Asian Universities Research Articles

Exploring the role of community cultural wealth in university access for minority students

Ethnic minority students—often descendants of earlier waves of immigrants from neighbouring South and Southeast Asian countries—have been under-represented in enrolment in higher education in Hong Kong. In addressing low university/college-enrolment, traditionally under-represented students’ family and community are considered deficit and under-resourced, and their inherent values and strengths remain unrecognised and less-explored. This study employed the community cultural wealth framework to highlight the various forms of capital existing within the families and communities of 15 South/Southeast Asian university students that had allowed them to navigate university predisposition, search and choice processes. The findings of this study unveil the diversity and richness of capital within non-dominant communities that have limited access to capital, normalised within hegemonic and oppressive educational institutions and call for researchers and educators to legitimise and utilise the community resources for widening university attendance.

Advancing the pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Initiatives of selected publicly listed companies in the Philippines

Advancing the pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Initiatives of selected publicly listed companies in the Philippines

In Search for Awareness of the Needs: A study of an ESP Intensive Program for Government Official

The study aims at constructing the awareness-building process of Taiwanese government officials from historical and sociocultural perspectives. This paper analyzes the program designed by Asia University which offered a 12-week intensive English training course for 19 government officials in Nantou in 2013. The study used: 1) Needs Analysis questionnaires (pre- and post- survey), and 2) structural interviews to discuss the following questions: 1) To what extent do officials enrolling the program actually need English in their works? 2) How do they realize their needs? 3) Based on the Needs Analysis (NA), what elements should a successful government ESP program incorporate? The study found that although participants agreed on the benefits of joining the program, not many of them know their specific needs. They just want to improve their English generally. However, they gradually notify that their needs as the program brought then district idea of learning. Finally, their replies suggested that more ESP for government officials are needed.

Digital health literacy, online information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of Covid-19 information among the university students of East and South-East Asia.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing interest in online information about coronavirus worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the digital health literacy (DHL) level, information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of information on COVID-19 among East and South-East Asia university students. This cross-sectional web-based study was conducted between April to June 2020 by recruiting students from universities in China, Malaysia, and the Philippines. University students who have Internet access were invited to participate in the study. Items on sociodemographic variables, DHL, information-seeking behaviour, and information satisfaction were included in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were conducted. A total of 5302 university students responded to the survey. The overall mean score across the four DHL subscales was 2.89 (SD: 0.42). Search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, Yahoo) (92.0%) and social media (88.4%) were highly utilized by the students, whereas Websites of doctors or health insurance companies were of lower utilization (64.7%). Across the domains (i.e., adding self-generated content, determining relevance, evaluating reliability, and protecting privacy) higher DHL was positively associated with higher usage of trustworthy resources. Providing online information on COVID-19 at official university websites and conducting health talks or web-based information dissemination about the strategies for mental health challenges during pandemic could be beneficial to the students. Strengthening DHL among university students will enhance their critical thinking and evaluation of online resources, which could direct them to the quality and trustworthy information sources on COVID-19.

A Study to Evaluate Accuracy and Validity of the EFAI Computer-Aided Bone Age Diagnosis System Compared With Qualified Physicians.

Study ObjectivesIn previous research, we built a deep neural network model based on Inception-Resnet-v2 to predict bone age (EFAI-BAA). The primary objective of the study was to determine if the EFAI-BAA was substantially concordant with the qualified physicians in assessing bone ages. The secondary objective of the study was to determine if the EFAI-BAA was no different in the clinical rating (advanced, normal, or delayed) with the qualified physicians.MethodThis was a retrospective study. The left-hand X-ray images of male subjects aged 3–16 years old and female subjects aged 2–15 years old were collected from China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) and Asia University Hospital (AUH) retrospectively since the trial began until the included image amount reached 368. This was a blinded study. The qualified physicians who ran, read, and interpreted the tests were blinded to the values assessed by the other qualified physicians and the EFAI-BAA.ResultsThe concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) between the EFAI-BAA (EFAI-BAA), the evaluation of bone age by physician in Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital (KVGH), Taichung Veterans General Hospital (TVGH2), and in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital (TZUCHI-TP) was 0.9828 (95% CI: 0.9790–0.9859, p-value = 0.6782), 0.9739 (95% CI: 0.9681–0.9786, p-value = 0.0202), and 0.9592 (95% CI: 0.9501–0.9666, p-value = 0.4855), respectively.ConclusionThere was a consistency of bone age assessment between the EFAI-BAA and each one of the three qualified physicians (CCC = 0.9). As the significant difference in the clinical rating was only found between the EFAI-BAA and the qualified physician in TVGH2, the performance of the EFAI-BAA was considered similar to the qualified physicians.

