1. The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) plays a key role in the region as a neutral platform for international scholars to conduct interdisciplinary research on cross-border issues through regional collaboration. 2. AIT was founded in 1959 as the first autonomous international post-graduate institute in Asia, hosted in Thailand, and has over 20,000 alumni from 100 countries working on issues without political or geographic boundaries. 3. AIT conducts large, multinational research projects on issues like climate change, agriculture, and water management worth millions of dollars involving collaboration between researchers and communities across Southeast Asian borders.

1. INTERNATIONALIZATION OF
MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION
AND RESEARCH
Worsak Kanok‐Nukulchai, Ph.D.
President, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
"Science Education and Human
Resources Development“
20‐21 October 2015

2. Landscape of Research on
Science and Technology
• Research for Mankind
• Research for Economic Gain
Public and International Funding
Private and Industrial Funding

3. How Universities Interact
Among Them in S&T Research?
COMPETITION
COLLABORATION

4. Contest in World Rankings
Calls for More Emphasis on
Research Impacts.
Competition

5. Competition
• Recent Higher Education Reform with
Government’s Budget Reduction
Creates a Contestable Market

6. Collaborations
• More Participation More Impact
Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary

7. Collaborations
• Sharing of Resources
Domestic or Cross‐Countries
$

8. Collaborations
Sharing Expertise (Bilateral Assistance)

9. Collaborations
• Sharing Solutions

10. What Remains a Challenge?
‐ Research on Global and Cross‐Border
Issues (Research for Mankind)

11. All cross‐border
problems in the
real‐world have no
physical and
disciplinary walls
Nature of Cross‐Border Issues.

12. Cross‐Border Issues.
Issues like
climate change,
disasters, floods,
pollution, share
of international
rivers, have no
boundaries

13. Barbed wire can
stop illegal
migrants,
but it cannot stop
floods, typhoon,
air‐pollution
Cross‐Border Issues.

14. Post‐Disaster Needs for Shelter and Sanitation are
common globally, but with local touch.
AIT Habitech Technology AIT’s Solar‐Powered Toilet
Cross‐Border Issues.

15. AIT – A Regional Platform
for Borderless Research

16. 1. International perspective
2. Regional orientation
3. Multidisciplinary approach
4. Cross national solutions
5. Relevant research
6. Knowledge dispersal in a market
economy
7. Politically neutral.
AIT : Regional Platform
of Research for Mankind

17. Roles of AIT
Provide a neutral platform for international
scholars to participate and contribute on
interdisciplinary R&D of cross‐border issues
of the world and the region.

18. AIT IS VERY FLEXIBLE‐‐EASY TO
WORK WITH.
• Non‐profit
• Independent
• Bureaucrat‐Free
• Niche, Flexible and Efficient
18

19. • Cross‐border, Trans‐boundary Issues
• Regional Localization Issues
• Regional Socialization Issues
AIT HAS SERVED AS NEUTRAL
PLATFORM FOR

22. AIT WAS FOUNDED IN 1959, AS THE FIRST
AUTONOMOUS INTERNATIONAL POST-GRADUATE
INSTITUTE OF ASIA, HOSTED IN THAILAND.

23. AIT PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN REGION.
• More than 20,000 alumni from 100 countries around the
world. Most of them are from the AEC region.
23
Thailand
27.45%
Vietnam
16.94%
Nepal
5.58%
India
5.45%
Bangladesh
5.14%Sri Lanka
4.85%
Philippines
4.49%
Taiwan
4.17%
Pakistan
4.09%
China
4.05%
Indonesia
3.79%
Myanmar
3.32%
Cambodia
1.96%
Laos
1.59%
Malaysia
1.52%
Europe
1.57% Middle and Central Asia
1.06%
Africa
0.48%
America
0.24% Others
2.26%

26. AIT joins France to host regional Science and
Climate Change Conference in 2015, as prelude to
global COP 21

27. Regional project to
reinvent
decentralized
systems and
technologies for
treatment and safe
disposal of human
excreta and
wastewater.
Total research
grant: us$ 5 million
Project period:2011-
2016
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
Sustainable Decentralized Wastewater
Management in Developing Countries

28. Agricultural Learning
Exchange for Asian
Regional Networking
(AgLEARN)
Total Research Grant: 899,000
USD
Project Period: 2013‐2016
Location of the Action: Nepal,
Bangladesh, Cambodia with
support from collaborators in
Thailand, India and USA,

29. Sustaining and Enhancing the Momentum for
Innovation and Learning around System of
Rice Intensification (SLR) n the Lowe Mekong
River Basin (LMB)
Total Research Grant: Euros 3.4 million (US$ 4.37
million)
Project Period: 2013‐2018
Location of the Action: Thailand, Cambodia, Lao
People’s Democratic Republic, Viet Nam
.
SRI‐LMB working in
partnership with

30. AIT and World Wide Fund (WWF) Thailand awarded
US$ 980,000 project from HSBC Water Sustainability
Program
“Building Capacity
and Strengthening
Community
Participation for
Water Resources
Management and
Wetland Ecosystem
Restoration in the
Context of Climate
Change in Lower
Songkhram River
Basin”