The International Institute for Asian Studies - Celebrating 20 Years

This year we celebrate the birth of our Institute, 20 years ago. Officially opened on 13 October 1993 by the then State Secretary for Education and Science, Dr M.J. Cohen, the establishment of the International Institute for Asian Studies followed the recommendation by two consecutive committees installed by the Ministry of Education and Royal Netherlands Institute for Arts and Sciences (KNAW). While the first committee was asked to come up with proposals on how to assure and/or improve the quality of research in the so called ‘Small Arts’ (such as ‘Oriental Studies’) and the social sciences where they have a function for the ‘Small Arts’, the instruction for the second committee was to advise on the quality of research in the field of Asian studies in the humanities and social sciences. In their reports both committees stressed the importance of the establishment of an institute for Asian Studies as one of the means to strengthen Asian studies in the Netherlands, and as an important step towards its internationalisation.

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