Events

As of January 2020, there were about 5.3 million international students worldwide, many of whom are now impacted by the global outbreak of COVID-19. With countries suspending cross-border movements, internationalisation activities across campuses and colleges appear to have come to a halt. Study abroad and exchange programmes were suspended. International students were recalled and sent home. Universities are scrambling to cope with the shift towards online and remote learning, which may or may not meet the expectations of students who aspire to gain overseas learning experiences. Existing international students have to navigate multiple challenges associated with closures of campuses, loss of student jobs, visa control measures, and the rise of xenophobia and racism, in addition to making difficult decisions regarding their international study and career plans in a time of great uncertainty.

In this current situation of global containment and border enforcement, the horizon of higher education seems to be a world of constrained mobility. This is due to the anticipated long-lasting impact on international student enrolment even after travel restrictions are lifted, as well as new systems of border controls such as ‘travel corridors’, ‘green lanes’, and ‘immunity passports’ that regulate immigration and emigration in a more selective manner. Additionally, the impacts experienced across the globe by different institutions and various student communities and cohorts are differentiated and with consequences on uneven capacities for recovery and rebound. How has the global pandemic reshaped cross-border educational activities and student mobilities? How is it reframing present imaginations and practices around mobility and immobility vis-à-vis the political and socio-cultural norms that define their viability? What post-pandemic futures can we imagine and how do we create the conditions for them to be realised?

This virtual workshop brings together academic researchers, university practitioners and students to reflect on experiences across nearly a year of living with the COVID-19, and to discuss possible scenarios and futures of international student mobility and higher education in the Asia-Pacific region set against global trends. Speakers will engage with topics including, but not limited to:

• Diverse impacts of the pandemic across different localities and regions, transnational spaces as well as types of educational mobilities in and of the Asia-Pacific;
• Migration and border control tools that are triggered to manage the virus spread such as visa restrictions and surveillance technologies, and their implications on international students;
• Institutional responses, strategies and reinventions in the face of the pandemic’s disruptions; 
• Disruption and innovation in pedagogical approaches and learning infrastructures including the opportunities and limits of technological platforms;
• International and domestic student experiences and post-study aspirations amidst pandemic uncertainties;
• Reconceptualisation of the value, meanings, and means of “internationalisation” and “mobility” across different actors in higher education; 
• (Dis)embodied geopolitics of transnational education and student migration in everyday life and on a global scale;
• Opportunities and challenges that arise in addressing educational inequalities, social justice, and ethics in a time of pandemic;
• Prospects, sustainability, and costs of international student mobility and higher education internationalisation.

WORKSHOP CONVENORS

Dr Yi’En CHENG
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Dr Peidong YANG
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Prof Brenda S.A. YEOH
Asia Research Institute, and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this virtual workshop has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the event.