Gendered Aspects of Undergraduate Student Experience in the Time of COVID-19: A Case Study of Nazarbayev University

This study examines student experience in the context of their transition to remote instruction during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic with a particular focus on the gendered aspects of the student experience. The researchers conducted a survey in July 2020 at one of the leading universities in Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev University. We sought to capture the immediate effects of the crisis on student experience and to see the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning, teaching, and assessment. The survey was developed by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium (Berkeley, USA) which granted permission to all interested universities to use a survey instrument to explore the experience of their students. Nazarbayev University was the only university in Central Asia that surveyed their students using this survey instrument. The survey assesses five areas of the student experience for both undergraduates and graduate students impacted by the pandemic and campus closures: (1) the transition to remote instruction, (2) the financial impact of COVID-19 on students, (3) student health and wellbeing, (4) belonging and engagement, and (5) future plans.

Going Beyond Brick and Mortar Self-Access Centers: Establishing a Satellite Activity Self-Access Program

Providing self-access learning opportunities in the form of brick and mortar self-access centers has long been part of universities. However, other self-access learning program options are available for contexts where limited resources may not support such structures. Accepting this, this paper describes the creation and operation of an alternative model, a satellite activity self-access program at a North-East Asian (Taiwanese) university. The paper also discusses the model’s generalizability to other contexts and offers suggestions for further study.

Business Student Perspectives Regarding Ways to Enhance the Online Learning Process

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to understand the key components of a relevant, successful online pedagogy. Using these insights, instructors in the virtual classroom can facilitate and accentuate the knowledge gained by responding to student emotional needs and perceptions. This research evaluates students' attitudes regarding multiple facets of online instruction. In addition to revealing student opinions regarding online course characteristics, using the framework of Schmitt’s Sensory Impact Model, this report shares suggestions for improvement obtained by surveying 160 marketing and management students at a leading Central Asian university. It is the opinion of 58 percent of the students that active participation in discussions improve their academic performance. Our study further shows that astute revision of the online environment can impact student attitudes regarding online learning. Our investigation reveals that improving student motivation is a crucial step to optimizing the value added of the online knowledge transmission process. Insights to student perception regarding the importance of pedagogic factors will improve the online course as well as student perceptions of the online experience.

Study Protocol: Racial Discrimination, Cultural Processes and Wellbeing Among Asian University Students

Introduction: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in racial discrimination and xenophobia directed towards Asians has been documented in Western countries. The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have also led to increases in mental health problems among people worldwide. Individuals from Asian backgrounds are at high risk for experiencing a dual-threat, due to risk for racial discrimination, in addition to general life and COVID-19-specific stressors. In Canada, the largest population of foreign- and Canadian-born immigrants are from Asian origins, while 74.9% of Canada’s international students in Canadian universities come from Asian countries. Considering the increase in incidents of racism and violence against Asian communities in Canada and the potential impacts of discriminatory events, our goal is to investigate associations between in-person and online racial discrimination and mental health among university students from Asian backgrounds, and the extent to which general coping strategies (e.g., problem-focused, emotion-focused, physical activity) contribute to better mental health outcomes among students. Because individuals from immigrant backgrounds, including Asian, are highly heterogeneous in terms of their immigration characteristics (e.g., immigrant status, length of residence), we will also examine the extent to which cultural processes (i.e., acculturation, cultural identity) affect associations between racial discrimination and mental health.
 Methods and analyses: University students from Asian backgrounds will be asked to complete an online survey examining mental health, in-person and online racial discrimination, physical activity, coping strategies, and cultural processes (i.e., acculturation, cultural identity). Hierarchical multiple regressions will be conducted to examine associations between racial discrimination and mental health, and the moderating role of coping strategies and cultural processes.
 Ethics and Dissemination: This project has received ethics approval from the University of Ottawa Research Ethics Board. Results of the study will be published in UOJM and can later be submitted for internal or external conference presentations or other journals, recognizing UOJM as the primary publisher.

