From October 13-15, 2025, the Senior International Leaders’ Meeting 2025 of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) was held at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. Tohoku University Executive Vice President Toshiya Ueki and the International Research Institute of Disaster Science’s Professor Takako Izumi participated online as panelists.
The annual APRU Senior International Leaders’ Meeting is held to bring together executive leaders in charge of international exchange at APRU member universities to discuss consortium initiatives that help address issues in the Asia-Pacific region. This year’s theme, ‘Global Range, Local Change: Educational Diplomacy and Social Impact’, was discussed in the event’s various panel sessions and lectures.
In a session on strengthening cohesion in the Asia-Pacific region through APRU programs, EVP Ueki served as a panelist alongside representatives from the University of Melbourne, the University of Oregon, the University of Southern California, and the University of California, Davis. In his remarks, EVP Ueki spoke about the importance of students learning together and collaborating to address global issues, such as natural disasters, which go beyond national and regional boundaries and affect those across the APRU community. As an example of such collaborative learning, EVP Ueki highlighted the APRU Multi-Hazards (MH) Program that is also led by Tohoku University, which serves as the program’s regional hub.
Professor Izumi, who is the director of the MH Program, participated as a panelist in a session that explored topics such as the impact of international programs like APRU on students’ global education and the consortium’s strategies.
EVP Ueki, projected on the righthand side of the screen, participates online as a panelist
Contact:
Global Engagement Division, Tohoku University
Email: kokusai-k@grp.tohoku.ac.jp