1.
Vientiane
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Vientiane is the capital and largest city of Laos, on the banks of the Mekong River near the border with Thailand. Vientiane became the capital in 1563 due to fears of a Burmese invasion, Vientiane was the administrative capital during French rule and, due to economic growth in recent times, is now the economic centre of Laos. The estimated population of the city is 760,000, the city hosted the 25th Southeast Asian Games in December 2009 celebrating the 50 years of Southeast Asian Games. The name of the city is derived from Pali, the language of Theravada Buddhism. The romanised spelling Vientiane is of French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the sound in the Lao language. A common English-based spelling is Viangchan, or occasionally Wiangchan, Thattaradtha founded a city called Maha Thani Si Phan Phao on the western banks of the Mekong River, this city was said to have later become todays Udon Thani, Thailand. One day, a seven-headed Naga told Thattaradtha to start a new city on the east bank of the river opposite Maha Thani Si Phan Phao, the prince called this city Chanthabuly Si Sattanakhanahud, which was said to be the predecessor of modern Vientiane. Contrary to the Phra Lak Phra Lam, most historians believe Vientiane was an early Khmer settlement centered around a Hindu temple, in 1354, when Fa Ngum founded the kingdom of Lan Xang. Viangchan became an important administrative city, even though it was not made the capital, King Setthathirath officially established it as the capital of Lan Xang in 1563, to avoid Burmese invasion. When Lan Xang fell apart in 1707, it became an independent Kingdom of Vientiane, in 1779, it was conquered by the Siamese general Phraya Chakri and made a vassal of Siam. When King Anouvong raised a rebellion, it was obliterated by Siamese armies in 1827. The city was burned to the ground and was looted of nearly all Laotian artifacts, including Buddha statues, Viangchan was in great disrepair, depopulated and disappearing into the forest, when the French arrived. It eventually passed to French rule in 1893 and it became the capital of the French protectorate of Laos in 1899. The French rebuilt the city and rebuilt or repaired Buddhist temples such as Pha That Luang, Haw Phra Kaew, during World War II, Viangchan fell with little resistance and was occupied by Japanese forces, under the command of Sako Masanori. On 9 March 1945 French paratroopers arrived, and reoccupied the city on 24 April 1945, as the Laotian Civil War broke out between the Royal Lao Government and the Pathet Lao, Vientiane became unstable. In August 1960, Kong Le seized the capital and insisted that Souvanna Phouma become prime minister, in mid-December, Phoumi Nosavan then seized the capital, overthrew the Phouma Government, and installed Boun Oum as prime minister. In mid-1975, Pathet Lao troops moved towards the city and Americans began evacuating the capital, on 23 August 1975, a contingent of 50 Pathet Lao women symbolically liberated the city. The next day, an Insurgency in Laos began in the jungle, with the Pathet Lao fighting factions of Hmong, Vientiane was the host of the incident-free 2009 Southeast Asian Games
2.
Laos
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Present day Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to the kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao, which existed for four centuries as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Due to Lan Xangs central geographical location in Southeast Asia, the kingdom was able to become a hub for overland trade. After a period of conflict, Lan Xang broke off into three separate kingdoms— Luang Phabang, Vientiane and Champasak. In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three territories uniting to form what is now known as the country of Laos and it briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but returned to French rule until it was granted autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a monarchy under Sisavang Vong. Shortly after independence, a civil war ended the monarchy. Laos is a one-party socialist republic and it espouses Marxism and is governed by the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, in which the party leadership is dominated by military figures. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Vietnam Peoples Army continue to have significant influence in Laos, other large cities include Luang Prabang, Savannakhet, and Pakse. Laos is a country with the politically and culturally dominant Lao people making up approximately 60 percent of the population. Mon-Khmer groups, the Hmong, and other hill tribes, accounting for 40 percent of the population, live in the foothills. It is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, East Asia Summit, Laos applied for membership of the World Trade Organization in 1997, on 2 February 2013, it was granted full membership. According to the anti-corruption non-governmental organisation Transparency International, Laos remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world and this has deterred foreign investment and created major problems with the rule of law, including the nations ability to enforce contract and business regulation. This has contributed to a third of the population of Laos currently living below the poverty line. Laos has an economy, with one of the lowest annual incomes in the world. In 2014, the country ranked 141st on the Human Development Index, according to the Global Hunger Index, Laos ranks as the 29th hungriest nation in the world out of the list of the 52 nations with the worst hunger situation. Laos has also had a human rights record. In the Lao language, the name is Muang Lao or Pathet Lao. Stone artefacts including Hoabinhian types have been found at sites dating to the Late Pleistocene in northern Laos, archaeological evidence suggests agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BC
3.