Conditions for the Formation of an Educational Hub for the Implementation of International Educational Programs in Uzbekistan

In response to the demands of globalization, many countries have focused their efforts on pursuing a policy to create international and regional educational centers, transform their higher education systems, enhance their international activities, and expand joint programs of universities as tools to increase their competitiveness. The purpose of this article is to study the factors affecting competitiveness in the formation of an educational hub, basing on the world experience in educational hubs creation in the context of of higher education institutions globalization and to identify the priority measures to stimulate the integration of international educational programs and expand the universities’ international activities in Uzbekistan. As an empirical base, we used the results of the studies of foreign countries that successfully achieved their goals of forming regional educational hubs, as well as open data on the leading universities in the Central Asia and Uzbekistan’s positions in international rankings on the attractiveness for foreign students. The methodological basis of the research is comparative and systematic analysis, case method, content analysis of websites of leading universities in Central Asia, expert assessment. The theoretical and methodological foundations and factors affecting the competitiveness of the educational activities of the university in the context of globalization and modernization of higher education are considered. Based on the comparative analysis of a significant array of academic and analytical materials to determine the factors of supply and demand (push-pull factors), implemented strategies for the transformation of universities in a group of dynamically developing countries, the authors provide an assessment factors affecting the competitiveness while creating international and regional educational centers of higher education in Uzbekistan, as well as give recommendations on organizational, economic, institutional mechanisms for transforming the higher education system of the republic into a hub for the implementation of international educational programs in the Central Asia.

Asia/Europe Inter-university Cooperation in Higher Education: The case of Tuning Central Asian Higher Education Area (TuCAHEA)

The purpose of the current paper is to share the preliminary findings of the working doctoral dissertation titled “Asia/Europe inter-university cooperation in higher education: The case of Tuning Central Asian Higher Education Area (TuCAHEA)". The dissertation is a qualitative case study of an EU-funded consortium of European and Central Asian universities, aimed at building Central Asia Higher Education Area. Preliminary findings suggest that the Tuning initiative helps to promote a competency-based approach as an international norm in higher education policy through the dissemination of causal beliefs. As an epistemic community, the Tuning initiative contributes to the European norm diffusion outside the Bologna process. Tuning helps to re-construct European discourse in higher education policy in Central Asia. Furthermore, the initiative promotes the Tuning framework as a policy instrument of regional harmonization of higher education programs. The study contributes to the understanding of the normative power of the European Union and international higher education policy diffusion in the Central Asian context.

Social media use, professional behaviors online, and perceptions toward e-professionalism among dental students.

This study aimed to assess self-reported social media use, professional behaviors online, and perceptions on e-professionalism while using social media among dental students in two Southeast Asian universities. This cross-sectional study involved clinical dental students at University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia (n=150) and Airlangga University (AU), Indonesia (n=150). A questionnaire was distributed using Google Form via WhatsApp network. Data were analyzed using descriptive, Chi-square, and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. All students responded (n=300) and reported as active social media users. Majority spent ≥ 1 h a day on social media and checked their social media>6 times a day. Most commonly used social media accounts were Instagram (UM: 92.7%, AU: 95.3%) and Facebook (UM: 94.7%, AU: 59.3%). A small proportion of UM and AU students admitted to posting clinical photographs, patient records, and comments about patients on social media. UM students had significantly better scores in terms of their professionalism behaviors on maintaining the integrity of the profession compared to AU students (p<0.001). Meanwhile AU students had better scores than UM students on behaviors related to upholding colleagues' professional image on social media (p=0.421). Most students in UM and AU shared similar positive perceptions toward online professionalism behavior statements. Majority reported concerns over unprofessional posts online. Self-reported behaviors online sometimes contradict with students' perceptions and concerns about being unprofessional online. There is a need for clearer educational guidelines on how to instill e-professionalism values and behaviors among dental students.

