On October 11, 2016, the Japan Association of National Universities (JANU) became a new member organization of the International Association of Universities (IAU).

　

　The accession was made possible in response to a letter sent in February this year, from IAU President Abdul Razak to JANU President Susumu Satomi, inviting JANU to join the association.
　The decision to join the association was approved by JANU’s International Exchange Committee (at its second meeting in FY2016) on September 14. After the designated application procedure was completed, JANU was officially approved to join the IAU in the letter dated October 11 from IAU.

　

　The IAU is an international NGO with official associate status with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in implementing programs. The IAU is an international consortium founded in 1950 under the auspices of UNESCO to facilitate organizational cooperation among higher education and research institutions to enhance the development of education throughout the world.
　Meanwhile, the IAU is the association of universities and other higher education institutes with the most member universities in the world. As of October 2016, it comprised 605 member universities and institutes of higher education in around 120 countries (24 of which are in Japan) and 32 member organizations (one of which is in Japan).

　

The functions and roles of the IAU include the following:

• Establishing a global platform to exchange opinions on major educational issues and challenges, and convening higher education leaders;
• Maintaining and controlling the World Higher Education Database (WHED), its own database regarding higher education institutions and systems around the world;
• Collecting, analyzing and disseminating information on trends in higher education from a global and comparative perspective;
• Advocating the concerns of the higher education community to the UN, OECD and other international organizations; and
• Providing assistance in capacity building and policy development in response to requests from higher education institutions in specialized fields.

　

　JANU will proactively promote activities made possible through its membership in the IAU, which will be useful to JANU and its member universities, such as providing information about higher education around the world and creating opportunities to build new relationships with overseas member organizations by participating in IAU-hosted international meetings and conferences.

　

(Reference) IAU website (URL) http://www.iau-aiu.net/