Earlier this year, the international education sector has rallied behind the organisers of APAIE after an announcement came that the 2020 event would be postponed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

“It is difficult, if not nearly impossible, to predict what conditions we will be facing in March 2021”

Due to be held in Vancouver in March 2020, the APAIE conference was set to be held in the same venue in the Canadian city in March 2021.

However, in an email to delegates, APAIE president Sarah Todd explained that international travel continues to be significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and a number of countries are indicating that the reopening of their borders is many months off.

“It is difficult, if not nearly impossible, to predict what conditions we will be facing in March 2021, but everyone involved with the APAIE conference wants to provide each of you with as much certainty as possible,” she said.

“For that reason, we have made the very tough decision to postpone (yet again!) the conference scheduled to be hosted in Vancouver.”

Todd expressed gratitude to both Simon Fraser University and Mahidol University for their flexibility and commitment to APAIE, and explained that “we are now planning to meet in Vancouver in March 2022 (third time lucky!) and Bangkok in March 2023”.

Very sad, personally & professionally, that @apaie2021 is not going to go ahead as a face to face meeting in March 2021 as planned. More details to come. To all colleagues & friends in #intled, stay safe. Thanks to @sfu and @MahidolU for their incredible commitment to #APAIE.

— Sarah Todd (@STodd_Griffith) August 11, 2020

“At a time when the international education sector faces incredible challenges and disruption on a scale that we have never seen before, I know how important it is that we get together as a community,” Todd continued.

“It is also a time when, more than ever, we need to support each other and put those networking and mentoring skills to good use.”

She acknowledged that due to the volume of virtual events taking place at the moment, APAIE has made the decision not to add one to the calendar in 2020.

“However, we are keen to provide updates on what is happening across the Asia-Pacific region, as well as offer a platform to share some of that best practice occurring,” Todd added.

“We are therefore looking forward to hosting a virtual event in March 2021, as well as exploring the possibility of smaller-scale regional events in combination with some of our sponsors and partner associations.”