Dennis Normile
Tokyo--Last week the presidents and senior officials of 13 elite universities in East Asia met in Japan to take the first steps down what representatives hope will be a long road of joint research activities, faculty exchanges, and a shared pool of students and postdocs. "Most Asian universities have been oriented toward cooperation with Western institutions," says Jungho Sonu, president of Seoul National University. "We need to know East Asian universities better." The new organization, called the Association of East Asian Research Universities, includes schools in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.