CUHK Vice-Chancellor chairs the APRU Annual Presidents’ Meeting in Auckland
Prof. Rocky S. Tuan (7th left, front) chairs the APRU Annual Presidents’ Meeting at the University of Auckland.
CUHK Vice-Chancellor Prof. Rocky S. Tuan chaired the Annual Presidents’ Meeting of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) held at the University of Auckland in June. Themed ‘Oceans–The World’s Challenges Divide Us, the Ocean Currents Connect Us’, the meeting was joined by over 120 presidents and leaders of 61 APRU member universities spanning Asia, the Pacific, North America and Latin America to discuss their work addressing the impact of climate change on oceans and coastal communities.
Prof. Tuan chaired the panel ‘Navigating the Tides: APRU Leadership in Addressing Climate Change’, where he stressed the importance of connectivity. ‘We’re all from a country, a region, an economy that touches the water of the Pacific. The Pacific really symbolises our shared global community and the common challenges we face.’
‘Addressing the climate impact on our oceans and its effects on communities and indigenous populations reminds us of APRU’s vital role in fostering constructive dialogue, collaborative research, impactful work, and real world solutions.’
‘The future is a little fuzzy these days. But our job is to bring sunshine to this cloudy future.’ He said that collaboration was ‘more than a memorandum of understanding’ between universities, noting that, ‘collaboration requires the partners to have common interests, a common purpose’.
The University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor and APRU Vice-Chair Prof. Dawn Freshwater, echoed that, ‘Our challenge today and tomorrow is to strengthen our partnerships so that APRU members can collectively meet their obligations in the region with solutions to unique Pacific manifestations of the global challenges we face.’
CUHK Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof. Mai Har Sham and Director of Academic Links Ms. Shally Fan also participated in the meeting. Other topics covered included the impacts of climate change on the oceans and the implications for communities and indigenous populations, climate justice, food and water security, and APRU’s leadership role in navigating these issues.
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