Past SEACE Conferences

The Southeast Asian Conference on Education (SEACE) is held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, Japan.

The education scene in Southeast Asia is one of the most dynamic, entrepreneurial and competitive in the world, with more than 12 million students enrolled in around 7,000 higher education institutions across the region, reflecting ASEAN’s growth in relevance and weight in the global economy and politics.

The goals and aspirations for education in ASEAN may be clear but the environment is complex, as national institutions must compete with global competitors from outside ASEAN, such as US, UK and Australian universities that have long been popular destinations for Southeast Asian students to study abroad. The trend of overseas universities establishing campuses in ASEAN countries, and the fast-changing educational requirements, skills and qualifications compound the situation with additional hurdles.

The Southeast Asian Conference on Education seeks to identify the challenges and highlight the strengths in the way ASEAN countries address and tackle the region’s educational needs, at both the national level and at the region-wide level, such as internationalisation, multiculturalism, connectivity, mobility and accessibility.

Held across four continents, IAFOR’s education conferences attract more than 2,000 delegates a year from more than 100 countries. Education as an (inter)discipline drives the purpose of the forum by bringing alive the notions of the international, the intercultural and the interdisciplinary through scholarly, political, and personal encounters with some of the most important academics and practitioners working in the field, as well as the thought leaders of tomorrow.