Agreements
Basic Summary
Based on the agreement at the 2nd Trilateral Summit, developing exchange among universities with quality assurance in the three countries is of great importance in implementing human resources development on a scale of the whole East Asian region as the economic activities in this region are becoming more and more interrelated.
Title of the Project
Through this project, it is expected that universities in the three countries will become places where students and professors from diverse cultural and regional backgrounds will be able to come together, and the merits of each university will be realized. Considering the aforementioned, the title of the project has been determined as follows: title in English: “CAMPUS Asia” (Collective Action for the Mobility Program of University Students)
Procedures
This committee meeting will be held in rotation in the three countries in order to steadily realize the project. The 2nd meeting will be held in China in autumn 2010, and the 3rd one will be held in ROK within the first quarter of the year 2011 at the latest, depending on the development of discussion in the working group (to be explained below). The issues to be considered immediately are as follows: - Mutual understanding on an exchange programs and quality assurance - Elaborating the guidelines for exchange programs including credit transfers and grading policies - Implementing a pilot program and identifying necessary support - Mutual understanding for university evaluation, publishing a common glossary of quality assurance, information-sharing on university evaluation, visiting each other to find out about evaluation activities.
Working Groups
In addition to holding this meeting, a Working Group on the Exchange Program and a Working Group on Quality Assurance will be organized. The members of these WGs will be decided by the government, and for the Working Group on Quality Assurance, the representative in charge of the higher education policy of each of the respective governments and the Quality Assurance Agency Committee of the three countries (established in March 2010) may possibly be members.
Agreements
- To further develop higher education throughout the three countries, the members of the three countries concluded the following matters at the 2nd Trilateral Committee for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities (in Beijing). This committee was established based on the proposal by former Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama at the 2nd Trilateral Summit, which took place in October 2009.
- Three countries reached a basic agreement on the guidelines for promoting exchange among the three countries in the area of credit transfer and grade evaluation, and agreed to finalize these guidelines at a later date after considering expert opinions.
- Three countries agreed to implement the pilot program next year as early as possible, and to continue discussion on this matter in detail in the next third meeting to be held in ROK next spring.
- Proposed Guidelines for promoting exchange among the three countries (Outline) The members of the three countries reached a basic agreement on the guidelines for promoting exchange among the three countries in the area of credit transfer and grade evaluation, and agreed to continue discussion on elaborating the guidelines. As the draft will be made public as china is to revise the text, the current outline under discussion is as follows:
- Basic Figure of Exchange Shaped through the Guidelines
* These guidelines define where universities, governments, quality assurance agencies, industry representatives and other stakeholders should focus their efforts in order to implement credit transfer and grade evaluation to enable cooperative education. They also seek to assure the quality of academic degrees, leading to further improvements in quality assurance in higher education both domestically and internationally.
* Since the university system in each country possesses unique attributes and features, the guidelines will be formulated such that no one country is bound to another country’s concept of what a university system or university education entails. Likewise, exchange among universities shall be based on each university’s autonomous policies and frameworks, and the guidelines will be formulated such that no one university is bound to another university’s educational style, exchange program content or method of exchange.
- Important Points: On the basis of the specific responsibilities in each country, the guidelines recommend the following necessary actions to governments, universities, quality assurance agencies and other relevant organizations, including industry. (Detailed explanations for each action are omitted.)
* Establishment of internal quality assurance system
* Effective implementation of exchange programs
* Good services for exchange students Governments
* Establishment of a comprehensive, coherent and transparent quality assurance framework
* Encouragement for relevant universities to participate in the exchange programs
* Support for the quality assurance agency to conduct activities Quality Assurance Agencies
* Maintaining clarification and visibility of procedure
* Seeking for common standards and joint evaluation
* Capacity building for the staff
* Industry and Other Concerned Entities
* Understanding of the significance of trilateral exchange
- Plan for Implementing Pilot Program (under discussion) On the meeting, the following contents and issues were discussed.
- Aim of the Pilot Program The aim of this program is to implement, on a trial basis, and under the principle of openness, extensiveness, flexibility and voluntariness, cooperation and exchanges, credit transfer and grade evaluation to enable a cooperative education scheme among universities in the three countries and, based on the outcomes and issues thereof, to develop a large-scale cooperative education scheme for universities in the three countries.
