APAIE（Asia-Pacific Association for International Education）was established in 2004 as an association that promotes internationalization in higher education and provides a place for international educators to interact and exchange information. At present there are over 1,400 members. APAIE has held a conference for this purpose within Asia-Pacific areas every year since its establishment. Due to its focus on Asia and to the high accessibility for Asia-based institutions, this conference provides a great opportunity for institutions around the world to meet with Asian counterparts.

With the majority of its international students to NAIST coming from Asia and the current world-wide interest in Asia, three members from the Center for International Relations, Steven Nishida (director), Junko Iwatsuki (coordinator), and Junko Machida attended to the conference to promote communication, networking, and professional development.

They visited the following partner institution’s booths and exchanged information for the future academic / student exchange programs: Chulalongkorn University / Kasetsart University / Mahidol University (Thailand), City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), University of Zurich (Switzerland), RWTH Aachen University / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), Pohang University of Science and Technology (Korea), Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Malaysia), University of Technology Sydney (Australia), National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan).