The APQN Annual Academic Conference 2019 was co-hosted by the Quality Assurance Council of the UGC. It was held in Colombo from 29th – 30th March 2019 under the theme of 'Quality Assurance in the Asia-Pacific Region: Insight into the Future'.

The Hon Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, was the chief guest at the Inauguration Ceremony held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall on 29th March. The Hon Karu Jayasuriya, Speaker of the House of Parliament, Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education and Prof Mohan de Silva, Chairman of the University Grants Commission also graced the occasion.

Over 150 delegates from 38 countries participated in two days of deliberations on quality assurance in higher education in the Asia Pacific region. The programme included two key note speeches, four plenary sessions with panel discussions, and six parallel sessions for presentations of oral papers by conference participants.

Dr. Jamil Salmi (Are Cultural Diversity and Quality Compatible ? Dilemmas in Cross-Border Higher Education) and Dr. Peter J Wells (Quality Assurance begins at home: Building Internal Quality Cultures) delivered the keynote speeches for the conference.

The UGC hosted a gala dinner with a sparkling cultural performance by students and staff of the University of Visual and Performing Arts on 29th March. The annual APQN Quality Awards were given out by the President Jianxin Zhan.