The TAICEP2021 annual conference was held online from October 25 to November 19, 2021, and the staff members of NIC-Japan participated in the conference.

*TAICEP: The Association for International Credential Evaluation Professionals

TAICEP, founded in 2013, is a membership organization dedicated to the evaluating of international qualifications and has held annual conferences since 2015. Our center has been participating in the conference continuously, and the last time (2020) we had the opportunity to present at the conference for the first time. Once again, Dr. Hotta, the Executive Director of NIC-Japan, and the staff member gave presentations in a session titled "Update on Japan's Educational System and Higher Education Qualifications". The session included presentations on the Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in the Higher Education (the Tokyo Convention), the introduction of the Asia-Pacific Network of National Information Centers (APNNIC), and the latest information on the Japanese education system and higher education qualifications was presented, and there was a lively question and answer session.

The conference had a theme for each week, with four themes: Asia and the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas and Caribbean, and consisted of about three sessions on each weekday.

The presentations covered a wide range of topics, from recent information on education systems in various countries, such as China's vocational education reform and India's new education policy (The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 ), to trends and challenges in international topics such as micro-credentials, transnational education (TNE), and evaluation and recognition of vocational qualifications in other countries.