ASEAN University Network
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The ASEAN University Network is an Asian university association. It was founded in November 1995 by ASEAN member countries including 13 universities, after the enlargement of ASEAN by the ASEAN Charter in 1997 and 1999, the AUN membership has been increasing. The ASEAN University Network is an arrangement between 30 universities in the ten ASEAN countries, the AUN is composed of a Board of Trustees, the participating universities, and the AUN Secretariat. The BOT has the task of formulating policies, approving project proposals, the board makes decisions on these activities on the basis of consensus. The participating universities have the task of implementing the AUN programmes and activities, when AUN was founded in 1995, it consisted of thirteen universities from seven countries. Due to the inclusion of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia in ASEAN, although numerous applications for membership have been received, it was decided to only admit universities from the new member countries. Non members from the region however, are invited as observers on a regular basis, the AUN Secretariat is involved in the planning, organisation, monitoring and evaluation of AUN activities and also in the development of new ideas and the acquisition of funding. The permanent office of the Secretariat was established in 2000 and is located on the campus of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, the operating costs of the secretariat are allocated by the Thai Government. The financing of AUN activities comes from either cost sharing between the universities or from the external ‘dialogue partners’ of ASEAN. The dialogue partners are Australia, Canada, China, EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russia, the United Nations Development Program also has dialogue status. The meetings within the AUN Framework are financed by the hosts and travel expenses by the participants, the ASEAN University Network emerged from a highly ambitious idea of the ASEAN leaders and the ASEAN Subcommittee on Education to establish an ASEAN University. A year after this idea was launched, it clear that this would present too many problems concerning funding, location. Therefore, in 1994, it was decided that the founding of a network of existing institutions would be more feasible, in its early years, the AUN focused mainly on the sharing of knowledge and experiences and on small-scale student and staff exchange. As from 1999, the collaborative activities became more complex with programmes like joint curriculum development, co-operation in ICT and this is not only the case for intra-ASEAN co-operation but also for the activities with the dialogue partners. This also led to the establishment of a permanent secretariat in Bangkok in March 2000, although there existed a secretariat since 1997, this secretariat was temporary. With the permanent office also came an increase in funding for the secretariat. In addition to the costs for the AUN secretariat, also the financial support for AUN activities increased substantially since 1999. In addition to a growth in terms, projects also became more comprehensive
4.
University
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A university is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in various academic disciplines. Universities typically provide undergraduate education and postgraduate education, the word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means community of teachers and scholars. Universities were created in Italy and evolved from Cathedral schools for the clergy during the High Middle Ages, the original Latin word universitas refers in general to a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members, an important idea in the definition of a university is the notion of academic freedom. The first documentary evidence of this comes from early in the life of the first university, the University of Bologna adopted an academic charter, the Constitutio Habita, in 1158 or 1155, which guaranteed the right of a traveling scholar to unhindered passage in the interests of education. Today this is claimed as the origin of academic freedom and this is now widely recognised internationally - on 18 September 1988,430 university rectors signed the Magna Charta Universitatum, marking the 900th anniversary of Bolognas foundation. The number of universities signing the Magna Charta Universitatum continues to grow, the university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church by papal bull as studia generalia and it is possible, however, that the development of cathedral schools into universities was quite rare, with the University of Paris being an exception. Later they were founded by Kings or municipal administrations. In the early period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries, the first universities in Europe with a form of corporate/guild structure were the University of Bologna, the University of Paris, and the University of Oxford. The students had all the power … and dominated the masters, princes and leaders of city governments perceived the potential benefits of having a scholarly expertise develop with the ability to address difficult problems and achieve desired ends. The emergence of humanism was essential to understanding of the possible utility of universities as well as the revival of interest in knowledge gained from ancient Greek texts. The rediscovery of Aristotles works–more than 3000 pages of it would eventually be translated–fuelled a spirit of inquiry into natural processes that had begun to emerge in the 12th century. Some scholars believe that these represented one of the most important document discoveries in Western intellectual history. Richard Dales, for instance, calls the discovery of Aristotles works a turning point in the history of Western thought and this became the primary mission of lecturers, and the expectation of students. The university culture developed differently in northern Europe than it did in the south, Latin was the language of the university, used for all texts, lectures, disputations and examinations. Professors lectured on the books of Aristotle for logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, while Hippocrates, Galen, outside of these commonalities, great differences separated north and south, primarily in subject matter
5.