- Pilot Program Details Universities in the three countries are expected to form small consortiums and implement cooperative education programs - from short-term through to long-term programs, including "short visit", "summer program", and "double degree programs" - that enable credit transfer and grade evaluation.
- Issues to be discussed for Implementation
* Procedures of call for proposal
* Language to be used in the exchange program
* Structure for selection and evaluation
The 3rd Korea-China-Japan Committee, held in Jeju, Korea, on 17th May 2011, agreed as follows:
Implementation of CAMPUS Asia
Objectives
Based on the 『Trilateral Cooperation VISION 2020』 adopted at the Third Trilateral Summit, CAMPUS Asia aims to promote cooperation among universities and mutual understanding among students of the 3 countries through various forms of exchange programs between universities, and ultimately contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of universities and nurturing the next generation of outstanding talents of Asia.
Pilot Program
CAMPUS Asia shall be initiated through a pilot program, after which exchange programs of different types and levels shall be developed and the program scale will be expanded based on the experience accumulated from the pilot program,. Based on the discussions at the 2nd Korea-China-Japan Committee (’10.12, Beijing), the 3 countries’ working groups have continuously discussed and established principles for the implementation of the pilot program as follows. These principles were confirmed at the 3rd Committee.
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Exchange Subjects : Undergraduates and Graduates of Korea, China, Japan Universities
- Participating Unit : A consortium by the universities of the 3 countries
- Eligibility for Participation: Domestic national, public and private universities of the three countries
- Application shall be made at the level of departments or colleges and submitted through the participating universities.
- One university may participate in several consortiums or multiple universities from one country may participate in one KCJ consortium.
- Style and field of exchange projects : To be decided by each consortium autonomously.
- Period of exchange projects : To be decided by each consortium autonomously, but it is recommended that the exchange period for students be 1 year as the main form and no less than 3 months during the pilot stage.
- Number of students to be exchanged : Each country will support the mobility of 100 students per year (for a 1 year exchange basis) to and from the other two countries during the pilot stage. It is recommended that each country have an equal number of exchange students, and each university shall send and receive equal number of students. The number of students privately funded or funded by their own university is not included in the above number (100). Each consortium can accept those students at their discretion if they are qualified enough for the program.
- Pilot Program’s Duration : 3-5 years.
- Joint Call for Proposals and selection of consortiums in 2011, followed by student exchange from 2012.
- The 3 countries will evaluate jointly the progress of projects every two year.(For example, for 5 year projects, interim evaluation in 2013(fiscal year), and final evaluation in 2015(fiscal year). Financial support may be reduced or terminated for projects with poor progress.
- Number of consortiums to be selected : about 10 consortiums
- Selection of the project
- 1st stage (Each country’s autonomous evaluations)
- 2nd stage (Joint trilateral evaluation)
- Language : To be decided by each consortium autonomously.
- Support to Universities : To be decided by each government autonomously.
- Support to Students
- Each student will pay tuition to his/her respective university, and tuition fee between universities forming consortium shall be mutually exempted. However, each consortium can additionally accept fee-paying students as their discretion.
- Government Support : It is strongly recommended that the receiving country provide maximum 100 (1 year basis) inbound students by principle with the minimum support level on par with its government-funded scholarship students.
- Support for airfare will be decided autonomously by the home country (student-sending country), while all other costs, including accommodation and housing, will be covered by the host countries (student-receiving country).
Guidelines for Exchange and Cooperation among Universities in China, Japan and Korea with Quality Assurance
These guidelines clearly stipulate the functions and responsibilities of all parties involved in CAMPUS Asia such as governments, universities, quality assurance agencies, industries, etc, to be used by each party from the pilot program stage. The 3 countries should actively disseminate these guidelines to each party.
Upcoming Korea-China-Japan Committee
The 4th Korea-China-Japan Committee will be held in Japan, in October 2011 and the results for the selection of consortiums of the pilot program will be reported.
Agreement of the 4th Japan-China-Korea Committee
for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities
The Japan-China-Korea Committee for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities (hereinafter the Committee) held in Tokyo, Japan, on 6 August 2013, agreed as follows:
Expansion of “CAMPUS Asia”
The Committee shared and confirmed the significance, openness and potential of development of “CAMPUS Asia” in higher education in Asia. Responding to the spirit envisaged in the joint declaration of The Fifth Trilateral Summit Meeting among the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Japan held in Beijing in May 2012, the Committee confirmed to further promote the development and enhancement of “CAMPUS Asia” on the basis of the pilot programs, with close cooperation and perspective to further expand the scale and scope of the programs so as to cultivate more and better talents for the region.
