Report on: HERA 2023 International Conference 

Dates: June 13-14, 2023

Venue: Hybrid (Reception Hall, Hiroshima University etc; and Online)

Report contributed by: Professor Futao Huang

The international conference of the Higher Education Research Association (HERA) for the year 2023 was held from June 13th to 14th at Hiroshima University’s Faculty Club and the Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE). The conference, organized by the RIHE at Hiroshima University, had the theme “Higher Education in a Changing Global Landscape: Challenges and Prospects” and was conducted in both in-person and online formats. A total of 136 presenters attended the conference, including participants from Australia, Chile, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, PR China (incl. Hong Kong), South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan (including Professor Daizen, Professor Huang, Associate Professor Sakurai, Associate Professor Kim, Assistant Professor Li, and some doctoral students). Among the presenters, 76 were from 7 countries who presented on-site, and 60 were from 12 countries who presented online. In addition, there were 7 on-site general participants and 77 online general participants.

The international conferences organized by HERA have been held eight times in the past, including in Hiroshima (2014), Seoul (2015), Taiwan (2015), Hong Kong (2016), Beijing (2017), Kuala Lumpur (2018), online international conference (2021), and online international conference (2022). These conferences have provided a platform for discussions on the challenges and future of higher education in Asia and other continents. Topics such as building research universities, governance and academic culture, higher education policy and finance, equity in higher education, employability, mobility, changing Asian higher education, and mass higher education in the post-pandemic era have been addressed.

The purpose of the HERA 2023 international conference was to investigate the general challenges faced by higher education in Asia and other continents, the challenges that will be faced in the future, and the future of higher education in Asia and other continents in a new context. It primarily invited researchers from Asian countries to analyze and discuss issues in higher education at the global, regional, national, and institutional levels. While accurately predicting the future of higher education in Asia and other continents is impossible, the conference expected to explore and examine various trends related to the future of higher education.

Based on these objectives, this conference analyzed and discussed issues in higher education at the global, regional, national, and institutional levels, with a focus on researchers from Asian countries. Although it is impossible to accurately predict the future of higher education in Asia and other continents, the conference anticipated the discussion of several trends concerning the future of higher education.

The conference featured four keynote speeches by participants from Japan, China, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The keynote speeches addressed the characteristics of the academic profession in Japanese universities, the way of universities, new challenges faced by higher education, and Institutionalizing Liberal Arts in Chinese Higher Education. Additionally, there were four special lectures by participants from Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan, and Poland, covering topics such as Academic Patronage and the Journal Special Issues, institutional research in the University of California System Office, student entrepreneurship, and quantifying the changing global academic profession. Furthermore, four panel sessions and over 20 parallel sessions were conducted, focusing on themes such as higher education systems and policies, internationalization of higher education, governance of higher education, professorial positions, university students, comparative higher education, Chinese higher education, and Taiwanese higher education.

Throughout this international conference, discussions were held on the issues and trends of higher education in Asia and other continents, as well as their future. It reaffirmed the need to grasp the changes and latest trends in global higher education and to reconstruct various aspects of higher education in response to the evolving circumstances.

The next HERA international conference is scheduled to be held in Taiwan in Springer 2024.