University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific

University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) is a regional association of government, non-government and/or university representatives of the higher education sector established in 1993 to enhance cooperation and exchange of people and expertise through increased mobility of higher education students and staff. UMAP has been endorsed by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and member countries are implementing UMAP projects.

The large-scale programme of two-way student exchanges is primarily for undergraduate students in all disciplines to undertake one or two semesters towards their degree in universities overseas, with credit transfer managed by UMAP and cooperating institutions. UMAP has developed a pilot UMAP Credit Transfer Scheme (UCTS) to facilitate greater student mobility in the region by providing a framework for establishing credit transfer arrangements.

History

In April 1991 the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee sponsored a conference in Hong Kong to promote discussion on educational cooperation in Asia and the Pacific, inviting representatives of institutes of higher education from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. A second meeting was held in September 1991 in Canberra, where representatives of 18 countries and territories in the region agreed to establish themselves as a Reference Group, and this was termed the "First Reference Group Meeting". Additional annual meetings were held between 1992-4, at Seoul, Taipei and Osaka. At that last meeting, participants called on Member governments to set up a central scholarship fund to encourage mobility in the region [cite journal | title = Issues Surrounding Mobility with Particular Reference to Japan | author = Yu Kameoka | pages = pp. 243-249 | month = June | year = 1996 | journal = European Journal of Education | volume = 31 | issue = 2 | issn = 0141-8211 ] and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation started publicly supporting UMAP.

References

External links

* [http://www.umap.org/ Website]
** [http://www.umap.org/About/history.html History]
* [http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/international_education/organisations_contacts/apec_human_resources_development_working_group/current_australia_led_projects.htm UMAP] , Department of Education, Science and Training (Australia)