Professor Joshua Mok, Vice President’s Visits to University of Toronto and University of McMaster in Canada

Professor Joshua Mok, Vice President of Lingnan University, was invited by Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) to present a keynote speech at the “Shaping Sustainable Futures for Internationalization of Higher Education Conference”, held on 24 to 25 June 2019 at the University of Toronto. The conference, organised by OISE, one of the world-leading institutions for education research, attracted over 200 scholars and postgraduate students of international and comparative education. Professor Mok’s keynote speech addressed issues related to the future of internationalisation of education against a context of anti-globalism and resurgence of nationalism.

Professor Mok shared with the audience his most recent research on how the Chinese government approaches the internationalisation of higher education, with particular reference to the promotion of people-to-people bonding and cross-cultural understanding through the “Belt and Road Initiative”, an approach adopted by China to foster regional and international collaboration not only in trade but also in academic exchange and research collaboration. Professor Mok also critically examined some unintended consequences of internationalisation measures that intensify inequality in education, particularly when governments across different parts of the globe try to concentrate funding on a selected few universities to make them “world-class”. Mok called for critical reflections upon the questions of “internationalization of education for what?” and “internationalisation of education for whose interest?”. His keynote speech was well received and provoked heated discussions and debates.

Professor Mok with other Invited Speakers at OISE Conference

During his visit to OSIE, Professor Mok also discussed with Professor Glenn Jones, Dean of OSIE, for deeper collaboration, and both institutions have agreed to promote PhD student exchange and faculty research collaboration. In particular, Lingnan University, being the Secretariat of the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership (APHERP), an international and inter-university research consortium promoting higher education research, will engage with OSIE for future research events. 

 

 

Collaboration with University of McMaster 

Professor Mok also met colleagues from University of McMaster on 26 June 2019 to discuss student exchange, staff research collaboration and academic programme development. Professor Shafiqul Huque and Professor Tony Porter from the Faculty of Social Sciences of McMaster University had very productive conversations, exchanging views on how to promote collaboration between Lingnan and McMaster. Areas of cooperation in promoting student mobility through undergraduate and postgraduate exchange programmes, faculty exchange and research collaboration and taught and research postgraduate programme development were discussed. Colleagues from McMaster University are very keen to work with Lingnan University in comparative policy and international development with a focus on East Asia. Agreement on staff exchange has been reached, and Professor Shafiqul Huque will visit Lingnan University in October 2019 as a Visiting Professor to deepen the relationship between McMaster and Lingnan.