ASEAN+3 Education Leaders Gather to Shape Ethical AI in Higher Learning
Source: SMU Newsroom
More than 60 educators, academic leaders, and policymakers from across the ASEAN+3 region convened in Brunei this month for the 6th AUN-TEPL Symposium, tackling one of higher education's most pressing challenges: how to harness AI for personalised learning without compromising ethics,.
More than 60 educators, academic leaders, and policymakers from across the ASEAN+3 region convened in Brunei this month for the 6th AUN-TEPL Symposium, tackling one of higher education's most pressing challenges: how to harness AI for personalised learning without compromising ethics, fairness, and academic integrity. The symposium, chaired by Singapore Management University (SMU), signals a growing recognition that AI in education must be guided by human-centred principles.
The two-day event, held on June 3 and 4, featured a keynote from Michigan State University's Dr Jeremy Van Hof, who argued that while AI can support learning through content generation and personalised scaffolding, educators remain indispensable in guiding students and designing meaningful experiential learning. Workshops covered integrating AI tools like Canva into pedagogy, creating interactive digital resources, and developing institutional AI policies that balance innovation with integrity.
A major announcement came from SMU's Associate Professor Tamas Makany, who revealed that the network will evolve into the ASEAN University Network for Artificial Intelligence in Education (AUN-AIE) in the coming months. This reflects a deliberate regional push to move beyond ad-hoc AI adoption toward coordinated frameworks for AI-enabled teaching, research, and governance across ASEAN's higher education landscape.
Why it matters for Singapore: SMU's leadership of the AUN-TEPL network positions Singapore as the driving force behind AI governance in ASEAN higher education. As the city-state invests heavily in AI upskilling — including the National AI Impact Programme targeting 100,000 non-tech workers — these regional frameworks ensure that Singapore's approach to ethical, inclusive AI adoption scales beyond its borders. The symposium's emphasis on educator-led, human-centred AI integration aligns directly with Singapore's broader philosophy of augmenting human capability rather than replacing it.