Four students and three faculty members from the University of New England (UNE), in Armidale, New South Wales Australia are on a study abroad visit to Samtse College of Education (SCoE) from 12^th September – 17^h October, 2019.

The President of the College officially welcomed the group on the morning of October 14^th 2019 with a brief introduction to the College highlighting some of the key milestones of the College, ever since its establishment on May 29^th 1968 by our most beloved Late His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. In his welcome address and presentation, he stated that Samtse College of Education is at a critical juncture where the College views the future challenges as opportunities to be more creative and innovative in designing teacher education programmes of national and international relevance.

The President emphasized the importance of maintaining active working institutional linkages with academic institutions abroad such as UNE to fulfill SCoE’s aspiration of becoming “A centre of excellence committed to research and innovation in education” in achieving the national educational goal of building an educated and enlightened society of GNH.

Associate professor Judith A. Miller from UNE shared her delight in being here on behalf of the team and expressed that there is a wide range of areas for SCoE and UNE to work together.

During their stay in Samtse, the students from UNE will attend mindfulness practice sessions facilitated by the academics in the Department of Contemplative Counselling Psychology and also attend classroom teaching with the Post Graduate Diploma in Education students to experience and foster cross-cultural interaction and knowledge exchange in terms of teaching and learning in tertiary education classrooms in Bhutan and one another’s culture.

The group from UNE will also visit some of the local places and nearby schools in Samtse during their stay.