The 1st Expert Group Meeting (EGM) of APSCO Space Education Curricula Development Project was jointly held by APSCO and RCSSTEAP on April 25-27, 2016 at APSCO Headquarters, Beijing, China. The meeting aimed at discussing the current status of Space Education in Member States (MS) and their demands and requirements.
About 16 distinguished delegates, professors and experts from universities of the Member States nominated by their respective countries and officials from APSCO Secretariat attended the meeting. All Member States namely Bangladesh, China, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Turkey actively participated in the meeting. RCSSTEAP prepared the meeting materials including the current education curricula of the postgraduate program on space technology applications at Beihang University and the Education Curricula recommended by UNOOSA, etc.
The opening session was hosted by Dr. Egemen Ozalp, Deputy Secretary General of APSCO. The opening was addressed by Dr. Mohammad Ebrahimi Seyedabadi, Director General of Education, Training and Database Management of APSCO and the expert of RCSSTEAP Prof. Yang Dongkai from Beihang University.
The meeting was chaired by Prof. Qamar ul Islam from Pakistan, who was unanimously selected by the participants. Dr. Ebrahimi, DG of DET&DM of APSCO made a presentation on APSCO Education and Training activities, space curricula program background, and expected outcomes of the meeting to the participants. Prof. Weng Jingnong, Deputy Director of RCSSTEAP made presentations on the background studies on UN Curricula initiatives and International Space University (ISU) Space Programs and also International Space Education at Beihang University.
Delegates from Member States made a presentation each on the current status of space education in MS and the demands and requirements by them for curricula development. Experts of RCSSTEAP Mr. Yang Dongkai, Mr. Gao Qiang, Mr. Huang Hai, Ms. Tan Yumin and Mr. Gao Guozhu made presentations on the current education curricula on Space Technology Applications offered by Beihang University. Member States made agreement on documents—Minutes of Meeting and proposed establishing a Working Group on Space Education and Curricula Development for future activity on education program and curricula development.
At the end of the meeting, the Secretariat of APSCO thanked the chairman of the meeting and all experts from MS for their active participation, efforts and dedication to the meeting. Chairman of the Meeting gave his concluding remarks and thanked all for their positive contributions. He announced that all participants from MS agreed on the Minutes of Meeting (MoM), and the meeting was successfully concluded.
Experts of MS expressed their appreciation to RCSSTEAP/Beihang University/APSCO Education and Training Center in China for co-organizing the meeting. All participants expressed their pleasure for sharing information, knowledge and experiences of each other for developing collaboration among MS.
