Faculty, Graduate School and School of Education, Hokkaido University participated in the following programs.
1. ESD Campus Asia Pacific Program
Term: August 1 to 8, 2019 (8 days)
Participants: A total of 34 undergraduate students from Hokkaido University (HU), six partner universities in five countries as well as non-partner universities like Sakhalin State University (SSU), from which two students participated in this program while one HU student was dispatched to SSU.
Activities: This program, initiated in 2011, welcomed students from SSU in 2016, playing a central role as a short-term (ten-day) interactive overseas study support program involving six universities in five countries. Through buddy programs with the partner universities, HU welcomed international students including those from SSU in the ten-day intensive program hosted by HU in the summer after a prior learning session in spring, providing them with opportunities to study with HU students. One HU student also participated in the 10-day autumn program to promote student exchanges with partner universities. In the winter term, a HU student who completed overseas studies gave a final presentation program on February 10 to summarize the accomplishments of four academic terms.
2. ESD Global Partnership Collaborative Educational Program
Term: December 9, 2019 to March 4, 2020
(The initial program was intended to be 90 days long until March 9th, but the participants returned four days earlier than scheduled due to the impact of the new strain of coronavirus pandemic.)
Participants: Four students (two from Sakhalin State University; two from HU to Sakhalin State University)
Activities: As an advanced program of the above-stated 1. ESD Campus Asia Pacific Program, HU implemented a short-term (3-month) interactive overseas study support program with SSU. Two students from SSU who had completed Program 1 participated in this program for three months from October to December. They attended classes for one quarter term, including Japanese at the HU School of Education, acquired credits and returned home. Two HU students, in turn, participated in classes at SSU for 90 days from December to March, obtained credits and returned to Japan.
3. Northern Sustainable Development Forum in Yakutsk
Term: September 24 to 28, 2019 (5 days)
Participants: Two faculty members and two graduate students were dispatched from the HU Graduate School of Education to Yakutsk.
Activities: In September, two faculty members (Professor Jeffrey Gayman and specially appointed lecturer Tyril Eskelson) and two graduate students from the Graduate School of Education as well as a faculty member from the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center participated in a panel on Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development that was planned as part of the Cold Lands Seminar successively held since 2008. They made presentations on the social issues facing the Ainu people and the ESD Campus Asia Pacific Program in front of approximately 40 teachers and students.
The graduate students interacted with the students who had completed the RJE3 Russia-Japan Educational Program and the graduate students of North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk to expand their knowledge. The two graduate students, who had completed the ESD Campus Asia Pacific Program of the HU School of Education emphasizing coordination with the community, learned many case examples of collaboration with local communities. The program with which HU proceeded was successively propagated in the forum from the perspective of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), significantly contributing to the enhancement of future ESD programs, which could be identified as a remarkable achievement of this forum.
4. On-line Workshop Between Three Japanese-Russian Universities
Term: November 12, 2019
Participants: Hokkaido University: 12; Sakhalin State University: 20; Ural State Pedagogical University: 7
Activities: The on-line workshop was held under the theme of the Current Phase of Japan-Russia Comparisons: Through Regional Education, Educational Psychology and Pedagogical Research toward the joint research project of the three Japanese-Russian universities. We discussed the possibility of successive future joint research as one of the diverse topics. Separate progress has already been made on joint research in specific disciplines.