The AAPBS 10^th annual Academic Conference was hosted at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Japan on 19th-21st November 2014. The AAPBS is committed to advancing the unique Asia-Pacific management education and cultivating more entrepreneurs in Asia. In addition to strengthening academic research within different regions, it aims to become the regulation and certification standards board for MBA programs in Asia within 5 years. With this achievement and credentials, the AAPBS shall be the leading B-School certification board for Asia, just as the EQUIS is for Europe and the AACSB is for North America. AAPBS member institutions from Australia, India, China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines account for more than 130 members, along with around 60 institutions from Greater China (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan). Taiwan’s members include National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Chiao Tung University, and National Tsing Hua University. The current president of the AAPBS is Prof. George Benwell, who is the dean of the Otago Business School and the vice president of Otago University in New Zealand.

Professor Ruey-Shan Andy Guo, Dean of NTU’s College of Management; Professor Lin Chang-Juan, Vice Dean of International Affairs; and Yu-Mei Cheng, General Secretary, attended the 10^th annual conference. There were several speeches and round table topics aimed at improving business education in the Asia-Pacific region. Prof. Guo led round table discussion regarding “Curriculum Collaboration” the sharing of educational resources, experiences, academic expertise, and access to visiting scholars, in order to enhance Asia’s business schools. Therefore, the case study, curriculum cooperation, special guest speakers, and shared platform of academic resources were the main content of “curriculum collaboration” From the discussions, Prof. Guo came up with the following recommendations:

•      Collect curriculum designs from different schools

•      Benchmark each school based on curriculum design

•      Benchmark each school based on syllabus design (topic, case, hours)

•      Benchmark different types of MBAs (specialized, general, full time/part time)

•      Specialized + general MBAs, functional MBA’s (MS)

•      Combination of on-line and classroom teaching

•      Membership platform or database

•      Template for surveys

•      Collect material based on AACSB standards

•      New courses development

•      Different/innovative types of teaching (Asian way)

At the end of the conference Prof. Andy Guo was elected to become vice president in 2015 and then take over the office of the president of the AAPBS in 2016. (Members include: University of Sydney, Tsinghua University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Management, Keio University, Korea Institute of Advanced Study, New Zealand’s University of Otago, Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines, National University of Singapore, National Taiwan University, Thaksin University, Chulalongkorn University, University of Queensland in Australia, Fudan University, University of Hong Kong, Hitotsubashi University, Yonsei University, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore).

The positions require him to shoulder a number of heavy responsibilities and there’s a long way before the association is able to meet its end goals. Serving on the AAPBS board requires Prof. Guo to bear the burden of taking the AAPBS to the next level. Despite the challenges he may face, there is no doubt that the goals shall be met. Furthermore, NTU will gain even more international exposure in the Asia Pacific region and reach even new heights in the future.