OBE Ecosystem Approach to Future-Ready Education

The 9th AUN-EQI workshop on "OBE Ecosystem Approach to Future-Ready Education" was held on 28 - 31 October 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop was a collaborative capacity building initiative between ASEAN Quality Network (AUN) and Education Quality International (eqi) and was attended by participants from universities in the Philippines.

The OBE Ecosystem Framework (Version 5) was developed to advance future-ready education and to prepare higher education instiutions to be future-ready in the world of disruptions. The following fundamental principles of OBE ecosystem framework were extensively discussed:

• WISER outcomes: outcomes: learning outcomes that are formulated based on the work of the future, vertical and horizontally aligned, significance and SMART, ecosystem perspective and real-world learning.
• Ecosystem curriculum design: The system to design future-ready curriculum requires both outside-in (ecosystem) and inside-out (microsystem) approaches with an emphasis on integrated curriculum best practices and designs.
• Real-world learning: learning should involve real world challenges and real-world tasks in bridging the gap between theory and practice gap so as to develop graduates’ work readiness by focusing on nurturing attributes towards employability and lifelong learning.
• Integrated constructive alignment: curriculum should embrace an integrated (vertical and horizontal) constructive alignment within and outside the programme and institution with the ecosystem.

Case studies were held to reinforce the underatnding and application of the OBE Ecosystem Framework.

Advancing Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) and Internationalization of Highher Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) in Lao PDR

The workshop on Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) and Internationalization of Study Programmes was held on 22 - 23 October 2025 in Vientiane, Lao PDR for the Minsitry of Education and Sports (MoES) and supported by the LuxDev Lao/037. 

The workshop was graced by Dr.Ammany Norrlinl, Deputy Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), Dr. Somdeth Keovongsak, Dean of Faculty of Law and Political Science, National University of Laos, and Mr. Thomas Lammar, Charge d Affaires of the Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It was attended by more than 50 participants from the Ministry of Education and Sports, public and private universities and institutions in Lao PDR, and  facilitated by international curriculum experts of Education Quality international (eqi).

The 2-day workshop aims to advance outcomes-based education (OBE) and internationalization of study programmes at the MoES and universities of Lao PDR in a holistic and unified way to raise the quality of higher education. The workshop was structured into 2 sessions with the first focused on OBE Framework and principles and the second on the internationalization of study programmes. The learning outcomes of the workshop were: 

• Apply the OBE framework and its principles to advance OBE implementation;
• Relate internationalization strategies and frameworks to advance internationalization of study programmes in higher education; and
• Formulate indicators to measure the success of OBE and internationalization implementation.

The workshop was concluded with the experts outlining the way forward for the participants and their institutions. It was closed by Dr.Ammany Norrlinl, Deputy Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) with a certification presentation ceremony to the participants by Dr. Reginald Pastrana, Senior Sectoral Advisor, Lux Development Programme LAO/037.