* Joint Declaration on the Enhancement of Trilateral Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership, The Fifth Trilateral Summit Meeting among the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Japan (13 May 2012, Beijing, China)
“We encouraged the three countries to make a contribution to the establishment of a shared quality assurance framework in Asia through the pilot programs and to further expand the scale and scope of the programs so as to cultivate more and better talents for the region”.
Monitoring activities of the pilot programs
The Committee shared the significance and importance of the ongoing monitoring of the pilot programs, which promotes quality assurance of “CAMPUS Asia.” The monitoring leads to a standard, which is crucial for expansion of the programs; the Committee expects its consistent progress.
The Committee confirmed the basic framework and monitoring schedule of the pilot programs.
* The monitoring project is to be carried out by the cooperation of the QA agencies of the three countries focusing on universities’ quality assurance activities. The QA agencies of the three countries identify good practices from the aspect of the quality of education and disseminate them broadly to higher education community.
* Through monitoring which will be conducted twice during a five-year period, the QA agencies jointly compares and analyzes quality assurance activities in the three countries, and then will draw up joint guidelines for quality assurance of transnational education for QA agencies of Japan, China and Korea.
Upcoming Japan-China-Korea Committee Meeting
The 5th Japan-China-Korea Committee for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities will be held in Shanghai, China, in autumn 2014.
Agreement of the 5th Meeting of the China-Japan-Korea Committee
for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities
The 5th meeting of the China-Japan-Korea Committee for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities (hereafter referred to as the Committee) was held on April 10th, 2015 in Shanghai, China. The consensus reached is as follows:
Quality Assurance and Monitoring of the CAMPUS Asia Programs
- In line with the Guidelines for Exchange and Cooperation among Universities with Quality Assurance and the Agreement of the 4th meeting of the Committee, the 1st (midterm) quality monitoring of the ten pilot programs of CAMPUS Asia were carried out separately by quality assurance agencies of the three countries, based on their own criteria and procedures which are mutually recognized. The Committee accepted the quality monitoring results given by three agencies.
- The good practices of CAMPUS Asia pilot programs identified by quality assurance agencies of the three countries, were highly regarded by the Committee, and will be disseminated and made available among the three countries and beyond, in order to facilitate the expansion and quality enhancement of CAMPUS Asia Programs.
- The Committee adopted the framework of the 2nd joint quality monitoring of CAMPUS Asia Pilot Programs, and showed support for the quality assurance agencies of the three countries to jointly conduct final quality monitoring before the pilot programs end (from 2015 to 2016) according to this framework, and to develop the final quality report.
- The Committee agreed to make the full use of the website of “China-Japan-Korea Quality Assurance Council”, to improve the information exchange and sharing in CAMPUS Asia quality assurance and monitoring, and make timely reports to the public regarding the quality monitoring criteria, procedure and results, thereby ensuring the transparency and access to quality information, and strengthening the public support and oversight to the programs.
Expansion and Sustainable Development of CAMPUS Asia
- Echoing the mission of CAMPUS Asia which is open, flexible, progressive, the Committee supported the three-mode expansion scheme. Mode 1 is to enhance the openness of the programs, to allow more flexible student mobility, such as among programs. It will be decided by member universities. Mode 2 is to select more China-Japan-Korea universities to join in CAMPUS Asia. Mode 3 is to expand participating countries beyond China, Japan and Korea in Asia.
- To ensure the sustainable development of CAMPUS Asia, the Committee agreed to implement the expansion scheme in the following three stages. From 2015 to 2016, Mode 1 will be adopted. The quantity of student mobility will be enlarged for the programs which have demonstrated outstanding performances and development potentials during pilot period. During 2015 and early 2016, the admission criteria and procedure with more flexibility and diversity for new programs will be studied and formulated, and additional participating universities will be selected. Mode 2 will be launched in September 2016. After the implementation of Mode 2, the Committee will summarize experience and discuss the implementation scheme of Mode 3.
- To further facilitate sustainable development of “CAMPUS Asia” and to provide services for authorities, teachers and students, the committee agreed to further discuss a specialized website of “CAMPUS Asia Information Platform” after fully implementing Mode 2, in order to release events and activities of the committee, to provide information of the China-Japan-Korea exchange programs, to gather and publish the exchange development status and experiences, and to produce data analysis result. Detailed scheme shall be discussed at the working-level meeting of Working Group for University Exchange.
