University of Hawaii President Evan Dobelle will be in Asia through July 10, spending four days next week at meetings of the East-West Center's Board of Governors in Malaysia and Singapore. Dobelle, family in Asia
for E-W Center meetingsStar-Bulletin staff
He will present a paper at a panel on "Innovations in Higher Education."
Dobelle and his family left Saturday for a trip that includes stops in Hong Kong and Guangzhou in China; Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Bangkok, where he will meet with UH alumni and supporters, as well as top-level Asia university leaders.
"Our relationships with the countries of Asia are a high priority for the University of Hawaii," Dobelle said.
"Maintaining and strengthening our global reach in the Pacific rim is articulated in our strategic plan, but perhaps even more eloquently in the reality that everywhere in Asia our alumni are among the leaders in commerce and industry, education and communications," he said.
While in Guangzhou, where UH has formal agreements for the training of business leaders and English teachers, Dobelle will meet with Guangdong provincial government officials.
In Tokyo he will attend an alumni reception and meet with the president of Tokyo University.
In Kyoto he will meet with Dr. Soshitsu Sen of the Urasenke Foundation, which recently presented an endowment gift to the UH Center for Japanese Studies.
In Vietnam he will attend ceremonies marking the completion of the first class enrolled in a cooperative program with the Hanoi School of Business under the auspices of the UH-Manoa College of Business Administration.
Dobelle will also meet with the U.S. ambassador in Bangkok and with the president and other officials of Thailand's Chulalangkorn University, a long-standing education partner with UH.
UH spokesman Paul Costello said the $12,878 trip will be paid for by the university and the UH Foundation and that the East-West Center will reimburse the foundation about $3,500 for business-class air fare.
University of Hawaii