Practices enacted by Nepal Open University for equity and access: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT This article discusses the practices followed by the youngest open university of South Asia and the only open university of Nepal for access and equity through online teaching and learning. Key initiatives that the university has undertaken in this regard are explored to understand how practices and strategies are applied by this higher education institution to provide citizens with equity and access. The findings of this study may contribute to the development of higher education policies, especially in low-income countries such as Nepal.

Student Responses to the Implementation of MBKM (Study on FEB Students who follow International Course Asia University)

The Ministry of Education and Culture enacted a new policy with the name Merdeka Learning Campus Merdeka (MBKM). The Independent Learning Program - Merdeka Campus is expected to be able to answer the challenges of higher education to produce graduates who are in accordance with the times, advances in science and technology, the demands of the business world and the industrial world, as well as the dynamics of society”. In response to this, the University of Muhammadiyah Lamongan held a student exchange program aimed at implementing the Independent Learning Campus (MBKM) policy. The student exchange program carried out by the University of Muhammadiyah Lamongan is the International Course at Asia University. On the other hand, The International Course activities require an evaluation to determine the level of effectiveness of the program and the benefits that students get as participants from these activities. The purpose of this study is to find out student responses to the MBKM program through: International Course Asia University implemented by Muhammadiyah University of Lamongan. "This type of research is a qualitative research with descriptive analysis using data collection techniques through observation, FGD, interviews, and documentation". Based on the results of data analysis using descriptive qualitative techniques, it is known that students have a positive perception of the MBKM program that is implemented in which students are facilitated by the university in participating in the program, it is indicated that the implementation of the student exchange program is facilitated by bureaucracy, very varied learning media, and facilitated from the University of Muhammadiyah Lamongan through the student exchange International Course at Asia University.

Perceptions of China in Central Asia: Findings from an elite university in Bishkek

China's growing involvement in Central Asia economically, culturally, politically and even militarily has been a contentious topic for people from the region. While some view China's involvement as offering Central Asian countries an opportunity for advancement, others view it in more negative ways, with China having tremendous influence in the affairs of their country. In this article, we present our findings from a survey that we conducted at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Our questions elicited responses that focus on perceptions of trade with China and China's actions regarding COVID-19, which are both polarizing issues in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia overall.

Navigating Opportunities and Challenges during Uncertain Times: Role and Value of Academic Development Units

What role do academic development units (ADUs) have to play in responding to rapid shifts in the global landscape, especially in times such as the recent pandemic? This paper retrospectively captured and reflected upon how an ADU at a research-intensive university in Asia responded during the pandemic. Using semi-structured interviews, perspectives were sought from multiple stakeholders at micro, meso and macro levels including academic developers. Together, responses from these 17 respondents converge on who they reached out to and the areas of support they received from the ADU during these uncertain times. The implications for ADUs in supporting the faculty community both during crisis situations and in navigating changes are discussed.

