Two important elements of healthcare workforce development are access to information and quality higher education. Health sciences staff, students and healthcare professionals in low- and middle-income countries lack access to high quality health information adapted to their specific needs. Access to high quality education becomes more important for future healthcare professionals, amongst others because an accelerating digitalisation needs matching digital competencies. In Indonesia and Cambodia, these problems are excacerbated respectively by a spread-out geography and a challenging economical situation. Both countries want to enhance quality of their Higher Education (HE) and improve university support services.This project addressses the above needs by:1) Building up the capacity of techno-pedagogical staff, so they can assist teaching staff in implementing innovative techno-pedagogical projects in teaching & training2) Building up the capacity of health libraries and specialized librarians, so they can improve service for HEI staff & students and train them in digital information management skills 3) Ensuring open access to high-quality scientific and educational resources for HEI staff & students and healthcare professionals, via the development of platforms and supporting teaching and academic staff in posting high quality content on these platforms. The content will also be exploited by healthcare professionals. The impact of this project will be sustained beyond the project end, by (1) making sure that training is tailored to the needs of the HEIs; (2) subscribing to the vision and the strategy of the partner HEIs and (3) ensuring co-ownership of all digital platforms through a network of experts from Partner HEIs. The innovative platform will focus on infectious and (neglected) tropical diseases as a case study, given the specific expertise of all consortium partners. As such, this project aims to improve HE and ultimately healthcare quality in SEA.

Tuning Asia-South East project brings together 7 South East Asia nations and 6 EU Member States giving the opportunity for 30 higher education institutions to engage in policy dialogues, work on key issues related to harmonising competences, and enhance mutual recognition of higher education qualifications. In order to contribute to and support the harmonisation process within the South East Asia region through building of a framework of comparable, compatible and transparent degree programmes, project aims to apply the Tuning methodology in the South East Asia universities in three subject areas – Civil Engineering, Medicine and Teacher Education, develop Tuning Meta-Profiles in three subject areas; develop, implement, monitor and improve degree programmes, and promote regional and international cooperation between the South East Asia and EU universities. The project main results are ensured by using a multi-stakeholder bottom-up approach while taking European and world Tuning experiences in collaboration with key stakeholders at national, regional and international levels. They include: a well-established group of trained academics and managers (65 academic staff and 40 management staff); Reference Points for the Design and Delivery of Degree Programmes in Civil Engineering, Medicine and Teacher Education; 4 BA Degree Programme Profiles and 1 Master’s Degree Profile; 2 Regional Dissemination Seminars; 2 International Dissemination Conferences; 2 High Level International Policy Forums; 1 Public interactive website. The outcomes of the project are of relevance for all higher education institutions in South East Asia.

Maternal and neonatal mortality rates in Vietnam relatively high and in Cambodia very high. Most effective way to cut the number of preventable deaths and morbidity of mothers and newborns is to strengthen midwives’ competences. In Vietnam and Cambodia there is a great need to strengthen midwifery care by developing education. They both use the governmental midwifery curriculum. There is a need to update them. Partners will develop new and innovative courses and methodologies in the subject area of health by the help of the expansive learning model. The curricula standards will be increased to a higher level, which is based on recommended competences. The courses might be wrapped into larger entities, which promotes broader understanding of phenomena. In time, it will serve in building a new student-centered curriculum, where students learning process and expected competences are in focus, not the courses. Programme countries will facilitate this process and partner countries will implement. This project is developing learning and teaching tools with the help of new equipment and the pedagogical development continues throughout the project. Pedagogical tools, animations, e-courses and e-learning environments based on latest ICT- practices will be introduced and developed during this process. Participants English skills improvement will be a part of the process, not as a course but by support to practicing it during workshops.

"The academic dynamics in the South-East Asia region are part of a changing environment. In addition to this environment, there is a political will on the part of the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments to generalize the process of empowering their higher education institutions (HEIs). Each institution must therefore define and implement a contextualized and renewed governance model that allows it to identify the changes and disruptions that affect its ecosystem, and therefore its own missions and activities. It is in this context the project ""Pilotage Universitaire Rénovée en Sud-Est Asiatique - PURSEA"" is taking place, which aims to strengthen the governance capacity of the 8 partner HEIs by supporting them in the definition of contextualized strategic planning and the implementation of operational action plans. It will be necessary to co-construct the methods and tools necessary to improve the strategic development plans of HEIs and to put them into action through a change management and support system. In this sense, the PURSEA project is doubly structuring in terms of both its ambition and its scope. Through its ambition, the support of the ERASMUS+ Programme creates the conditions for an in-depth transformation of university governance: the main challenge is to design a renewed governance model designed as a decision-making aid mechanism focused on responsible management in the face of the challenges facing society. By its scope, the support of the ERASMUS+ Programme makes it possible to co-construct the deliverables that will be used, beyond the duration of the project, to structure and develop a regional offer in strategic planning on the procedures for the evolution of governance and management of HEIs in South-East Asia."

Trained midwives can avert maternal and newborn deaths. With the support of international organizations and national policy initiatives midwifery has become a rapidly growing field, in which HEIs can play a critical role. SafeMa project will develop a midwifery professional training course on ‘Advanced Midwifery Practice’, comprising of eight modules that can be taught as short courses, and facilitated internship. It will fully align with ICM Global Standards for Midwifery Education and focus on specific learning objectives that respond to identified skills shortages. Its methodology will promote clinical and research skills and experiential, hands-on learning.The course will be at the core of the SafeMa Hubs: model teaching, research and pedagogic resource centres in midwifery, established in each partner university. Hubs will also support midwifery at the local and regional levels, with particular emphasis to remote rural areas, partnering with hospitals and health centres, for improving youth awareness, attitudes and behaviour about reproductive health and women rights. They will themselves be strengthened by the creation of partnerships with other national and international institutions and organisations. Hubs will support a Research Cluster aiming to produce interdisciplinary research of rigour and relevance both locally and globally in a diverse range of areas relevant to midwifery. The RC is expected to act as an incubator for larger research projects and funding. SafeMa will support strong synergies with UN, WHO, ICM, FIGO, IPA and other projects that work towards the empowerment of midwifery and the cooperation with local, regional and national authorities and health services, the national associations of midwives and other key stakeholders.