The 21st Annual General Meeting of the Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU) was held at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on 5 December 2015. Prof Kayo Inaba, executive vice-president for gender equality, international affairs, and public relations, attended the meeting on behalf of Kyoto University.
AEARU is an association of 18 leading universities in the five designated regions of Japan, the Chinese Mainland, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The association was founded to promote inter-university collaboration to generate world-class knowledge and enhance academic exchange in East Asia. AEARU organizes various activities throughout the year, including research workshops and student summer camps. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is AEARU's core activity, bringing the presidents or vice-presidents of all member universities together once a year to review operations and discuss matters relating to the association. Kyoto University has been a member of AEARU since 1997.
The AGM was chaired by the current chairperson of AEARU, President Chen Jun of Nanjing University. The meeting began with an announcement of changes in member university presidencies that have occurred since the previous AGM last year. The meeting proceeded with reports of AEARU activities conducted in 2015, including workshops and student camps. Activity plans for 2016 and the association's financial report were also announced. The meeting also included the inauguration of the next AEARU chairperson (currently vice-chairperson), President Nak-in Sung of Seoul National University, and it was announced that President Kyosuke Nagata of the University of Tsukuba would be the next vice-chairperson.
In the latter half of the meeting, three of the member university representatives gave presentations introducing undergraduate education initiatives at their institutions. A guest presentation, "Trends and Developments in Digital Education", was also given by Prof Ting Chuen Pong of HKUST. The presentations were followed by a lively discussion session.
The next AEARU Annual General Meeting is scheduled to be held at Seoul National University in the autumn of 2016.
The 21st AEARU Annual General Meeting (1)
The 21st AEARU Annual General Meeting (2)
