International Membership
AAOU
The Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), founded in 1987, is a non-profit organization of higher learning institutions that are primarily concerned with open and distance education. It strives to widen the educational opportunities available to all people in Asia and to improve the quality of the institutions in terms of their educational management, teaching and research. It promotes education by distance teaching systems, as well as professional and ethical standards; develops potentialities of open and distance education; cooperates with official bodies and others directly or indirectly interested in education at a distance; and facilitates cooperation with other similar regional and international bodies.
AAOU now has totally 61 member institutions, with 46 being Full Members and 15 being Associate Members.
Full Membership
This membership is for dedicated open and distance learning institution located within the Asian continent and whose primary mode of instructional delivery is through the distance mode.
Associate Membership
This membership is for those who are active in promoting or delivering education by the distance mode through departments, faculties, centers or schools of external or off-campus studies and programs.
The AAOU Annual Conference, hosted in turn by member institutions, is a stimulating forum for all those associated with open and distance learning in Asia, particularly academics, administrators and students. It provides a focal point for bringing everyone up to date on the issues, ideas and developments in the field of open distance learning.
The AAOU Secretariat has moved to Universitas Terbuka (UT) in Jakarta, Indonesia from the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) in Manila, Philippines from 2020 to 2022.
Payame Noor University Role:
• AAOU Member from 1989 to now
· Executive Committee Member and General Body Member and participating at the ECM and GBM Meetings
· Hosting the "10th AAOU Annual Conference", 1996
· Hosting the "23rd AAOU Annual Conference", 2009
· Participating in the AAOU Annual Conferences
For more information, please visit the following website: https://www.aaou.org
ICDE
The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) is the leading, global membership organization that works towards bringing accessible, quality education to all through online, open and distance learning. ICDE was founded in 1938 in Canada as the International Council for Correspondence Education. ICDE's Permanent Secretariat is located in Oslo, Norway. It has been hosted by the country on a permanent basis since 1988. In addition to the Norwegian government funding, ICDE income is supplemented by membership subscriptions and income from conferences and project grants, as well as in kind contributions. ICDE also has a longstanding partnership with UNESCO that dates back to the 1960’s.
Its members are from all regions of the world. ICDE has over 190 institutional members from over 70 countries, speaking over 40 languages, impacting over 15 million students across 6 continents.
ICDE is a truly global association with a proud history for promoting inclusive, affordable, access to quality education.
As the global community of Leaders and Professionals in the field of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning (OFDL) at all levels, ICDE supports and enables its members to achieve their goals by:
(a) empowering them to continuously improve, innovate, and remain locally relevant by building relationships, collaborating, learning, and promoting OFDL at national, regional, and global levels,
(b) leveraging their collective knowledge, expertise, and thought leadership to inform, influence, advocate, and guide policies and the decisions being made by global and regional stakeholders in support of OFDL, and
(c) enabling them to contribute to, and participate in national, regional, and global initiatives in support of OFDL.
Today, ICDE is a well governed, effective and slim managed global association with activities in all regions of the world, binding together for joint efforts with north-south, east and west.
Payame Noor University has been its member from 2003 to now.
For more information, please visit its website: https://www.icde.org.