Peking University, May 8, 2011: Professor Wang Enge, provost of Peking University (PKU), attended the Inaugural Provost Forum of the Association of Pacific Research Universities (APRU) in Singapore on April 26, 2011.

This forum aimed at providing provosts from APRU member universities a chance to communicate with each other and exchange opinions on issues of mutual concern. Altogether 40 representatives of 26 members attended this forum. PKU was a member of the forum’s preparatory committee.

A group photo of all the attendees

Professor Wang met Professor Tan Tai Yong, associate provost of the National University of Singapore (NUS), inquiring about NUS’s newly-built college city. The new college city includes residential colleges, apartments for graduates, research laboratories and recreation facilities. Wang hoped to be updated on the progress of the college city and to strengthen the cooperation between NUS and PKU in the fields of scientific research and undergraduate education.

During the forum, PKU representatives also had frequent interactions with other attendees. Representatives from Kyoto University expressed their hope to establish academic forums in specific research fields, while University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) emphasized the successful experiences they had with PKU in their cooperating science and technology institute.

The forum included 3 round-table conferences, focusing respectively on faculty recruitment (including attracting talents, popular fields of recruitment, cross-university recruitment, and welfare policies), international interdisciplinary studies (including international interdisciplinary cooperation, cross-university cooperation, and intellectual property rights), and the quality of international academic programs (including credit transfer and related policies). Professor Xia Hongwei, director of PKU Office of International Relations, introduced the university’s progress on its overseas educational programs. The representatives exchanged opinions on the issues above, and hoped to reach agreements on the operational level on intellectual property rights as well as the credit transfer, in order to foster relevant cross-university cooperation.

Background Information:

APRU (the Association of Pacific Rim Universities) was founded in 1997, now including 42 top research universities in the Pacific Rim area. It aims to establish a platform for their interaction and mutual development, fostering cooperation in the fields of science, education and culture. APRU’s member universities must be excellent in academics, research, global vision and creativity, as well as their domestically leading education. The current members of APRU include Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Tokyo, NUS, Australia’s National University and so on. PKU joined APRU in 1997, and has been taking an active part in its activities.

Written by: Su Dongrui
Edited by: Arthars
Source: PKU News (Chinese)