Special Panel | Reimagining Transnational Student Mobility in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Introduction

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)

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Taro Mochizuki

Osaka University, Japan

Professor Taro Mochizuki is the director of the International Affairs Office and International Exchange Center, Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University. He has been the regional Director of ASEAN Center for Academic Initiatives Osaka University, Bangkok (Thailand), 2014-2017. He has also been managing the Japan-ASEAN Global Philosophical Research Exchange Laboratory, a joint lab program in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. He actively participated in research and practice on higher education at the Institute for Higher Education Research and Practice (IHERP), 2004-2012. He teaches Modern Philosophy and Contemporary Thoughts courses and has been conducting research on philosophy, history of philosophy, philosophical practices and social thought at the Department of Philosophy, Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University, Osaka (Japan).

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Farish A. Noor

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Dr Farish A. Noor is Associate Professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and also the School of History SoH, College of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences COHASS, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His main area of work has been Southeast Asian history, with a special focus on colonialism in Southeast Asia. His recent works include 'Data Collecting in Colonial Southeast Asia: Framing the Other' (Amsterdam University Press, 2020) and 'Before the Pivot: America's Encounters with Southeast Asia 1800-1900' (Amsterdam University Press, 2019).

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Mohammad Moinuddin

Osaka University, Japan

Mohammad Moinuddin is an Assistant professor at Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University. He is in charge of the International Office of the Graduate School of Letters and takes care of inbound & outbound student mobility. He is also the coordinator of MOU affairs and Erasmus Mundus Euroculture program at the Graduate School of Letters.

In the past he has been in-charge for the Multilingual Translation Project and one of the task force members of Global Japan Cluster and Global Japan Studies of the Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University. He has also worked with Center for Japanese Studies, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (India) as a guest faculty for fall semester in 2015.

Though he has earned his PhD in the field of modern Japanese literature (2013, Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University), he has been participating in a few collaborative research projects as Co-investigator (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) 2017, Project Number: 17H00912 & Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 2016-2018, Project Number: 16K02607), related to South Asian area studies and cultural studies. He is one of the project members of “Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A Multilingual Bibliography” project and responsible for South Asian languages. His research interest includes, modern Japanese literature, transnational Atomic Literature, transnational student mobility and inter-cultural exchange.

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Muhammad Noor

The Rohingya Project

Muhammad Noor is the Founder and Managing Director of the Rohingya Project, a Blockchain-based organisation to bring financial inclusion and digital identity to stateless people. Noor is also founder and director for several institutions and organisations such as the world's first Rohingya TV broadcast station called Rohingya Vision (RVISION) watched by millions from all over the world. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Rohingya Football Club (RFC) the Rohingya National Team to play at the CONIFA World Cup. He is actively involved in the humanitarian field, working with various international organisations such as UNHCR, the International Red Cross, the International Organisation for Migration as well as several embassies. He also served as general secretary of Rohingya Student development Movement (RSDM).

His acclaimed contributions to the Rohingya community of the world has earned him award and recognition from the Rohingya Education Research Center (ARAKAN) for the digitisation of the First Rohingya Alphabet and developed the first Computer Typeface and one of the main contributors on Rohingya Unicode which was accepted and released in 2018. Noor is also the author of THE EXODUS - A True Story from a Child of Forgotten People which was published in 2012, based on his personal life experience.

He holds an Honors Degree in Computing from the University of Greenwich, UK and an Advanced Diploma in Computer Science from Cambridge University, UK. He has more than 15 years experience as a business owner, corporate senior executive, TV station operator, news reporter, journalist, talk show anchor, corporate negotiator and project manager. He is actively involved in the field of system development, cryptography, security and data privacy. Noor also trains and motivates people from all walks of life in areas such as self-development, management and information technology. Muhammad Noor speaks five Middle and East Asian languages fluently. One of his ambitions is to implement technology to serve humanity.

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Haruko Satoh

Osaka University, Japan

Haruko Satoh is Specially Appointed Professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), where she teaches Japan’s relations with Asia and identity in international relations. She is also co-director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre and she was previously part of the MEXT Reinventing Japan project on “Peace and Human Security in Asia (PAHSA)” with six Southeast Asian and four Japanese universities.

In the past she has worked at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Chatham House, and Gaiko Forum. Her interests are primarily in state theory, Japanese nationalism and identity politics. Recent publications include: “China in Japan’s Nation-state Identity” in James DJ Brown & Jeff Kingston (eds) Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia (Routledge, 2018); “Japan’s ‘Postmodern’ Possibility with China: A View from Kansai” in Lam Peng Er (ed), China-Japan Relations in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); “Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-‘Postwar’ Narrative” in Jain & Lam (Eds.), Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment (World Scientific, 2012); “Through the Looking-glass: China’s Rise as Seen from Japan”, (co-authored with Toshiya Hoshino), Journal of Asian Public Policy, 5(2), 181–198, (July 2012); “Post- 3.11 Japan: A Matter of Restoring Trust?”, ISPI Analysis No. 83 (December 2011); “Legitimacy Deficit in Japan: The Road to True Popular Sovereignty” in Kane, Loy & Patapan (Eds.), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New Leadership Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “Japan: Re-engaging with China Meaningfully” in Tang, Li & Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Professor Satoh is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. She is Chair of the Politics, Law & International Relations section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

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