We would like to inform you that an online seminar was held jointly by Chulalongkorn University, Mae Fah Luang University, Chuo University, and Saitama University on March 16th.
The title is “The Indo-Pacific Strategy” and the contents were delivered to the participating students in advance.
1)We want you to consider what choices can Thailand and Japan make for the above situation in Indo-Pacific? We would like you to discuss from four perspectives as follows.
Strength (S) | Weakness (W) | |
Opportunity (O) | What are the strengths of Japan and Thailand, and how to utilize them | What weaknesses you have and how to overcome them |
Threat (T) | How to take advantage of our strengths and overcome threats | How to minimize weaknesses and overcome threats |
2) Students from Japan and Thailand had discussions in four rooms for each theme.
1)On March 16th, the following 55 participants gathered at the ZOOM meeting.
University | Professor | Student |
Chulalongkorn University | 4 | 12 |
Chuo University | 1 | 12 |
MFU | 1 | 10 |
Saitama University | 10 | |
OCA Japan | 5 | |
Total | 6 | 49 |
2)The photos of the participants are as follows.
We asked the students who participated in the seminar to take a questionnaire.
This first online exchange activity is a very good opportunity for students of both countries to meet and exchange their ideas in the time of the pandemic. I think we just found another channel of international exchange activity when travelling between the two countries were restricted.
In my opinion, this first attempt of the online exchange activity went out quite well. Students could share their ideas on the topic that was assigned. The program designed to let students learn about the lecture and topic before discussion is appropriate. Hence, this let the timeframe of the program being not too short or too long. I hope that students of both countries could have a good chance to contact each other in the future.
This was the first time that OCA organize online seminar for students from 4 universities and I found that the event was quite interesting. Even though the topic of a seminar was out of the field of mainstream economics, but it was very useful as students need to learn also what is happening in our region. The discussion room was also interesting since I get to listen to ideas of SWOT analysis of Indo-Pacific strategy from economic students perspective. They did a much better job compare to myself when I was the same age as them, I must say. overall, this was a great experience for all students who participate in this event.
The pandemic of the new coronavirus infection has forced the world to stop or change a lot. Even so, students are constantly interacting internationally using a new tool called video conferencing. Not only the tools, but also the content of listening to lectures, having discussions, and harmonizing the opinions to make presentations is new, and students from the four universities were also seriously working on it.