Due to the COVID-19 pandemic
, academic and research-related topics and research methodologies in education was greatly affected since 2020, and how professors and graduate students from all universities can continue to develop and strengthen their research capacity under the pandemic has become a major concern. Therefore, the College of Education, National Chengchi University and the Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya (UM), for the first time jointly organized an online symposium on September 10-11, 2021, to discuss the challenges/impacts of the pandemic on the higher education system, and share the latest research insights in education and solutions to the current dilemma.
The theme of the two-day symposium was " Emerging research issues, topics and themes in education field under and post the pandemic - Research capacity building and bilateral research collaboration from Taiwan and Malaysian perspectives ". A number of key faculty members from both institutions were invited to participate in the symposium, including Dean Chao-yu Guo, Associate Deans Angela Yung-chi Hou and Jung Cheng Chen from NCCU, and Dean Zawawi Ismail, Associate Dean Husaina Kenayathulla from UM. What’s more, Joshua Smith, a visiting professor to NCCU from Loyola University Maryland, participated in the symposium online even though he had not yet entered Taiwan. In addition to around 60 teachers and students from both universities, the seminar also attracted scholars, experts and students from universities in Taiwan and Malaysia, with a total of over 100 participants. Additionally, on the day before the symposium started, we received an invitation from the National Central Library. They said the conference materials were of great academic reference value and would be useful for academic research development, and would like to include the materials into one of their collection.
The pandemic outbreak spread relentlessly, and its impact on higher education includes thousands of faculty members and students being suddenly forced to stay at home and learn online, and the suspension of international mobility and travel, which caused a lot of inconvenience. Therefore, scholars from both universities presented valuable research results on this issue, such as the application of technology in online teaching, how to ensure students' learning effectiveness in the case of remote teaching, how to turn crisis into opportunity, and the transformation of teaching format in the post-pandemic era. In order to strengthen the academic exchange between young scholars, the two institutions also recommended several outstanding PhD students to participate in the presentation. During the symposium, both parties shared their practical experiences and exchanged their current teaching situations, and gained a deeper understanding of each other's teaching solutions in the face of the pandemic.
Before the closing of the symposium, to demonstrate the willingness of the two institutions to further academic cooperation, the deans of the two faculties of education signed a public announcement in the presences of all participants to show their willingness to collaborate with each other, including jointly publish English books and journals in the future, and to work together towards common academic and research goals. This seminar laid a solid foundation for future academic exchanges between the two faculties.
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