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The Fourth UTokyo Strategic Partnership Symposium: “Roles of English for Universities in Non-English Speaking Regions”

January 30, 2018

Details

Type Lecture
Intended for General public / Enrolled students
Date(s) March 6, 2018 13:30 — 16:45
Location Hongo Area Campus
Venue Koshiba Hall, Hongo Campus, The University of Tokyo
Capacity 170 people
Entrance Fee No charge
Registration Method Advance registration required
Registration Period — February 27, 2018
Contact Division of International Affairs, UTokyo
int-plan.adm[at]gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp
(Please replace [at] with @)

The Fourth UTokyo Strategic Partnership Symposium
 “Roles of English
for Universities in Non-English Speaking Regions”
 
Background, Concept, and Outlines
 
   The University of Tokyo has been organizing cross-departmental projects called the “Strategic Partnerships UTokyo” with selected overseas partner universities since October 2014. Strategic partnerships play an important role in promoting not only international research collaborations but also diverse and interdisciplinary exchanges of students.
The Fourth UTokyo Strategic Partnership Symposium will be held on Tuesday, March 6th so that faculty members, staff, and students from UTokyo and partner universities may share ideas for better partnership development and discuss good practices as well as common problems of mutual interests.

   The symposium will begin with introductions to and the concept of the ‘Strategic Partnerships UTokyo’, followed by presentations by UTokyo students about their experiences in collaborative programs with partner universities. Then, a panel discussion will be organized to discuss the roles of “English Language” for universities in non-English speaking regions, especially in the context of education. Students may take courses in their mother tongue to be able to obtain fundamental knowledge smoothly and systematically. However, English is still a common and, in reality, an essential tool to connect students with diverse researchers, practitioners, and citizens worldwide when they are involved in various international activities. Therefore, we have decided to discuss in the panel discussion what would be appropriate and what should be avoided, when we organize any educational challenges in English in this contemporary world.

   In the panel discussion, we would like to focus on the following three specific aspects: (a) what are advantages and disadvantages of providing education in English for universities in non-English speaking regions, (b) how the meaning of using English as education media can be different among different education levels (undergraduate vs postgraduate), different disciplines (social science vs natural science, basic science vs applied academic field of study, single-discipline oriented vs interdisciplinary), or any other different types of education, and how these differences can be affected by local cultures and regional characteristics, and (c) how faculty development activities should be organized in universities in non-English speaking regions.

   We sincerely hope that the present symposium will provide the participating universities with an excellent opportunity to exchange mutual experiences as leading universities in non-English speaking regions, and thereby, to contribute to international as well as regional society by strengthening their excellent educational and research capacity further.

Intended for
UTokyo faculty, staff, and students; members of UTokyo’s strategic partnership universities; members from universities selected for the Top Global University Project

Language
English

Program
 
13:30 Opening Remarks
Masashi Haneda (Executive Vice President, Director General of the Division of International Affairs, UTokyo)
13:35 Keynote Speech: “Global Campus Model and Strategic Partnership Universities”
Naoto Sekimura (Vice President, Deputy Director General of the Division of International Affairs, UTokyo)
13:50 Presentations by UTokyo students
14:20 Break
14:40 Panel Discussion: “What are the Roles of ‘English Language’ for Universities in Non-English Speaking Regions?”
Moderator:
Takashi Mino (Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, UTokyo)
Panelists:
Suiyan Fu (Professor/Director, Office of Educational Administration, Peking University)
Meeri Hellstén (Associate Professor, Department of Education, Stockholm University)

Takane Ito (Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, UTokyo)
Hiroaki Suga (Professor, Graduate School of Science, UTokyo)
Yuto Kitamura (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, UTokyo)
Timeline:
Opening comments and introduction of panelists by the moderator (10min)
Short presentation by each panelist (5*10min)
Discussion among panelists (30min)
Discussion open to the floor (20min)
Summary by the moderator (10min)
16:40 Closing Remarks
Naoto Sekimura (Vice President, Deputy Director General of the Division of International Affairs, UTokyo

Poster and Outline
Poster and Outline

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