This roundtable discusses a critical challenge facing universities in the post-pandemic Asia: online enrollment and teaching. With the COVID-19 pandemic, student mobility has ground to a halt in Asia, and in some instances demonstrated the extent to which universities have grown overly dependent upon foreign students as a source of income. This brought forth various critical questions regarding university education in general. While face-to-face teaching remains the most desirable mode preferred by most students and academics alike, the search for the “new norm” has warranted a reappraisal of untapped potential of online teaching. While social immersion in a different cultural setting from one’s own is important, online teaching allows a borderless connectivity of minds, in providing a different global experience as well as more equal access to the learning process. As universities across Asia slowly resume pre-pandemic activities, there is a need to consider online enrollment and teaching as fundamental and integral to the university system.
Panelists
Taro Mochizuki, Osaka University, Japan (Chair, Moderator)
Farish Noor, Nanyang Technological University, Japan (discussant)
Mohammad Moinuddin, Osaka University, Japan (discussant)
Muhammad Noor, The Rohingya Project (discussant)
Haruko Satoh, IAFOR Research Centre, Japan (discussant)