Educational collaboration across borders during COVID-19

Professors of the Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University, and professors at School of Law, National University of Mongolia have been engaged in collaborative teaching and virtual exchange. Ten professors at the Graduate School of Law will give guest lectures at the National University of Mongolia in the first semester of 2021. This will help students at the National University of Mongolia become more knowledgeable about the Japanese legal system and approach their own country’s legal issues from a comparative perspective. About twenty percent of the full-time teaching staff at the School of Law, National University of Mongolia are graduates of Nagoya University.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities around the world to explore new ways of teaching and learning.  The cooperation between the two universities could open a door to new ways of academic collaboration across borders during the pandemic and facilitate the sharing of knowledge through online guest lectures, new creative teaching methods, and joint research. It also shows that the negative impact of the COVID-19 on international academic cooperation can be mitigated by innovations in online education and research.

The collaboration will encourage shared conversations on the research topics of mutual interest between the professors and eventually translate into more joint research initiatives. The guest lectures will also involve graduates of the “Transnational Doctoral Program for Leading Professionals in Asian Countries” and professors of the Asian Satellite Campuses Institute (ASCI), Nagoya University.　 ASCI is a core component of Nagoya University’s international outreach initiatives and actively supports teaching and research collaborations with universities in Asia.  

The picture below is the scene of the class with Prof. Yoshiharu Matsuura of Nagoya University and Prof. Gangabaatar Dashbalbar of National University of Mongolia.