UK NARIC 2019 Annual Conference held in London on the 4th and 5th of November 2019 was attended by the staff of National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education (NIAD-QE), the founding institution of National Information Center for Academic Recognition Japan.

UK NARIC is the National Information Center (NIC) in the UK, which provides its members with information on recognition of international qualifications as well as educational information on more than 200 countries around the world. NIAD-QE has been a member of UK NARIC since 2014, and it was the fourth time NIAD-QE attended the conference. This 23rd annual conference was attended by 560 people from 34 countries and regions, with significant proportion of the attendees representing universities in the UK and NIAD-QE as the only institution in attendance to represent Japan.

In her opening speech, Dr. Cloud Bai-Yun, the Chief Executive of UK NARIC, acknowledged the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Network of National Information Centres (APNNIC) by the second session of the Committee of the Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education (The Tokyo Convention), held in Bangkok in September 2019, as a significant stride in the furthering of mobility and internationalization of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region.

The conference plenary session included a discussion on how higher education institutions should respond to the current destabilized state of politics, security, and academic research in the regions of Asia. In addition, workshops were held, some of which provided practical information and ideas for internationalization of higher education institutions, and some focused on topics specific to countries and regions including China, India, Africa, and South America. Topics such as the Tokyo Convention, transnational education, and effective recognition measures for refugees were also discussed at the workshops.