369 The Wiley International Handbook of Educational Foundations, First Edition. Edited by Alan S. Canestrari and Bruce A. Marlowe. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 22 We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, where geo‐ political conflicts exist in nearly every corner of the globe, and where the widespread social ills of wealth and health gaps are extensive and widening by the day. With respect to higher education in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in par- ticular, Sadiman (2014) identified two related issues: The problems of equity and quality of educational experiences. The bottom line of the drastic reality of life in ASEAN, and for that matter for most of the nations in the world, is that corruption and corrupted practices persist and pervade. Poverty of the marginalized is prevalent and those trying to provide a decent education to their offspring through debt is still ubiquitous. While most national governments and international agencies have tried their best to alleviate these societal ills a key question is, “What can individual institutions of higher education do?” At the heart of this ques- tion is the role of the individual educator. As such, this chapter advances an agenda for the individual higher education institu- tion (HEI), and its faculty, where HEIs and their faculties are encouraged to demon- strate “conscientious actions” through a “conscientious framework.” ASEAN was established in 1967, and the ASEAN leaders established the ASEAN Economic Blueprint at the 13th ASEAN Summit on 20 November 2007 in Singapore to serve as a coherent master plan guiding the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community 2015 (ASEAN Secretariat, 2009a). The AEC 2015 envisages: 1) a single market and production base, 2) a highly competitive economic region, 3) a region of equitable economic development, and 4) a region fully integrated into the global econ- omy (ASEAN Secretariat, 2009a). As an economic bloc, the ten member countries of ASEAN with a population of 625 million (Table 22.1) make up the third largest market in the world after China (>1,350 million) and India (>1,237 million) followed by the EU (>508 million), the United States (>314 million), and Japan (>128 million). The six biggest economies of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Vietnam make up for more than 95% of overall ASEAN GDP and with a $2,398 trillion in GDP (Table 22.1) makes it a major economic power after the United States ($16,768 trillion), the EU ($12,749 trillion), China ($9,240 trillion), and Japan ($4,919 trillion) (World Bank, 2014). Six of the ASEAN economies are in the lowest performing group as in India and Africa, while Developing Conscientious Institutions of Higher Education in Southeast Asia A Framework for Action Teay Shawyun