Waseda Professors Visit ARI on CAMPUS Asia Program

Time: December 23, 2011

Venue: ARI

A group of professors from Waseda University made a call on ARI Director Nae-Young Lee on a leg of the CAMPUS Asia program, which is an East Asian version of the European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (ERASMUS) considered to have greatly contributed to the integration of European Union (EU) since its implementation in 1987.

This program aims to foster personnel exchange within Asia where active discussions on regional integration are taking place. Aiming to promote Asian ERASMUS, this program pursues a borderless association of “Campus Asia Alumni” through an inter-campus network within the region and ultimately seeks to establish regional identity as Asians and regional integration, overcoming nationalism. Korea, China, and Japan have formally agreed upon this program during the trilateral summit in Beijing, China, in October, 2009.

Waseda University Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies has been chosen by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as an operator of the “Campus Asia Supportive Project of the Formation of Central Foothold’ with the theme of ‘Formation of the East Asian University Institute (EAUI) for the Regional Integration of Asia.” It will be conducting related projects for the next five years. Its purpose is the establishment of the EAUI to produce professionals who can contribute to peace and prosperity in East Asia through a network of major universities within the region. Specifically, it plans to co-establish ‘Asia Regional Integration Program’ and to exchange post-graduate students among the foothold universities. It also plans to swap researchers, jointly organize academic councils, produce curricula and teaching materials, and convene the joint academic conferences. Five universities—Waseda University (Japan), Korea University (South Korea), Beijing University (China), Rhammasat University (Thailand), and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)—will participate in this program as hub universities.

ARI plans to actively promote the program as a Korean hub in close cooperation with the Korea University Office of International Affairs and the Department of Political Science and International Relations. In particular, ARI will actively utilize the program as a part of the HK East Asia Regional Research Project, which includes the formation of an international research exchange network and production of regional experts with international competency.

The recent meeting was an opportunity for sharing common interest towards the successful promotion of the CAMPUS Asia Program and understanding the structure of the EAUI which was conceived by Waseda University.

During the occasion, it was notified that a group of professors and students of Waseda University will visit the ARI at around February 2012 and an academic event among the five hub universities will take place in February at Waseda University.

The business meeting was attended by Prof. Matsuoka Shunji, Prof. Liu-Farrer Gracia, and manager Takahasi Shiro from Waseda University, and Director Nae-Young Lee, HK Professor Song Kue-jin, HK Research Professor Lee Junghwan, HK Research Professor Son Key-young, HK Research Professor Lee Dong-jun and HK Research Professor Rha Kyung-soo from Korea University.