importance of leadership skills, the Southeast Asian Scholars for Higher Education Leadership (SEASHEL) 2018 was organised at Mae Fah Luang University on 3-7 August 2018.
This programme was initiated by the Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT), the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia in collaboration with Mae Fah Luang University. The main purpose of the programme was to develop young scholars’ potential to become future leaders. Moreover, this programme emphasized equipping young scholars with knowledge about diversity and internationalization as well as leadership skills in dealing with various issues and challenges.
This leadership workshop was divided into two parts; a -5 day session in Malaysia from 29 July – 2 August 2018 was followed by another 5 days in Thailand. The programme was attended by 25 participants including five young Mae Fah Luang University executives and 20 young Malaysian lecturers enrolled in postgraduate programmes from 12 universities: Universiti Utara Malaysia; Universiti Sians Malaysia; Universiti Tenikal Malaysia Meleka; Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; Universiti Malaya; Universiti Malaysia Perlis; Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin; Universiti Malaysia Sabah; Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia; Universiti Putra Malaysia; Universiti Teknologi MARA.
With encouraging and intensive content focusing specifically on the two countries’ higher education system, collaboration between Thai and Malaysian higher education institutions, leadership skills for education leaders in the 21st century, university-community engagement and symbiotic leadership mentoring sharing experience, the programme advanced the participants’ leadership skills, and enabled them to exchange perspectives on the higher education management systems. Additionally, participants had an abundance of opportunities to build up and foster the network of Malaysia-Thailand future leaders.
On the whole, this programme has been successfully completed and has achieved fruitful outcomes; a connection between future leaders has been established as well as academic collaboration for student exchanges has been planned for meeting the needs of people in both countries.
