Since its inception over a decade ago, the OU5 Meeting has emerged as a beacon of intellectual discourse, fostering a dynamic, positive, and productive community dedicated to advancing knowledge and innovation in the open and distance educational field.

OU5 comprises of five universities in Southeast Asia that specialize in distance education (PJJ). These universities are UT, Open University of Malaysia (OUM), Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU), University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) and Hanoi Open University (HOU). They have come together to form a partnership aimed at collaborating in various academic activities. This group regularly convenes meetings to develop research in various fields.

The Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta was chosen as the venue for the event, which will take place on April 24th and 25th, 2024. These routine meetings have fostered networks and collaborations in institutional development and research studies on ASEAN issues, with different topics each year.

During this meeting, several agendas will be discussed by the leaders of the OU5 member institutions. The first to be mentioned, progress of 2024 research projects, covered the five research topics covered as collaborative studies with other institutions.

However, as all of the research are still in its early to middle stages, no findings have been presented. All findings are expected to be completed within the next six months, just before the upcoming OU5 Meeting in the Philippines.

Regarding the nomination of project leaders for the 2025 research project and scheduling of the first online meeting, it is announced that all OU5 institutions have submitted their nominations for researchers. However, further revisions are still open until mid-May to establish proper and fixed research teams.

Next on the agenda is regarding the set up a common repository site for OU5 outputs and documents. To elevate the impact by increasing accessibility to output, OU5 agreed to arrange a dedicated team to develop a repository site and to show more commitment in the form of a small annual fee that will be paid by each institution to be used to fund this initiative, such as the web domain subscription.

Furthermore, it is reported in the meeting that there are some updates in the AAOU Quality Assurance Framework. It is announced that a pilot run for the accreditation process and instrument to admit the chair and members of the board has been planned. As of now, three participating institutions, that are UT, OUM, and UPOU have stated their willingness to be involved as the institutions that will be piloted. 

In terms of Benchmarking instrument testing status, STOU informed that a website has now been created as a system for benchmarking. The website was designed to ease the information updates from each member institution from year to year. Some of the professors also stated that this benchmarking website might be extended to the AAOU level, share the database and invite all AAOU members to fill out the required data for benchmarking.

Moreover, ICDE Global Advocacy Campaign (GAC) Asia was also mentioned in the meeting. As of this year, there have been 15 institutions all over Asia that would like to participate in this campaign. This ICDE Global Advocacy Campaign Asia was part of the panel discussion during the ICDE World Conference in Costa Rica last November 2023.

This year, they were also invited to contribute to the Panel Session of the International Conference of Digital Business, Society, and Economy held by STOU. Therefore, the meeting acted as a bridge to encourage all institution to also participate in the STOU’s conference in November.

That is also not the only event mentioned, as the meeting also discussed the invitation to the second ICDBSE Conference and ICDE Global Advocacy Campaign Asia Working Groups Meeting at STOU, Thailand. Entitled "Innovation and Technology Towards Sustainability,” the conference will take place in November, in tandem with the 46th anniversary of STOU.

In terms of micro credentials, the discussion covered the possibility of implementing micro credentials to validate that OU5 is the leader when it comes to Open Flexible Distance Learning and inclusion Access. However, there are still some considerations. For example, different micro credential regulations in different countries of the OU5 member institutions.  

Lastly, the meeting also discussed the second OU5 meeting this year. It is announced that the Philippines will host the next meeting, however no details have been given, as it is expected to be announced by the representative of the next host.

OU5 researchers also discussed the development of research plans in 2024, focusing on several topics. These include; inclusive education: Providing quality education for all; Artificial Intelligence (AI) in digital education; promoting sustainable industrialization in accordance with the 9^th Sustainable Development Goal in the ASEAN region (smart manufacturing, employability and decent work, and green growth as the selected agenda); counseling services at OUs to promote good mental health in ASEAN; and Preserving ASEAN culture in the digital age.

Universitas Terbuka and other distance open universities are committed to international community service to support the global community in the mission of introducing various cultures.

This meeting serves as an important platform for sharing knowledge and perspectives, stimulating innovation and promoting closer collaboration among university leaders, professors and researchers of open universities or PTTJJ under OU5 to advance open and distance higher education in Southeast Asia.

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