DAU is an independent platform for university leaders, policymakers, industry partners, and researchers worldwide to understand the historic rise of Asian higher education and its wide-ranging impacts.
About us
Over the past few years, Da Hsuan and I have been exchanging articles we wrote on higher education and other topics. In one of the exchanges that our good friend Eng Chye also joined, we shared our concern that the evolution of Asian higher education had not been properly discussed on a global platform. This idea evolved into DAU. In fact, the first DAU started as an "internal affair" with Da Hsuan interviewing Eng Chye and me. Through Da Hsuan, we are fortunate to bring in Max, whose contribution goes beyond providing technical support but also, more importantly, giving his perspective as a next generation.
Tony F CHAN
President
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Former President
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
What we do
Dialogues at DAU are globally live streamed, gathering leaders in higher education to share their insights and engage in deep discussions on specific topics.
A DAU dialogue begins with opening remarks from the panelists, followed by moderated discussions. Then we open up the floor for the audience to directly ask questions to the panel members. Each dialogue typically lasts 90 minutes.
RSVP is required for participation. Please join our mailing list so you won’t miss out on the future dialogues.
It started as a casual exchange between Da Hsuan and Tony, both long-time friends of mine. We are cognizant of the interest in the development of Asian universities, in parallel with the global shift of economics towards Asia. We thought sharing ideas and practices through a platform would be useful, especially when covid had restricted face-to-face interactions. Hence, the DAU, which grew very quickly. It's been fulfilling working with Da Hsuan, Tony, Max, and his wonderful team. We hope this platform will be of benefit to many universities working hard towards excellence.
TAN Eng Chye
President
National University of Singapore
Immediate Former Chair
Universitas 21
Andrew CHEN
Vincent JIANG
Xinyu LIU
Yifei LIU
Leqi MU
Fuxuan SONG
Bowen ZHANG
DAU operation team
DAU co-founders
The genesis of DAU arose serendipitously. In 2020, I read a fascinating book on higher education written by Tony Chan about his experiences as the president of HKUST. The book struck a chord with me, especially about the robust intellectual growth of Asian higher education. I started an email thread on this topic with Tony and my other good friend, Tan Eng Chye, the President of National University of Singapore. Our conversation quickly evolved into an exciting idea to build an international platform to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Asian higher education. Since we felt it is important to have the younger generation perspective, I pulled in my friend Max Lu from Bloomberg, now at Harvard University. With the four of us having different perspectives of Asian higher education, DAU was born!
Da Hsuan FENG
Former Vice President for Research
University of Texas at Dallas
Former Senior Vice President
National Tsing Hua University
Chulalongkorn University
ETH Zurich
Hainan University
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Indian Statistical Institute
Israel National Council for Civilian Research & Development
Jadavpur University
Keio University
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Korea University
Participating institutions
As of July 2023
Displayed in alphabetical order
Nanyang Technological University
National Statistical Commission, India
National University of Singapore
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
SUSTech - Southern University of Science and Technology
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The University of Tokyo
Universiti Malaya
When Da Hsuan, Tony, and Eng Chye invited me to join DAU, I knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime. Higher education holds the key to many challenges in our society. For me, beyond ensuring high-quality operations and potential growth for DAU, I aim to incorporate the perspectives of younger generations into the conversation, without which the dialogues would be incomplete.
Max LU
Doctoral Student
Harvard University
Technology Fellow
USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP)