UCLA Global, April 2, 2026 — Vice Provost Cindy Fan represented UCLA at three major gatherings of international educational leaders in the U.S. and East Asia this winter. In February, she traveled to Washington, DC to attend the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) annual conference (February 16–19), then to Hong Kong for the Asia Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE) annual conference (February 23–27), “Asia-Pacific Partnerships for the Global Good,” hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, or CUHK.
AIEA, founded in 1982, is the only membership organization dedicated to international education leadership. Its 2026 annual conference featured over 100 sessions and roundtables across the international education spectrum. Vice Provost Fan spoke at two sessions: “Strategic Planning for Internationalization in These Uncertain Times” and “The U.S.-China Higher Education Dialogue: Understanding Evolving Problems and New Opportunities in the Bilateral Relationship.”
In the first talk, she shared UCLA’s experience in adjusting its strategic plan to respond to new challenges and opportunities. In the latter talk, VP Fan highlighted how a robust “safeguarding research” infrastructure not only addresses research security concerns, but also enables international research collaborations.
Established in South Korea in 2004, APAIE has a mission to connect higher education institutions of the Asia Pacific with the rest of the world. Its 2026 annual conference was the biggest APAIE conference to date, attended by over 3,500 delegates from 72 countries and regions. CUHK, established in 1963, is the second-oldest university in Hong Kong, and has longstanding ties to the University of California.
Vice Provost Fan organized the “Empowering Women Leaders Across the Asia Pacific” panel at the APAIE conference, which featured four university leaders who addressed the power of mentorship in women’s academic careers. In addition to Fan, the other speakers included Mai Har Sham, professor and pro-vice chancellor of research, CUHK; Joanna Regulska, professor and vice provost and dean of global affairs, University of California, Davis; and Yvonne Lim, professor and associate deputy vice chancellor for academic and international affairs, Universiti Malaya.
Just prior to the APAIE conference, the University of Hong Kong organized “HKU Partner Day” (February 23-24). HKU is the oldest university in Hong Kong (founded in 1887, but established as HKU in 1911). At its Partner Day, Vice Provost Fan participated in a panel organized by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, or APRU, and opened by its chief executive, Thomas Schneider. “Building Resilient and Inclusive Higher Education Systems” featured both Fan and Erik Lithander, professor and deputy vice chancellor for strategic engagement at Auckland University in Australia, in a conversation about what resilience and inclusivity look like in different contexts, and how both must be integrated into a university’s overall mission.
APRU is an association of higher education universities on both sides of the Pacific Ocean with a mission to bring together intellectual leaders, researchers and policy makers to exchange ideas and collaborate on solutions to the challenges of the 21st century. Its 64 institutional members, including seven University of California campuses, hail from East and Southeast Asia, Australasia, and North and South America.
Fan, a senior international leader of APRU, is also a core group member of its Asia Pacific Women in Leadership, or APWiL, Program, for which she acts as a mentor to a younger generation of women academics across the region. To date, six early- to mid-career women faculty at UCLA have gone through the APWiL Mentorship Program, with mentoring provided by university leaders at other APRU universities. A broad array of senior women UCLA faculty and leaders have also mentored younger faculty working at other APRU member institutions.
See video highlights of the APAIE 2026 Conference on the CUHK website.
See the CUHK-organized celebration of 60 years of partnership with the University of California Education Abroad Program.