Anthropomorphizing malware, bots, and servers with human-like images and dialogues: the emotional design effects in a multimedia learning environment

Emotional design refers to imbuing a multimedia learning environment with design attributes that promote learners’ positive affect and motivation to enhance learning. One such feature is anthropomorphism, in which human-like attributes are infused into learning elements in a multimedia learning environment. This study examines the affective, motivational, and cognitive effects of incorporating cute and funny human-like images and dialogues into learning objects depicting malware, bots, and servers in an animation conveying a lesson on how a distributed denial-of-service attack occurs. A between-subjects online experiment was conducted in which undergraduates from a large Asian university (n = 70) engaged with either the anthropomorphized or non-anthropomorphized multimedia lesson. The findings partially supported the anthropomorphism effects on learners’ affective-motivational states insofar as the anthropomorphized multimedia lesson evoked a significantly greater change of positive affect but did not differently affect intrinsic motivation and learning outcome than the non-anthropomorphized version. Concerning cognitive load, anthropomorphism led to significantly lower perceived difficulty regarding the learning topic (intrinsic load), which conforms with most emotional design findings. There was a marginal trend in which learners engaged longer with the anthropomorphized than the non-anthropomorphized multimedia lesson. This study offers insights on anthropomorphism in multimedia learning that extends to cultural factors unique to Asian learners and information technology subject domain. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed through the lens of cognitive-affective theory of learning with media, integrated cognitive affective model of learning with multimedia, and cognitive load theory. Future directions concerning anthropomorphism research in the multimedia learning context are addressed in this paper.

‘But you’re white’: An autoethnography of whiteness and white privilege in East Asian universities

It is well established within the field of Critical Whiteness Studies that white privilege routinely materialises in Western universities. Yet, even though a third wave of Critical Whiteness Studies is increasingly focussing on whiteness in non-Western contexts, there has been insufficient attention toward whether white privilege also exists in East Asian universities. This article seeks to explore this issue by offering an autoethnography in which the author, a mixed-race academic who is racialised as white on some occasions and as a person of colour on others, critically interrogates whiteness in East Asian higher education. It is argued that those who are racialised as white are privileged in East Asian universities and may even seek to actively sustain this. In departing from the dominant understanding of whiteness as always-and-only privileging, this article also explores the extent to which white academics in East Asia may also be disadvantaged by their whiteness.

\u201cI always prefer to withdraw than use a condom\u201d: contextualising condomless sex among East Asian and sub-Saharan African international students in Sydney

BackgroundIncidence and prevalence of blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections among young people continue to necessitate population-based studies to understand how contextualised sexual health services can be developed and implemented to promote protective behaviours such as consistent condom use. This study examined condomless sexual practice among a sample of East Asian and sub-Saharan African international university students in Sydney, Australia.MethodsThis qualitative study was methodologically guided by interpretative phenomenological analysis. Data was provided by 20 international students sampled from five universities in Sydney, who participated in either face-to-face or telephone semi-structured in-depth interviews. The interview sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, coded in NVivo and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.ResultsCondomless sexual practices appear to be common among the study group based on participants’ self-reports of their own practices and the practices of friends and peers. Three themes contextualising condomless among the study participants were generated from the interview transcripts: (1) unanticipated sex, condom related stigma and alcohol use (2) pleasure-seeking, curiosity and intimacy (3) condomless sex as a gendered practice.ConclusionsThe result of this study has implications for public health research, practice and policy around design, implementation and evaluation of multi-layered and population-specific sexual health services that are tailored to addressing the needs of international students, who migrate from traditional sexual cultures to Australia, where sexual norms are more liberal.

War, toys, play to heal: priming designers to create playthings promoting resilience in children in war zones

ABSTRACT Trauma-related psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are highly prevalent in children in war zones; yet professional care is scarcely available. This leaves children and their families, often also affected by trauma, to live with unaddressed psychopathologies. This paper presents a framework for designing toys promoting resilience and support healing in children potentially traumatized by war. Structured around several workshops, it was introduced to undergraduate students within a toy design course in an east Asian University and facilitated by a transdisciplinary team consisting of the authors, a designer, and an artist, and expressive and play therapists working in war zones. Analysis of outcomes demonstrates that a short design workshop, albeit disconnected from the context of use, may appropriately redesign toys available in war zone markets as play therapy-inspired transitional or comfort objects supporting healing from war-related trauma. Feedback from therapists provided keys for further elaboration of the framework.