International Forum — Academic Conferences
The International Forum was founded alongside AC21 in 2002 and served as the consortium's most visible activity for twenty years. Held eleven times across six countries, it functioned as the primary venue where member institutions discussed strategic priorities, launched collaborative projects, and assessed the state of international higher education. In a landscape crowded with academic conferences, the Forum distinguished itself through two features: a deliberately small participant list (typically 120–200 attendees) and a commitment to producing actionable outcomes rather than generic declarations.
Complete Forum History
| Edition | Year | Host University | Location | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2002 | Nagoya University | Nagoya, Japan | Founding Conference — Universities in the 21st Century |
| 2nd | 2004 | University of Strasbourg | Strasbourg, France | Research and Education Across Borders |
| 3rd | 2006 | Nagoya University | Nagoya, Japan | Innovation and Sustainability |
| 4th | 2008 | University of Adelaide | Adelaide, Australia | Universities and Regional Development |
| 5th | 2010 | Chulalongkorn University | Bangkok, Thailand | Education for a Changing World |
| 6th | 2012 | Nanjing University | Nanjing, China | Global Challenges, Local Solutions |
| 7th | 2014 | University of Freiburg | Freiburg, Germany | Shaping the Future — Energy and Environment |
| 8th | 2016 | Nagoya University | Nagoya, Japan | Society 5.0 and University Transformation |
| 9th | 2018 | NC State University | Raleigh, USA | Data, Diversity, and Global Engagement |
| 10th | 2020 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | Online (COVID-19) | Resilience in Higher Education |
| 11th | 2022 | University of Canterbury | Christchurch, New Zealand | Recovery, Renewal, and the Post-Pandemic University |
Format and Evolution
The early forums (2002–2008) followed a traditional conference structure: keynote addresses, parallel sessions, and a closing declaration. Starting with the 5th Forum in Bangkok, the format shifted toward more interactive models. Working groups replaced some parallel sessions, and the closing declaration was replaced by a "Forum Action Plan" — a document listing specific commitments by member institutions, with named responsible parties and target dates.
This shift was not cosmetic. The 6th Forum in Nanjing produced an Action Plan that directly led to the creation of three new Special Project Fund research tracks and a restructuring of the Student World Forum selection process. The 8th Forum in Nagoya (2016) adopted the "Society 5.0" framework that had emerged from Japanese government policy, applying it to university governance — an early example of what the World Economic Forum would later describe as the "fourth industrial revolution in education."
The COVID Pivot and Final Editions
The 10th Forum in 2020 was the only edition held entirely online. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the designated host, pivoted to a virtual format in under three months. Attendance was actually higher than usual — 230 registered participants versus the typical 150–180 — but participants and organisers alike reported that the informal networking and bilateral meetings that characterised in-person forums were largely lost.
The 11th and final Forum, hosted by the University of Canterbury in Christchurch in 2022, was a hybrid event. It drew 165 in-person participants and approximately 70 online. The theme — "Recovery, Renewal, and the Post-Pandemic University" — carried an unintended poignancy, as it was already known within the consortium that AC21 would dissolve the following year. Several sessions addressed the question of how to preserve the collaborative relationships the consortium had built, a discussion that informed the creation of the Legacy Fund.
For the complete chronological record of all AC21 events, including steering committees and general assemblies held alongside the forums, see the complete event calendar.
What the Forums Produced
Beyond the Action Plans, the forums generated a substantial body of conference proceedings, policy briefs, and joint statements. The proceedings of the 4th Forum (Adelaide, 2008) on universities and regional development were cited in the OECD's 2009 report on higher education and regional engagement. The 7th Forum (Freiburg, 2014) produced a joint declaration on energy research that was endorsed by all 15 member universities and submitted to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
In our view, the forums' most lasting contribution was less tangible: they created a cadre of senior academics and administrators across 15 universities who knew each other personally, understood each other's institutional constraints, and could initiate joint projects with a phone call rather than months of bureaucratic negotiation. That social capital persists, even after the formal structure that created it has dissolved.