Policy dialogues will be conducted at two levels. Firstly, High-level dialogues at ministerial and political levels with ASEAN states, to raise awareness, gain legitimacy for activities and resolve systemic blockages. Secondly, operational level dialogues focussing on technical dimensions, providing vertical and horizontal linkages to enable joint actions to cut across other Result areas. Research will be commissioned to direct dialogues and findings will be published to disseminate results. The first Policy Dialogue is planned for August 2015 in Jakarta.

Together with its strategic partners AQAN, SEAMEO RIHED and AUN QA as well as the relevant national authorities the DAAD implements result areas 2a (Qualifications Frameworks) and 2b (Quality Assurance). In order to strengthen ASEAN cooperation in the field of quality assurance and qualification frameworks, the following specific objectives are put forward under Result Area 2 of the EU SHARE project:

A – ASEAN Qualification Reference Framework (QF)

• support the development of a politically endorsed regional qualification framework, in close synergy with existing  initiatives (ASEAN Qualification Reference Framework – AQRF);
• contribute to better comparability of degrees in the ASEAN region and the EU, by taking into account existing initiatives (EQF, QF-EHEA) in the development of the AQRF;
• assist ASEAN member states in which National Qualification Frameworks (NQF) have been established (Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Philippines; sectoral qualification frameworks in Singapore and Thailand) to align them with the regional qualification framework;
• assist the other ASEAN member states in which NQFs are still in development or under discussion (e.g. Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Vietnam) to develop their NQFs in line with the regional qualification framework.

B – ASEAN Quality Assurance (QA)

• map the ASEAN Quality Assurance Framework for Higher Education (AQAF) standards to the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) and further develop them, in order to ensure compatibility with internationally recognised standards;
• create guidelines (based on the standards development) for external reviews of HE Institutions (objectives, methodology, processes, selection of experts, outcomes, etc.);
• create guidelines for external reviews of QA agencies;
• contribute to capacity building for ASEAN QA actors: Quality Assurance Agencies (QAAs) / other public authorities in the field of quality assurance, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and their academic communities.

Results 3a and 3b operate in parallel. In Year 1 Result 3a and 3b will map existing Asia-based credit transfer systems (CTS), provide needs identification of ACTS and AECTS, support HEIs to implement them and support Result 3c. The method and instruments for CTS will be designed and include development of a common platform for online credit transfer, ACTS/AECTS will then be piloted via this common platform, and results and impact will be evaluated.

Scholarships will be designed with transparent and flexible online application, addressing criteria for student selection adapted for different countries (e.g. academic quality and merit, geographical origin, gender, minority groups, needs and subject area). A promotion and outreach strategy will be developed and delivered in collaboration with selected HEIs who will generate candidates for the short-term intra-ASEAN and ASEAN-EU mobility with credit transfer. In Year 1 Result 3c will develop inventory of current/past mobility initiative in ASEAN region, design scholarship modality and procedures.