ASEM Senior Officials and Stakeholders will meet at the 1^st Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM1) in Bucharest, Romania on 18 & 19 November 2025 to prepare the 10^th ASEM Education Ministers’ Meeting (ASEMME10) that is going to take place in 2026.

The event will be held in English.

Day to day agenda:

Day 1: 18 November

1. Welcome and introduction

• • Welcome by the Romanian Authorities
  • Welcome by the ASEM Education Secretariat (AES)

2. Adoption of the agenda
3. Adoption of the Minutes from the last meeting

• • Intermediate Senior Officials’ Meeting (ISOM) held on 18-19 November 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand

4. Keynotes on Regional and Interregional Cooperation in Higher Education

• • “Quality Assurance to Foster Global Cooperation in Higher Education”
    Daniela Cristina Ghițulică,
    Vice-Chair of the European Higher Education Area (Romania) and Vice-President of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA)
  • “The Global Dimension of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)”
    Elisa Petrucci,
    Co-chair of the European Higher Education Area’s Coordination Group on Global Policy Dialogue and Head of International Cooperation and Policy Development Department at CIMEA, Italy
  • “Fostering a Common Higher Education Area in Southeast Asia”
    Christelle Mae Agustin,
    Programme Officer at SEAMEO RIHED (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation-Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development)
  • “ASEAN-Malaysia 2025: Fostering a Common space in Southeast Asian Higher Education” 
    Dato’ Dr Haji Megat Sany Megat Ahmad Supian,
    Deputy Secretary General (Policy), Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia

5. Presentation of the Concept for the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting of Ministers for Education (ASEMME10) in 2026 in the Philippines

• • Commissioner Dr. Michelle Aguilar Ong,
    Commission on Higher Education, The Philippines

6. Handover of the ASEM Lifelong Learning Hub Secretariat
7. Parallel workshops

• • Workshop A: Regional cooperation processes and their role in shaping and transforming higher education
  • Workshop B: Lifelong Learning with a focus on Micro-credentials (European and Asian experiences)
  • Workshop C: Mobility and internationalisation as instruments to build bridges between Asia and Europe

8. Updates from the ASEM partners
9. Closing of the first meeting day

Day 2: 19 November

10. Opening of the 2^ndmeeting day with welcoming words
11. Updates from the ASEM Expert Groups (EGs)

• • EG1 on Sustainable Development Goals & Education
  • EG2 on Recognition & Balanced Mobility
  • EG3 on Lifelong Learning & TVET
  • EG4 on Digitalisation & Artificial Intelligence

12. Updates from the ASEM Stakeholders
13. ASEM Education Process and way to the ASEMME10

• • Update on the Stocktaking Report
  • First ideas for the Chair’s Conclusions
  • Next steps towards the ASEMME10

14. Any Other Business (AOB)
15. Closing Remarks