Bachelor's degree
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A bachelors degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelors degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. The term bachelor in the 12th century referred to a knight bachelor, by the end of the 13th century, it was also used by junior members of guilds or universities. By folk etymology or wordplay, the word came to be associated with bacca lauri in reference to laurels being awarded for academic success or honours. An honours degree generally requires an academic standard than a pass degree. In most African countries, the university systems follow the model of their former colonizing power, for example, the Nigerian university system is similar to the British system, while the Ivorian system is akin to the French. The degree is typically identical to the program of Frances universities, bachelors degree programs cover most of the fields in Algerian universities, except some fields, such as Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science. Bachelors degrees at the University of Botswana normally take four years, the system draws on both British and American models. Degrees are classified as First Class, Second Class Division One, Second Class Division Two and Third as in English degrees, but without being described as honours. The main degrees are named by British tradition, but in recent years there have been a numbers of degrees named after specific subjects, such as Bachelor of Library, in Morocco, a bachelors degree is referred to as al-ʾijāzah. The course of study takes three years, which are divided into two cycles. The first cycle comprises the first, or propaedeutic, year, after successfully completing their first two years, students can pursue either theoretical specialization or professional specialization. The second cycle is one long, after whose completion students receive the licence détudes fondamentales or the licence professionnelle. This academic degree system was introduced in September 2003, University admission is extremely competitive, with attendant advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, it takes four to five years to complete a bachelors degree, in cases of poor performance, the time limit is double the standard amount of time. For example, one may not study for more than 10 years for a five-year course, students are normally asked to leave if they must take longer. B. Arch. and other specialized undergraduate degrees, such as B. Eng, Science undergraduate degrees may require six months or a semester dedicated to SIWES but it is usually mandatory for all engineering degrees. A semester for project work/thesis is required, not excluding course work, the classifications of degrees, first-class, second-class, third-class and a pass
6.
Master degree
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A masters degree normally requires previous study at the bachelors level, either as a separate degree or as part of an integrated course. The original meaning of the degree was thus that someone who had been admitted to the rank of master in one university should be admitted to the same rank in other universities. This gradually became formalised as the licentia docendi, initially, the Bachelor of Arts was awarded for the study of the trivium and the Master of Arts for the study of the quadrivium. The nineteenth century saw an expansion in the variety of masters degrees offered. By 1861 this had been adopted throughout Scotland as well as by Cambridge and Durham in England, when the Philadelphia College of Surgeons was established in 1870, it too conferred the Master of Surgery, the same as that in Europe. In the United States, the first masters degrees were awarded at Harvard University soon after its foundation, at Harvard the 1700 regulations required that candidates for the masters degree had to pass a public examination, but by 1835 this was awarded Oxbridge-style 3 years after the BA. In Scotland, Edinburgh maintained separate BA and MA degrees until the mid nineteenth century, in Scotland all the statutes of the Universities which enforced conditions on the grant of degrees were a dead letter. Probably the most important masters degree introduced in the 19th century was the Master of Science, at the University of Michigan this was introduced in two forms in 1858, in course, first awarded in 1859, and on examination, first awarded in 1862. The in course MS was last awarded in 1876, in Britain, however, the degree took a while longer to arrive. The same two degrees, again omitting the masters, were awarded at Edinburgh, despite the MA being the undergraduate degree for Arts in Scotland. In 1862, a Royal Commission suggested that Durham should award masters degrees in theology and science and this scheme would appear to have then been quietly dropped, with Oxford going on to award BAs and MAs in science. The Master of Science degree was introduced in Britain in 1878 at Durham. At the Victoria University both the MA and MSc followed the lead of Durhams MA in requiring an examination for those with an ordinary bachelors degree. The Bologna declaration in 1999 started the Bologna Process, leading to the creation of the European Higher Education Area, as the process continued, descriptors were introduced for all three levels in 2004, and ECTS credit guidelines were developed. This led to questions as to the status of the masters degrees. In 1903, the London Daily News criticised the practice of Oxford and Cambridge, calling their MAs the most stupendous of academic frauds, in 1900, Dartmouth College introduced the Master of Commercial Science, first awarded in 1902. This was the first masters degree in business, the forerunner of the modern MBA, the idea quickly crossed the Atlantic, with Manchester establishing a Faculty of Commerce, awarding Bachelor and Master of Commerce degrees, in 1903. Over the first half of the century the masters degrees for honours graduates vanished as honours degrees became the standard undergraduate qualification in the UK
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