In the meeting of the trustees of APAIE (Asia Pacific Association for International Education) held at Seoul, Korea at the end of 2009, National Taiwan University defeated twenty some schools and came to the fore, officially acquiring the right the host the 2011 annual conference of APAIE.

President Si-Chen Lee led a delegation to Australia in mid-April to participate in the 2010 conference and to handle the transfer of hosting rights. At this year's conference, President Lee warmly invited the participating delegates to come to Taiwan next year. And in April of this year, NTU specifically set up an "APAIE Special Project Office," actively preparing for the 2011 APAIE annual conference which is to be held in March of 2011 in the Sports Center of NTU.

Last April, President Si-Chen Lee, Director of International Affairs Dr. Tung-Shen led NTU APAIE ad hoc group members to participate in the 2010 APAIE Annual Conference held in the Griffith University of Australia. Besides handling the transfer of hosting rights, President Lee specifically invited all participating delegates to come over to Taiwan next year. Dr. Tsong-Min Lin, political Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, also paid a visit to the Conference to express his attention and support. The Foundation for International Cooperation of Higher Education in Taiwan (FICHET) also showed their presence to vigorously promote higher education in Taiwan.

The APAIE Annual Conference is one of the three major conferences in the world on higher education. Its purpose is to promote international cooperation in higher education, and the participants were all university presidents, vice presidents, international affairs directors, etc., very high echelon. These high echelon administrators discussed bilateral or multi-lateral cooperation projects among schools, and the contents of the Conference included Roundtable Forum for Presidents, General Assembly, synchronous seminars, and over 100 exhibition booths. Although the members of APAIE are universities from the Asia-Pacific region, but European and American universities in recent years wish to have exchanges with Asian universities, so we see a large number of representatives from Europe and America as well.

The 2011 APAIE annual conference is slated to take place from March 9th to March 11th next year in Taiwan. Anchored around the theme of "Asia Pacific Education: Impacting the World" , the Conference will have seminars on its many sub-topics. Also, exhibition booths from various universities will be set up. It is estimated that 400 universities from 50 nations will participate in the Conference, bringing new sparks to the exchange and cooperation of higher education.

That National Taiwan University acquired the rights to host the 2011APAIE Annual Conference is a good opportunity to market the high quality higher education in Taiwan, and to enhance Taiwan's international visibility. Through this large-scale Asia-Pacific Higher Education Conference, Taiwanese universities' chance for international cooperation will be greatly expanded. The "Studying Abroad Exhibition," which is a spin-off of the Conference, will also be made public free of charge to all Taiwanese students who wish to study abroad on March 12th of next year, offering first hand information of the universities scattered around the world, and representatives from various universities will be on site to provide consultation.