Online meeting: “Implementation of joint educational programs by Japan and Russia in the age of COVID-19”

On November 20, Hokkaido University and Lomonosov Moscow State University jointly held an online meeting entitled “Implementation of joint educational programs by Japan and Russia in the age of COVID-19”.

The meeting was organized to consider the future of Japan-Russia joint educational programs by sharing and analyzing the information on how each university is practising such programs in the age of COVID-19, when face-to-face educational programs cannot be provided.

The meeting began with the opening remarks by Prof. Atsushi Yokota, Executive Vice President of Hokkaido University, and Ms. Michi Yoshioka, Deputy director of Higher Education Bureau of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) with simultaneous Japanese-Russian interpretation. On the Japanese side, Associate Prof. Shihoko Yamakawa of Niigata University and Prof. Noboru Takamura of Nagasaki University made presentations on online joint educational programs with Russian universities in the field of medicine. Specially Appointed Lecturer Sei Matsushita of Kindai University also made a presentation on such education efforts in the field of manufacturing. Specially Appointed Lecturer Yukako Tokuda, representing the HU Russia Office in Moscow, talked about collaboration between the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and Russian universities for promoting online education.

Afterwards, researchers and practitioners from Russian universities gave presentations on good practices at their universities. Associate Professor Alexander Raevskiy of Lomonosov Moscow State University made a presentation on efforts to promote online classes and conduct online entrance examinations. Then Ms. Irina Dranaeva, Head of the International Department at Arctic State Agrotechnological University, and Ms. Yana Vysotskaya, Director of the Department of International Educational Programs at Ural Federal University, talked about their online international educational programs. In addition, the efforts of Russian universities were also introduced by Novosibirsk State University (Ms. Elena Voytishek, Head, Department of Oriental Studies, and Guest Lecturer Yu Mitsumori), Higher School of Economics (Professor Uliana Strizhak, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs and Ms. Vera Vishnyakova, Head, School of International Regional Studies), and Saint-Petersburg State University of Film and Television (Mr. Aleksey Zolotarev, Vice Director, Curriculum and Instruction Office).

Professor Hirofumi Kato, Director of the HU Russia Office in Moscow, served as the moderator for the ensuing Q&A and discussion session. During the meeting, the attendees discussed the advantages of online education that allow students from various regions, as well as faculty members and speakers, to participate remotely. They also talked about problems to be solved in online educational programs such as the lack of communication between participating students and the difficulties in offering online training/experiment classes and awarding credits for online educational programs, before agreeing to continue discussion online.

Finally, Vice President Masahiro Hoshino of Nanzan University, Professor Shigeru Arai of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Vice Rector Vladlen Kugunurov of North-Eastern Federal University, and Ms. Svetlana Petrova, Head of the International Relations Office of Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering made comments on the presentations, and the meeting was closed.

Approximately 130 people from 21 Japanese universities and 30 Russian universities participated in the meeting. This meeting provided participants with a good opportunity to learn about good practices in online joint educational programs of Japanese and Russian universities and to exchange opinions on the advantages, problems, and solutions.

The event was included in the list of the official events of the “Year of Japan-Russia Inter-Regional Exchanges 2020-2021” and official events of the Association of Institutions of Higher Education of the Russian Federation and Japan.

The videos and presentation materials of the online meeting are available on this page.