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Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, universities and their campuses have been questioned.
Known for her comprehensive education since its founding in 1913 as a Jesuit school, Sophia University has advocated for a compact campus in Tokyo’s Yotsuya district, which provides an environment for foreign academics from other universities to enjoy interactions with others.
“Because we seek to stay in our learning style, it took us some time to go online and prepare for spring categories while maintaining a high-quality education,” said Sophia President Yoshiaki Terumichi, who led efforts to cope with the coronavirus. crisis in college, in an interview with The Japan Times on August 6 at the university.
In reaction to the conversion scenario of the coronavirus epidemic, there have been a number of decisions, adding up the cancellation of start and access ceremonies, a transition to online and monetary courses for academics in need.
For those who have just entered college, the days of staying at home were completely different from what they expected from campus life in central Tokyo. According to a questionnaire on online courses in Sophia, many freshman academics expressed a sense of isolation because they examine with their peers.
“We sense that these freshmans want special attention,” said Terumichi, who invited them to campus in mid-September, the fall categories would necessarily continue to run online. “Having learned from our reports so far, I hope we will be able to manage the scenario properly. “
The same questionnaire found that academics at the time of year and beyond tended to be delighted with online courses, exceling in terms of learning safety and flexibility.
“We’ve discovered the possibility of online courses, this is an inevitable change,” Terumichi said.
For example, the online team will allow teachers more flexibility to conduct their cash studies around the world, while taking distance courses and even providing on-site reporting.
“We want to explore these prospects for the post-coronavirus era. We also want to offer that flexibility to our academics,” said Terumichi, who hopes academics will take courses at universities around the world, as well as Sophia’s, physically. or online, wherever they are.
Although academics have recently been stranded in the countries where they are located, with national borders still closed, virtual change has placed universities around the world on an equivalent basis.
“Instead of seeing online courses as an accidental alternative, we can see an expansion of freedom that can diversify styles and bring the global together more easily,” he said.
Among her 380 schools and partner universities in the Jesuit network worldwide, Sophia is developing a triangular program in collaboration with a university in the United States and one in Kenya that will allow academics from all 3 universities to take other online courses.
Sophia also agreed to cooperate in bilateral exchange systems with nine universities in seven countries.
Trying not to fall behind global education standards, where universities temporarily come together and have active interaction to attract students, Sophia University is running lately to improve its virtual environment in curtain aspects. software.
If there is great potential in online courses, what is the physical campus?
“It is invaluable to share time and area with teachers and other students. Campus is the foundation on which a university can rely more,” Terumichi said. “Our campus has all our reports and experience in human development. On this campus, we lay the foundation for the thinking capacity of our students, with whom they traveled to other countries. »
Looking into the university’s long-term, Terumichi noted that Sophia’s leadership gives 30% of its power to firmly maintain its culture and experience, an additional 30% for additional progression based on achievement beyond and 40% remaining to create something completely new. . Training
With examples of recent achievements and upcoming developments, the Sophia for a Sustainable Future program, a new undergraduate program taught in English with the goal of raising awareness of local and global sustainability, begins this fall semester, despite a challenging environment.
In addition, Sophia is preparing a new master’s program in external cooperation at the Graduate School of Global Studies, which will begin receiving academics starting in the spring 2021 semester.
“The program is aimed at entrepreneurs who paint or wish to paint in the picture of foreign cooperation. Responding to the growing desire for a master’s degree in painting for foreign organizations, adding non-governmental and non-profit organizations, we want to be offering postulants their degree and the opportunity to be more informed about foreign cooperation in a structured way,” Terumichi explained.
“Of course, we also need to inspire college students to transfer to this new program that allows them to examine with experienced entrepreneurs. We have sought to create an environment like a university located in central Tokyo,” the president said.
Regarding the remaining 40% to create totally new things, Terumichi believes that they rethink and redefine what a university is and what campus means.
“I do not need to reposition our philosophy according to the vision of the Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier, who visited Japan in 1549. In position of this, we need to go back to the root of philosophy and explore a new technique to a participatory technique involving students,” Terumichi said.
This is consistent with the words of Pope Francis, who said: “Your university as a whole will have to focus on young people, who will have to not only get a fair education, but also be part of that education, contributing their concepts. ” and sharing his vision and hopes for the future, “in his speech at Sophia University on his stopover in Japan last November.
Having welcomed Pope Francis to campus last year and the percentage of time with him, Terumichi feels a strong sense of duty to return anything to college and beyond.
“His words had an impact. Although his message of “walking with the deficient and marginalized in our world” is “universal and consistent with Sophia’s project” Men and Women for Others,” I knew once again that we were still far from fulfilling our project. project, ” said Terumichi.
“For others, with others,” it’s about understanding others in diversity. The university is working to further globalize its campus through efforts such as opening a halal cafeteria and creating a prayer space.
“I am proud of such a campus. This campus is a microcosm of society,” Terumichi said. And yet the president is motivated to go ahead and reshape the campus to a new taste by involving more students.
“The coronavirus pandemic is a crisis that other people around the world are facing at the same time. This is an unprecedented delight in global fashion society,” Terumichi said. “No authority can give a better explanation of what we are facing. “
As he faces the crisis and converts society, Terumichi hopes that academics will pay attention to those staying at home and abroad, and hopes that they will start with discussions among diverse academics about what is happening in the world today.
“This can also stimulate immediate expansion for other young people to live in a transitional age, where we face an unknown epidemic of infection, in addition to globalization and ongoing digitization,” Terumichi said, adding that “they think for themselves, because what the past generation experienced may no longer be useful. “
In July, academics from the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology; International Institute of Technology Malaysia-Japan; and Sophia University organized an online roundtable and exchanged perspectives and reflections on the current scenario of coronaviruses in the country.
“It’s amazing that academics talk about the factor with a variety of people with other backgrounds,” the president said. “Sophia University has advocated for an environment that allows our academics to do so. I hope you make the most of it, and worry about the procedure of exiting the crisis. “
In this sense, Terumichi believes that the university is guilty of offering a ray of hope to other young people and supporting their activities that can create new concepts in the process.
Reconfirming the inclusive words “Men and women for others, with others” that can be implemented for all other people of any religion in any country, Sofia University will continue its youth education project that can contribute to global society.
“While words may seem too simple, I constantly rediscover the price of this universal message,” Terumichi said. “To the extent that we have a campus culture where we will continue to look for what is universal and what is essential, I that the university has its raison d’eer.
For more information about college, https://www. sophia. ac. jp/eng/index. html.
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