Passage To ASEAN Association (P2A) was founded in 2012 by a group of five ASEAN universities: Rangsit University (Thailand), Duy Tan University (Vietnam), Norton University (Cambodia), National University of Laos (Laos), and Myanmar Computer Company Training Institute, Ltd (Myanmar) decided to step up their roles as educators and to address this challenge of imminent in diverse ASEAN Community. Guided by this community's vision of peace and harmony, and driven by the core beliefs that education shapes nations, the concept of Passage to ASEAN (P2A) was born with the objective of uniting higher education institutions in ASEAN countries to advance the promotion of cultural appreciation and workforce education amongst its youth.

On January 6, 2020, with support from the P2A Secretariat—currently operated by Duy Tan University, Vietnam—P2A’s application to become an ASEAN-associated entity was officially approved. P2A was recognized by ASEAN as an affiliated organization specializing in education and research and was subsequently included in Annex 2 of the ASEAN Charter under the category of “Think Tanks and Academic Institutions.” This recognition was granted by the ASEAN Secretariat and endorsed by all ten ASEAN Member States.