In December 2002, the Center cosponsored an international conference on the future of Asian higher education in Nagoya, Japan. Researchers from 12 Asian countries discussed papers on the future of Asian higher education systems. These papers will be published as a book. Among the participants were Prof. Weifang Min, executive vice president of Peking University in China, Bro. Andrew Gonzalez, former secretary (minister) of education of the Philippines, and other key higher education experts. The research project and conference are being cosposored by the Center for Studies in Higher Education at Nagoya University in Japan, and funded by the Toyota Foundation, the Japan Foundation Asia Center, and the Japanese Ministry of Education. The project codirector is Prof. Toru Umakoshi of Nagoya University.

Women's universitites are the focus of a new research effort at the Center. The role and function of universities for women worldwide will be researched, with the aim of better understanding this segment of the academic community. Center graduate assistants Francesca Purcell and Robin Helms are involved in this effort.

Working with the Project on Research on Higher Education at the State University of New York Albany, directed by Prof. Daniel Levy, Alma Maldonado-Maldonado and Zhu Hong are developing a comprehensive bibliography on private higher education and a listing of doctoral dissertations on the topic. The work is supported by the Ford Foundation.

Center director Prof. Philip G. Altbach has been appointed visting professor at the University of Hong Kong. He will spend several weeks there in May 2003. Prof. Altbach recently was a speaker at the conference on globalization and Catholic higher education, cosponsored by the International Federation of Catholic Universities adn the Vatican's Congregation on Catholic Education. The conference took lace in December 2002, at the Vatican in Rome.