Under the leadership of President Lih J. Chen, four faculty and staff members attended the 18^th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and 31^st Board of Directors Meeting (BOD) of The Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU) on November 1^st to 3^rd, 2012. These two meetings were held on the campus of Seoul National University (SNU) and were organized by the Office of AEARU Secretariat, which is currently headquarters at NTHU, and the International Office of SNU.

During the first part of BOD meeting, AEARU Secretariat reported on the financial status and the sponsorship program of the Association, and it was followed by a discussion of sponsorship applications received from members.

At the AGM, there was a discussion on the proposed Constitution Amendment and a vote of AGM members was taken. The proposed amendment was approved with majority votes which will allow the organization to accept three new members in the near future.

During the second part of AGM, there were 5 speakers representing their institutions and two additional guest speakers. The first guest presentation was Mr. Phil Baty, the editor of Times Higher Education Ranking, reporting on the methodology of Times' ranking. And the second guest speaker was Prof. Kurt Deketelaere, the Secretary-General of League of European Research Universities (LERU), who was invited by President Chen to attend the AGM and to brief the representative on LERU, its organization and activities.

After the guest presentations, there were five presentations made by AEARU members. First by President Si-Chen Lee of National Taiwan University (NTU), who briefed the AGM on the AEARU Environmental and Energy Workshop that was organized by NTU last March. The second and third presentations were by President Susumu Satomi of Tohoku University and Vice President of the University of Tsukuba, Prof. Yutaka Tsujinaka; they both shared their point of views on the topic of Future Research Topics Suitable for AEARU Universities. Lastly, the Associate Vice President of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Prof. Chang D. Yoo, reported on the Enhancing Undergraduate Education Program implemented on his campus.