SINGAPORE, Aug 8 (Reporting ASEAN) – ASEAN and the ASEAN Community bring to mind government summits or business opportunities, but the idea of ASEAN is also taking deeper root in universities and academic courses in Southeast Asia, and beyond.
As economic integration picks up in the region, universities are offering a varied mix of courses and degrees that reflect a recognition of ASEAN’s emergence as a political, socio-cultural and economic unit of 625 million people that is here to stay.
While Southeast Asian studies as an area of academic and research focus has been around for a long time, ASEAN studies is relative newcomer. But interest in ASEAN issues – whether it is the association’s workings, development as a community and relations with other regions and political entities – has been steadily growing, interviews with More and more people have become aware of ASEAN and would like to learn more about ASEAN as an institution as well as its regionalisation aspect,” explained Dr Azmi Mat Akhir, deputy executive director (academic) of the University of Malaya.
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