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Prospects for multilateral cooperation in the field of global education were presented at the X International APEC Conference on Cooperation in Higher Education at Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) on the sidelines of the VI Eastern Economic Forum. More than 300 university presidents, heads of educational agencies and research institutes, experts, and prominent scientists took part in the event. The 10-th conference brought together representatives of more than 80 higher educational institutions in a hybrid format.

“For 10 years, the conference has served as a reliable platform for discussing trends and prospects of education. Every year the event becomes more and more global, uniting new countries. This time, in addition to the traditional representatives of the economies from APEC, the experts were representatives from BRICS and G20, European countries, and the African continent. The mission of the conference is to unite universities, government agencies, international organizations, business representatives, and other interested parties to improve the quality of education in the Asia-Pacific region”, said Victoria Panova, FEFU Vice-President for International Relations.

2021 conference consisted of three thematic tracks: “Reaching for New Partnerships”, “Addressing the Needs of the Future”, “Unleashing the Potential”. APEC participants discussed the trends, challenges and factors driving the development of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, the potential for cooperation, digital transformation in education, individual educational trajectories, and talent management, as well as the architecture of effective partnerships between universities and employers.

The conference resulted in recommendations on the prospects for multilateral cooperation in the field of education. The highest priority among them are:

• promotion of international student mobility, exchange of experience;

• ensuring mutual lending and recognition of diplomas among APEC universities;

• bridging the digital divide by increasing the availability of digital educational technologies;

• exploring the possibility of creating APEC textbooks on online learning methodology for teachers;

• joining the efforts of the APEC academic community to develop joint monitoring tools to prevent natural disasters and global pandemics;

• development of a platform for cooperation between various integration mechanisms within the APEC community and beyond, with a base at Far Eastern Federal University.

The X International APEC Conference continued the series of meetings held at FEFU in 2012-2020. Participants discuss and solve issues in the field of education, science and human capital development in the Asia-Pacific region and the integration of educational systems. The event is an official initiative of the Russian Federation, implemented within the framework of the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group. The conference was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Far Eastern Federal University is actively working to strengthen international relations, strengthening its position as the flagship of Russian education in the APR. The international partner network of FEFU includes more than 300 educational institutions with which cooperation agreements are being implemented. Half of them are located in the Asia-Pacific region. FEFU has representative offices in Japan, the People's Republic of China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, India, and a branch in Japan on the island of Hokkaido that has been operating for more than 20 years. FEFU is the only Russian university in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).