Bangkok, Thailand--- The Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (or University Consortium) admitted the Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA) in Japan as its fourth Associate Member during the 19th University Consortium Executive Officers and Coordinators Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on 6-7 November 2006. The admission of TUA brought to nine the total membership in the University Consortium.

The TUA, which was founded in 1891, takes pride of its continuing contribution to agricultural development in Japan as well as to Southeast Asian countries through education and research. A number of Japanese and Southeast Asians are currently engaged in the academic exchange, research and educational activities at TUA. These are carried out through the Society for Agricultural Education-Research Abroad (SAEDA), which was established by TUA in 1978. Other societies established by TUA are the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in 1978 and the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Science (ISSAAS) in 1994. TUA has signed academic cooperation agreements with a number of universities in Southeast Asia, namely: Kasetsart University (KU) in Thailand, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) in Indonesia, and University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and Hanoi Agricultural University (HAU) in Vietnam. (E. C. Cedicol)