- To provide better environment for more flexible student mobility and to strengthen the development capacity of CAMPUS Asia, the Committee agreed to establish cooperation mechanism for mutual recognition of qualifications and credits among China, Japan and Korea. The Committee encouraged participating universities to regularly hold seminars for rectors, teachers and students to exchange views on experience of university exchanges and quality assurance, in order to ensure the sustained attractiveness, and to promote visibility and influence of CAMPUS Asia.
The Next Meeting
The Committee decided that the 6th Meeting of the China-Japan-Korea Committee for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities will be held in Korea in the year of 2016.
Agreement of the 6th Meeting of the Korea-China-Japan Committee
for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities
The 6th Meeting of the Korea-China-Japan Committee for Promoting Exchange and Cooperation among Universities (hereafter referred to as the Committee) was held on 23 November 2017 in Seoul, Korea. As a result, the following consensus was reached.
Sustainable Development and Expansion of CAMPUS Asia
- (Continued promotion of CAMPUS Asia) In line with the Guidelines for Exchange and Cooperation among Universities and the Agreement of the 5th Meeting of the Committee, the Committee highly appreciated the successful launching of full-fledged program in 2016 and China-Japan-Korea’s joint-selection work for the full-fledged program based on the criteria of respective country. The Committee agreed to work more closely to pursue the continued development of CAMPUS Asia based on the successful outcome of its pilot programs. To this end, the outcomes of the programs were shared among the three countries, while ways to further improve them were discussed. Furthermore, the Committee confirmed that further in-depth discussion is required to set the pathway for the future of the programs through various means, including the 2nd Trilateral Education Ministers’ Meeting.
- (Expansion of Mode 3) At the previous Meeting of the Committee, the three countries agreed to expand CAMPUS Asia by introducing the three-mode expansion scheme. The Committee also reaffirmed their consensus to continue to pursue the program to promote mobility in higher education even after this current period of CAMPUS Asia Programs (Mode 2), and decided to discuss about the Mode 3 in more detail at the next meeting. The three countries will summarize experience of the selection work and start discussion on joint selection criteria at the next meeting to improve the rationality of the trilateral selection and provide effective support for the expansion of the program.
Quality Assurance and Monitoring of CAMPUS Asia
- (Common Principles) To support the active exchange of students among the consortia, the Committee agreed to draw up the Common Principles for implementing CAMPUS Asia. The Common Principles will include various matters relevant to the operation of the program, including the period of exchange, the principle of balanced student exchange, the parties responsible for the provision of funding, and the scope of scholarship. The three countries also consented to actively inform the consortia of the Common Principles to assist their successful operation of the program.
- (Monitoring) The outcome of the 2nd Monitoring, which was distributed at the 1st Trilateral Rectors’ Forum, was shared once again at the 6th Meeting of the Committee, and was adopted by its members. Based on the outcome, the Committee decided to establish the framework of the 3rd quality monitoring of CAMPUS Asia. The overall direction of the upcoming 3rd monitoring, including the monitoring criteria and guidelines, was discussed and it was decided to be conducted in 2018. The specifics of the monitoring will be determined by government assigned agencies later on through further discussion.
Creation of conducive environment for active student exchange and capacity-building
- (Joint policy research) Based on the agreement of the 5th Meeting of the Committee, the members of the Committee agreed to support the active exchange among CAMPUS Asia consortia, and to start discussion on launching joint research project on the higher education systems of the three countries and their recognition of qualifications to promote mobility in the field of higher education. Moreover, the Committee shared views that this research should contribute to the promotion of dual/joint degrees and mobility in higher education among the three countries.
- (Expansion of relevant exchange activities) At the 5th Meeting of the Committee, it was agreed that more seminars should be held on a regular basis, inviting rectors, faculty and students to exchange views on their experiences of exchanges with other universities and of their efforts to achieve quality assurance. The members of the Committee also confirmed to work harder to take note of the positive outcome of CAMPUS Asia, and to proliferate its progress by conducting these activities including through organizing regular meetings for the consortia and alumni of the three countries.
The Next Meeting
The Committee decided that the 7th Meeting of the Committee will be held in Japan in the year of 2019.