—First Annual Presidents Meeting for Yonsei and President Jeong

From June 23 to 25, Yonsei President Jeong Kap-young attended the 18th Annual Presidents Meeting of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Almost ninety representatives from thirty different universities participated.

Established in 1997 with the goal of creating an alliance of premier research universities from around the Pacific Rim region, APRU’s member institutions include Stanford University, Caltech, UC Berkeley, UCLA, National University of Singapore, and Tokyo National University. Yonsei officially joined APRU in September of 2013, opening the way for an enhancement of the university’s collaborative networks in both education and research. This year’s APRU Presidents Meeting was thus the first attended by President Jeong.

While in Canberra, President Jeong took the opportunity to introduce Yonsei’s history and current developments to the representatives of the other member institutions. He also emphasized Yonsei’s eagerness to actively participate in APRU initiatives designed to promote and enhance higher education in the Asia Pacific region, while working to create and strengthen networks with many of the other university presidents. In particular, President Jeong made a point of talking with leaders from Chinese universities to expand educational and research cooperation between Yonsei and those institutions.

On the second day, President Jeong took part in a breakfast meeting with the presidents of Keio University and Hong Kong University, which, along with Yonsei, are the host institutions of the Three Campus Comparative East Asian Studies Consortium. At this meeting, the leaders from Keio and Hong Kong expressed their gratitude to Yonsei for its organization and support of the Consortium. The three universities also discussed increasing their collaboration to include joint research projects and faculty exchanges.

On the final evening of the Annual Presidents Meeting, President Jeong met with Yonsei alumni residing in the region to discuss Yonsei’s current infrastructure projects and educational initiatives, including the Baekyang-ro Renovation, the expansion of Underwood International College (UIC), and the continuing development of the Residential College (RC) at the Yonsei International Campus (YIC). President Jeong asked the alumni for their support of these endeavors.

—APRU, Alliance to Promote Cooperation in Research and Education

APRU, as an association of premier research universities around the Pacific Rim region, seeks to foster cooperation in education and research among its member institutions in areas related to economic development, science and technology, human resource development, education, and environmental protection. Furthermore, APRU strives to enable the universities it represents to become effective contributors to the development of a prosperous and integrated Pacific Rim community, while promoting the scientific and cultural advancement of Pacific Rim nations. Yonsei’s membership in APRU thus promises to create a number of new and exciting collaborative opportunities in the years to come.