08/09/2026
National University of Laos Hosts Fifth General Meeting of EU-Funded REAL
VIENTIANE, Laos, 31 August 2026 — National University of Laos (NUOL) welcomed representatives from the Ministry of Education and Sports, the European Union Delegation to Lao PDR, and partner institutions within Lao PDR from the Netherlands, Spain, and France for the Fifth General Meeting (GM5) of the REAL Project, held at the Department of Japanese, Faculty of Letters, NUOL, from 31st August to 3rd September 2026.
The REAL Project is co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Programme for Capacity Building in Higher Education. It aims to build a culture of comprehensive internal quality assurance (IQA) to support the implementation of outcome-based education (OBE) across Lao higher education institutions.
In his welcome remarks, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinthavone Daravong, President of the National University of Laos, thanked participants — including Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kaysone Phengsopha, Director General of the Department of Higher Education, and Mrs. Helen Conefrey, Attache for Education and Social Sector at the EU Delegation to Lao PDR — for their continued support of the project.
“Enhancing the quality and relevance of academic programs is imperative for Lao higher education in order to equip graduates to meet the real demands of the labour market and society,” Dr. Daravong said, adding that the effort also deepens ties with regional and international academic communities. Building on outcomes from the project’s fourth general meeting, GM5 brings together project teams from four Lao universities to review stakeholder consultations on graduate profiles, the mapping of Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) and Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs), and student workload estimation. Discussions will focus on ensuring consistency among CLOs, PLOs, and broader learning outcomes — a key step toward embedding learning outcomes within university’s IQA mechanisms for OBE.
Dr. Daravong noted that as Lao PDR revises its National Curriculum Standard in line with OBE principles, NUOL intends to extend the REAL IQA approach to additional academic programs, aligning them with national and international standards while deepening education-industry-society cooperation.
“The university leadership and I remain committed to providing comprehensive administrative support to the REAL Project, ensuring its successful implementation and its intended outcomes,” Dr. Daravong said, calling for continued collaboration among the Ministry of Education and Sports, the EU Delegation, NUOL faculty, and consortium partners from the Netherlands, France, and Spain.
The REAL Project is expected to advance student mobility, credit transfer recognition, and graduate employability for Lao higher education across the ASEAN and European regions.
