NTU to Host the 22nd APRU-APM at 90th Anniversary in 2018

The 21st Association of Pacific Rim Universities – Annual Presidential Meeting (APRU-APM) was held at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney in June, 2017. About 80 presidents and officials from 20 universities attended the meeting.

At this year’s presidential meeting, UNSW President Ian Jacobs invited attendants to his residence, where relaxing and lively conversations took place. At the dinner party, four UNSW professors were invited to each give a 20-minute TED-Talk on a series of topics including seas and oceans, environment, and energy. In addition, CEOs of notable companies were invited for featured talks and panel discussion at the breakfast meeting the following day.

NTU has been a founding member of APRU for 20 years since 1997. In addition to actively participating in various APRU meetings and organizing multiple international conferences and workshops, NTU also won the opportunity in 2016 to host the 22nd APRU-APM in 2018 along with its 90th anniversary. Professor Pan-Chyr Yang (楊泮池), then President of NTU, was elected a member of APRU’s Steering Committee in 2006.

President Yang attended the 21st APRU-APM at the invitation and request of NTU Interim President Ching-Ray Chang (張慶瑞). In the past four years, President Yang has maintained close interactions with APRU presidents and committee members. Attending the meeting as a Steering Committee member, President Yang proposed that several universities from Taiwan join APRU as member candidates. Meanwhile, President Yang introduced Taiwan and NTU on the last day of the meeting, inviting the presidents and international affairs directors from the 43 member universities to meet at NTU in 2018 for the annual presidential meeting and the celebration of NTU’s 90th anniversary.

New Southward Connection with Australia:

Building Strategic Partnership with USYD

In addition to attending the APRU-APM, another highlight of the visit to Sydney is the establishment of a strategic partnership with the University of Sydney (USYD). USYD President Michael Spence invited the presidents, international affairs directors, and colleagues of NTU, Yonsei University, and the University of California at Davis to his residence to share their universities’ directions for research and teaching development, as well as partnership strategies and domains.

Among the three invited universities, NTU has engaged in actual cooperation programs with USYD. During the visit, USYD President Spence and President Yang exchanged the agreement signed during President Yang’s term of office, officially making USYD the sixth strategic partner of NTU (the existing five partners are the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Peking University, and University of Hamburg).

During the days of the meeting, NTU Vice President for International Affairs Luisa Shu-Ying Chang, Director for Global Engagement Andrew Tsung, and USYD Pro-Vice Chancellor (Global Engagement) Katherine Belov met to discuss research cooperation. They selected seven research projects and used the funding previously allocated by President Yang to implement research collaboration between the faculty members of both universities.

In recent years, teaching and research collaboration between NTU and institutes of higher education in Australia has achieved substantial progress. In March of 2014, USYD President Spence led a delegation to visit President Yang and the College of Liberal Arts, thus initiating the cooperation between USYD and NTU. Later, the New Colombo Plan was launched by the Australian Government to encourage Australian students to pursue further studies in top universities in Asia. Subsequently, NTU, USYD, and Harvard University formed a forum to announce partnership strategies together at the annual conference of the Association of International Educators. At the 21st APRU-APM, NTU and USYD drew up research partnership programs and initiated seven research collaboration projects.