Landscape of HEI and Quality Challenges in AEC 2015

AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) 2015 envisaged the goal of regional economic integration of the 10 ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nation) economies by December 2013, under 4 main pillars of which it claims to have achieved 73.6% of its targets. MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) and ADB (Asian Development Bank) statistics, researches and reports painted a different picture of the awareness, degree of readiness, and its socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural in the ASEAN members. This paper aims to look at the overall AEC 2015 country’s readiness; potential socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural factors can affect education and quality in the HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) in the wake of AEC 2015. While recognizing that many international bodies have covered the issues, challenges and made recommendations at the macro levels for national actions and development, this paper also looks at the micro level of the institutional internal and external processes and people that can contribute to laying stronger foundations at the forefronts of 1) for students’ values and conscientious reforms; 2) institutional values and conscientious reforms; 3) the institutional balancing of its sustainability through planning and quality management; and 4) Societal Responsibility. These are discussed from the “moral and values” aspects of the mitigations of the socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural issues that each individual HEI can contribute to building the “character and moral foundations future generation of leaders through the HEI processes and people”.