LIS education ASEANization: An inchoate plan?

Abstract

Although ASEAN integration commenced this 2015, achieving its goals is a work in progress. New opportunities for growth and prosperity are likely to emerge, but the colossal challenge is to ensure quality. Quality assurance has been taken seriously by higher education institutions, particularly in LIS Education. This paper discusses the mechanisms, procedures and processes towards desired quality of LIS academic standards. It further explains the challenges towards quality assurance and the development of National Qualifications Framework and Quality Assurance of National and Regional Frameworks. Greater mobility which is the by-word of ASEAN integration is spelled out in ensuring comparability and specification of competencies. From this end, this paper attempts to further discuss the current status of LIS education in the Philippines and the future directions towards achieving a system- wide evaluation of quality, articulation of a system of pathways and equivalencies, quality assurance of Philippine Qualifications Framework and harmonization of LIS curriculum.