From 18 December 2021 to 6 February 2022, the Graduate School of Agriculture held an online exchange program for 184 students from its fifteen partner universities in China, Taiwan, India, and Southeast Asian countries. The program, "Transformation of Food, Life, Environment in East Asia and Advanced Research", was organized as a KyotoU Wild & Wise Collaborative Learning Program and comprised mainly of 16 lectures/virtual site visits introducing Japan's culture, agriculture, forestry, fishery, and food industry, and showcasing examples of advanced research achievements and their implementation. Lecturers included Associate Professor Shikiko Yukawa from the Education Center for Japanese Language and Culture, a part of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS), in addition to faculty from the Graduate School of Agriculture.
Among the other activities offered were four exchange events, where KyotoU students from the Good Samaritan Club and École de Kyodai introduced the University and gave presentations on their student life and SDGs activities as well as leading a virtual tour of World Heritage sites in Kyoto. Thirteen students from the Graduate School of Agriculture, on their part, supported online classes and group work sessions as teaching assistants.
The program's final day consisted of a workshop and the closing ceremony. The former was centered on ten student presentations, delivered by 67 of the 184 program participants, all discussing "Our Sustainable Future". The faculty in attendance from KyotoU and partner universities alike expressed surprise at the quality of these presentations, which the students had prepared through six weeks of group work.
The 15 universities represented in the program were: IPB University, the Bandung Institute of Technology, Gadjah Mada University, Tanjungpura University, Mulawarman University, Kasetsart University, Mahidol University, Khon Kaen University, the Royal University of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Zhenjiang University, National Taiwan University, National Chung Hsing University, and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
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Wild & Wise Collaborative Learning Programs
