Dear Deans, Members and Schools, This is the 3rd President message in 2020. The past 2
messages were about the new corona virus. The situations dont allow me to
draft something unrelated to the pandemic. Hopefully this will be the final
one. In the case of APU where I have been working for more
than 20 years, the epidemic had a big impact on our education system: they are
online education and impact on international students. APU has made an enormous shift toward online and
virtual courses in the past few months. While the ability to do this so quickly
is impressive, the effects on teaching and learning has been very mixed. APU
that didnt possess a viable online course system in place before the crisis
has been struggling to adapt to an entirely virtual program. Faculty and staff transitioned all learning to online
and virtual in a very short period of time and this will undoubtedly impact the
success and retention of students. If fewer students are successful in their
courses and fewer students re-enroll for summer and fall semesters, APU will
see their retention rates and tuition revenues decline. However, APU may be
able to avoid the situations. The negative aspect of on-line education is that
campuses that emphasize an intimate college experience like APU have lost a lot
of opportunities for our students to develop themselves. Whats more, with
campus closures, APU has lost the opportunity to actively engage with potential
students through on-campus experiences, such as admitted student days and open
houses. APU can mount a ton of webinars, but the fact remains that on-campus
events are the most impactful events for students who want to get a visceral
feel for a particular campus. For a large number of international students who
attend APU, there are many unknowns as we plan for the fall semester. More than
a half of the students are outside of Japan. They cannot enter into Japan,
since there are severe entry restrictions. Luckily, some had stayed in Japan
without going back to their home countries during the last spring break. However,
many international students need to stay in their home countries. On-line
education will be a must for them even after APU has implemented the
face-to-face education. It implies that APU should maintain a kind of hybrid
education between face-to face and virtual educations for the time being. When
the epidemic began, APU like other universities needed to change our teaching
completely into on-line. That eventually turned out to be a big success like
other institutions. On the other hand, APU is now facing how APU should adapt a
hybrid education. I attended several Webinar meetings and conferences,
where attendants focused on on-line education as one of the hot issues. APU
should propose further topics, what is hybrid education like?, how equally
should we handle face-to-face students and virtual students?, and how are the
same tuitions justified? I look forward to having in-depth discussion about
these topics with you at the coming meetings and conferences. Best
Regards,
Prof. YOKOYAMA, Kenji, PhD. Executive Dean & Vice-President
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU)
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