Asst. Prof. Dr.Panarit Sethakul, Chairperson, Committee for Development of Assessment Systems for Vocational Education attended the 2017Asia-Pacific Quality Network Annual Conferenceduring 26- 27 May 2017 at The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Moscow, Russia. The conferencewas attended by more than a hundred delegates from national qualityassurance agencies and universities from 29 countries.

          The theme of the conference was “New Horizons: Dissolving Boundaries for a Quality Region” with the purposes to foster dialogue on quality assurance that would contribute to dissolving boundaries across the regions. The main topics were discussed around quality assurance on cross-border higher education, responsibility of international quality assurance organizations in dissolving boundaries for a Quality Region, and global trends in dissolving boundaries for a Quality Region. Most countries tend to focus on graduates’ working skills that meet the market’s need as a main KPI for quality assurance in both higher education and vocational education. Besides, the key to dissolve boundaries for a Quality Region is to overcome 3 obstacles, namely: lack of information, lack of trust, and lack of cooperation. Thus, a strong network should be established in order to share information, promote trust, and develop close cooperation among QA agencies across the region.

          During the Conference, Asst. Prof. Dr.Panarit Sethakulmet Prof. Zhang Jianxin, President ofAPQN;Dr. Angela Yung-Chi Hou, Vice-President of APQN,  and Executive Director, Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan;Dr. Judith S. Eaton, President, Council for Higher Education Accreditation, USA;Prof. Dr. Wang Libing, Chief, Section for Educational Innovation and Skills Development) UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok; and Dr. Vladimir Navodnov, Director,The National Centre for Public Accreditation (NCPA), Russia, who hosted the event.