8月26日(木)基調講演(第二部)“Internationalization in Higher Education for Society”報告書
Report on SIIEJ Keynote Presentation Part 2
“Internationalization in Higher Education for Society”
発表者 Speakers
Elspeth Jones (Leeds Beckett University, UK)
Jeremy Breaden (Monash University, Australia)
The second part of the keynote session consisted of two lectures, followed by Q&As and discussions among participants. First, Dr. Elspeth Jones, an Emerita Professor of the Internationalisation of Higher Education, Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom, delivered a lecture on “Implementing Internationalisation of Higher Education for Society (IHES)” to explore how we can give a strategic focus on IHES and implement it across institutions. She noted that intersection between social responsibility, community engagement, service learning and the internationalisation agendas, and activities of universities and colleges are yet largely unexplored although engaging with wider society in support of the greater good has long been an important role of higher education institutions. She also pointed out that IHES has been linked to sustainability, service learning, community engagement, and global common good, and that institutional strategy normally focuses on social responsibility and internationalisation. However, she argued, making a link between social responsibility and internationalisation is not happening currently. She then detailed the characteristics of IHES and introduced several examples from Leeds Metropolitan (current Leeds Beckett) University; those examples include students’ and staff members’ efforts to bring their internationalisation strategy into the local community, university events to bring the local, global community groups into the university, and student volunteer activities in other countries as assessed part of curriculum. She stressed that community engagement in IHES is a mutual learning process, in which both sides benefit, although it does not necessarily mean that each side benefits in the same way. She concluded that universities and colleges have a responsibility to intentionally and purposefully contribute to and learn from society, both locally and globally, for the benefit of all stakeholders, and we need to emphasize the intersection between social responsibility and internationalisation agendas.
Subsequently, Dr. Jeremy Breaden, an Associate Professor, Monash University, Australia, presented a lecture titled, “Challenges for International Education in a Multicultural Society: The Case of Australia.” He, who sees IHES as a process of developing a diverse and non-binary interface between different paradigms and priorities of internationalisation, first remarked that although we need to avoid conflict-based framing of internationalisation, it is important to acknowledge that immense forces are pulling universities and individuals who work within them away from the goal of harmonizing the “global” and the “local.” Pointing out that internationalisation of universities in Australia and the evolution of Australia’s multicultural society tend to run in parallel rather than interconnecting or complementing one another, he briefly introduced how internationalisation of universities in Australia had started. He then pointed to three stages in international education in Australia; Stage 1 focused on how best to support international students, Stage 2 emphasized how international and local students adapt to one another, and Stage 3 stresses intercultural competence and employability for all and outbound mobility. He then identified problems in the approaches taken at each of them and gave two examples about “Asia literacy” and “global” graduate attributes; he argued that approaches to Asia literacy and global graduate attributes tend to frame them as somewhere other than Australia or something students in Australia need to learn about or acquire. He then explained why internationalisation in higher education in Australia is disconnected from multiculturalism, and also shared how the problems are reflected in his everyday work at an Australian university; he shared difficulties in leveraging diversity, reframing the “Australian” educational experience, and decolonizing “global citizenship.” Lastly, reflecting the case of Australia, he addressed the strengths and weaknesses in the case of Japan.
The second part of the keynote session was closed with discussions with the two keynote speakers, moderated by Dr. Hiroshi Ota, a professor, Center for General Education, Hitotsubashi University, and Dr. Yukako Yonezawa, an Associate professor, institute for Excellence in Higher Education, Tohoku University.
報告者 Reporter
T. K. (Toyo University)