Regional Networking Conference of President's of Women's Colleges and Universities in Asia

November 18-20, 2008
Miriam College
Quezon City, Philippines

Women's colleges and universities play an important role in women's higher education. Asian women's institutions can better provide quality education for young students through increased collaboration and synergy. The challenge is to create a venue and opportunity for Asian women's colleges and universities to come together to share experiences, to exchange ideas and best practices, and to develop strategies for more effective empowerment of young women students.

The Regional Networking Conference of President's of Women's Colleges and Universities in Asia held on November 18-20, 2008 was an initial step toward this vision. Together with heads of different women's colleges and universities in Asia, Miriam College established the Network of Asian Women's Universities and Colleges (NAWUC) to serve as a regular platform for participating institutions to discuss current issues and challenges to women's education in the region and together, come up with relevant and appropriate programs and action.

The conference brought together seventeen (17) Presidents/official representatives of higher education institutions for women from different parts of Asia to reflect on the role of their schools in the leadership and development of women, to share their experiences on how to increase women's access to higher education in the age of globalization, and to impart how they have collectively worked or can work together towards cultivating and nurturing women's leadership through education.

The gathering was an opportunity for the participants to listen to and learn from each other about concrete experiences of their institutions. The participants were invited to share their thoughts on any of the following conference thematic areas:

• Advancing Asian Women's Education for Leadership & Development: Linking Higher Education Institutions for Women to Leadership Experiences in the Asian Context: The Role of Higher Education Institutions for Women in the Development of Leaders in the Asian Context: Institutional or Country Experience --- reflections of women's schools in the region on their commitment and experience in producing women leaders in their respective countries;
• Creative Programs to Increase Women's Access to Higher Education in the Age of Globalization: Experiences of Higher Education Institutions for Women in Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and West Asia --- sharing of concrete experiences of on how schools respond to the challenge of providing tertiary education for women in a period of intensified competition for available resources for education;
• Collaborative Projects between Higher Education Institutions for Women in Asia: Experiences of Women's Universities and Colleges Working Together at the Local/National and Global Levels --- discussion on how women schools cooperate with each other bilaterally or through networks within and outside of their countries.

Towards this end, members of the network have agreed to convene regular meetings and commit to collaborative curriculum development, service-learning, student and faculty exchanges, leadership training and research activities by signing the Statement of Unity and Cooperation last 20 November 2008.

The regional conference was also attended by representatives from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA), and the Scranton Women's Leadership Center (SWLC) in Korea.