SEANAFE co-convened a meeting of forestry education institutions with the University of Melbourne on 23 April 2008 as one of the special events of the Week. SEANAFE was also among the 16 exhibitors, together with the World Agroforestry Centre-Southeast Asia Regional Office, during the event.

1. The need to review and update curricula to address current challenges of the forestry sector both at national and global levels
2. Declining student enrolment due to unattractiveness of forestry as a study option
3. The increasing cost of education to students and institutions
4. The need to more effectively link teaching with industry needs toward enhancing employability of graduates
5. The need to more effectively link and reinforce the research-teaching-policy chain
6. The need to improve library resources, equipment, teaching methods and approaches
7. The need for more collaboration among learning institutions and with international institutions in teaching and research

These issues served as reference for the participants to discuss in small group workshop the following questions to address the other objectives of the meeting:

1. Making networks work: what are the essentials?
2. What are the top priorities for collaboration?
3. How to keep curricula contemporary, & link graduates to employer needs & expectations

On making a network function well, the following were the common responses reported by the various groups:

1. Strong mutual interests among members, clear agenda and objectives with measurable goals and targets
2. Strong leadership, external champions and sharing of tasks across the membership
3. Clear benefits of membership, willingness of members to commit resources, low overheads and transactions costs and independence of external funding
4. Good communication, web-presence and regular events

The groups also identified the following priorities for collaboration:

1. Sharing of information on curriculum, teaching development activities and library resources and staff expertise
2. Faculty and students exchange programs
3. Development of benchmarking, peer review and common standards
4. Joint teaching programs for specialist subject areas
5. Joint research activities
6. Promotion of forestry as an exciting and innovative career option
7. Joint proposal development to fund specific activities

To keep forestry curriculum relevant and enhance employability of graduates, the groups proposed to have:

1. Frequent curriculum review, involving other institutions and external partners
2. Mechanisms for linking graduates with employers
3. Further development of internships and industry placements

The participants agreed to develop a formal network of tertiary forest education institutions in the Asia Pacific region.  However, there were varying opinions about whether or not the network should be developed separately from related existing networks (e.g., APAFRI, SEANAFE), with the advantages and disadvantages of both options noted.  Thus, a working group, which includes the SEANAFE TA, was created to further explore this initiative.  The next meeting of the working group was proposed to take place during the Kasetsart University’s International Conference on Tropical Forestry in Bangkok in November 2008.

The meeting was attended by about 50 participants representing 18 learning instituions and 7 international organizations from 13 countries.