NTU and APRU Presidents Discuss Collaborative Strategies at APM

The Annual Presidents’ Meeting (APM) of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), generally considered a higher education leadership summit, was hosted by National Taiwan University (NTU) this year on June 24-26. During the three-day meeting, several APRU university leaders each arranged a meeting with NTU Interim President Tei-Wei Kuo (郭大維) and delegates to discuss and develop specific strategies and action plans for international collaboration. These leaders included UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block, President and Vice-Chancellor of the Chines University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Rocky S. Tuan (段崇智), UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May, Yonsei University President Yong-Hak Kim, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement of Australian National University (ANU) Shirley Leitch, and University of Washington (UW) Vice Provost for Global Affairs Jeffrey Riedinger. While hosting the 2018 APRU APM, NTU also invited 27 participating presidents to talk about their visions for higher education and their universities’ key collaborations with NTU. Their inspiring talks were recorded and will be played at NTU’s 90th anniversary celebration activities this November.

APRU membership is by invitation only, and all the participating members are world-leading research universities around the Pacific Rim. Many of the APRU presidents made their first trip to Taiwan for this year’s APM, including University of British Columbia (UBC) President Santa Ono, National University of Singapore (NUS) President Eng Chye Tan, UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla, University of Auckland (UoA) Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon, UNSW Sydney President and Vice Chancellor Ian Jacobs, Tohoku University President Hideo Ohno, Keio University President Akira Haseyama, and Korea University President Jaeho Yeom. Deeply impressed during their stay in Taiwan, these guests have shown strong intention to pursue further collaborations with NTU and Taiwan. At the opening ceremony, US Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry T. Yang (楊祖佑) noted that the 2018 APRU APM hosted by NTU was a rare and grand occasion where five out of the six UC chancellors—whose universities are APRU members among the 10 campuses of the UC System—flied to Taiwan to attend the meeting.

Since co-founding APRU in 1997, NTU has been actively participating in and planning various academic and research activities. NTU sought the opportunity to host the APRU APM three years ago, and succeeded in making Taiwan the meeting’s host country for the first time in the past two decades. During these years, NTU have utilized its advantages in cross-disciplinary studies to organize seminars, forums, and workshops on such topics as global health, natural hazards, urban sustainability, and museums, contributing to and directing APRU’s research groups of various fields. In 2017, NTU, as a member university and steering committee member, recommended National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) to APRU membership. NTHU was accepted into APRU membership this year, becoming the second university in Taiwan to join the association. In the future, NTU and NTHU will work together to create a new era of international higher education cooperation in Taiwan. University World News, an APRU media partner, also covered the 2018 APRU APM at NTU, highlighting how universities are “Key to Bridging Global Digital Divide.”