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International Conference - Building New Bridges Together

Strengthening Ethics in Higher Education after COVID-19

About this event

This Globethics.net international conference is organised around the vision that ethics in higher education can only be strengthened through an intergenerational alliance and a common effort to build new bridges together. These new bridges are needed to cross the economic, technological and pedagogical divides that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and forces us to face. Here is where ethics in higher education matters.

Pre-Conference: 17 to 24 June 2020

The conference aims to translate this vision into a themed conference programme, which builds upon a pre-conference phase from 17 to 24 June 2020 consisting of submission of and online conversations around digital posters and papers.

Conference: 25 June 2020

The conference programme will feature seasoned speakers from within the Globethics.net networks working in tandem with emerging educators / researchers / leaders, to present and facilitate the thematic tracks during the conference.

Thematic tracks:

  • Track 1: Creating New Societal Visions in Higher Education: Values for Living Together
  • Track 2: Bridging the Gaps: Ethical Foundations of Online Teaching and Learning Pedagogies
  • Track 3: Online Education for a Sustainable Future: Quality and Ethical Standards in Higher Education
  • Track 4: Ethics and Skills for a Responsible Global Citizenship
When17-25 June 2020
15:00-18:00 (CEST)
WhereOnline
WhatWebinar
Language English

Thematic Track 1: Creating New Societal Visions in Higher Education: Values for Living Together

In times like these, higher education institutions worldwide are facing several new challenges. On the one hand, these relate to the numerous complexities of our globalised world. On the other hand, the new situation that has emerged as a result of the pandemic shows that these complexities have increased dramatically. The interrelatedness of politics, economies, health care systems, care for the environment and education has come more clearly to the fore, prompting a renewed conversation on the way societal life has to be organised and on how to address global disparities.

In this context, it can be argued that one of the most important ethical tasks of higher education institutions is to support an ethos of integrity in the world. This can be done through contributing to and creating new societal visions for cohabitation, which can transform lives and societies. Furthermore, visions are needed, which can help to build bridges together across the economic, technological and educational divides that the current situation forces the world to face. It is ultimately, about fostering a dialogue on sharing ideas and values for a new societal situation after COVID-19.

Higher education institutions are serving as laboratories and archives for developing these visions for living together. The conversations to which we invite the conference participants in this thematic track bear the potential to deepen the understanding of the increased complexities, to identify best practices and to forge new alliances between higher education and societal actors.

Activities

Speakers and topics for Thematic Track 1: Creating New Societal Visions in Higher Education: Values for Living Together

Maria Eugenia Barroso

MODERATOR

Maria Eugenia Barroso
Globethics.net Latin America
Argentina

 

PANDEMETHICS: TOWARDS A GLOBAL HEALTH ETHICS FOR IMPENDING PANDEMICS IN THE 21st CENTURY

Wirkwajie E. Wirba
Catholic University East Africa
Cameroon/Kenya

TOWARDS INCLUSIVENESS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE AND COMPASSION

Suparna Chakraborti
Heritage Institute of Technology Kolkata
India

CONTRIBUTIONSS OF A CONFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY FOR SOCIETY

Rudolf von Sinner
PUCPR
Brazil

INTEGRATED REPORTING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Fiona Robertson
Leeds Beckett University
United Kingdom

Thematic Track 2: Bridging the Gaps: Ethical Foundations of Online Teaching and Learning Pedagogies

The current pandemic situation has revealed significant gaps in higher education. Access to education and educational resources is unevenly distributed, as are the levels of preparedness of teachers and learners for the rapid transition from onsite to online learning the pandemic crises has called for. Propitious technological literacy and infrastructures are, however, only one facet of the challenge before us. Educators and learners alike are articulating questions on how learning can be facilitated to respond to the new global situation we are experiencing.

This thematic track is designed to offer a space for deepening these questions and to identify viable avenues for solutions. How can we close the digital gap? What kind of pedagogical theories help us to navigate between onsite and online learning environments? And which ethical foundations do institutions need to build and to take seriously when proposing online education?  

Different voices have begun to articulate enriching perspectives on these questions that we propose to deepen during this pre-conference conversation. One of these is to enhance online teaching and learning through the professional development of all who teach and support the teaching activities and through boosting their digital competences. Another perspective emphasises identifying novel learning designs, tools and innovative approaches for online learning environments, such as the challenge of a-synchronic course delivery, digital skills and the integration of blended learning modules.

Ethics in this process of digitalization in higher education, particularly as institutions start to position themselves anew in the wake of the pandemic, will play a preponderant role in accompanying the transformation process – from onsite to online learning and in the development of blended forms. By constantly drawing attention to values such as inclusivity, equity, sharing, integrity and transparency throughout the learning experience we can go a long way to ensuring quality education and optimal learning and teaching outcomes.

Activities

Speakers and topics for Thematic Track 2: Bridging the Gaps: Ethical Foundations of Online Teaching and Learning Pedagogies

MODERATOR

Maria Lucia Uribe
Arigatou International
Colombia

 

CURRENT CHALLENGES
IN THE HIGHER
EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE CONTEXT OF
DIGITALIZATION AND
INTERNATIONALIZATION

Otilia Manta
Romanian Academy, Centre of Financial and Monetary Research
'Victor Slăvescu'

Romania

FAIRNESS AND EQUITABLE ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION USING ONLINE PEDAGIGIES

Dicky Sofjan
Indonesian
Consortium for
Religious Studies

Indonesia

THE
PEDAGOGICAL SHIFT IN HIGHER EDUCATION DURING COVID-19: A CASE STUDY OF ABOHAR

Rekha Sood
Handa

Gopichand Arya Mahila College
India

A PEDAGOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE ON
THE EXPERIENCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN RDC: ISSUES, VISION AND AVENUES FOR REFLECTION ON THE OBJECTIVES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Njojo Kahwa
The Anglican University of Congo
DR Congo

Thematic Track 3: Online Education for a Sustainable Future: Quality and Ethical Standards in Higher Education

One of the most important purposes of education is to secure the path of learning, knowledge and skills to enable a sustainable future for individuals and for society. The same is valid for online education. The achievement of this goal to prepare the next generation of professionals and leaders for their roles in academia and society requires innovative teaching that takes into account the need for a rapprochement between regional and global communities of knowledge.

Online education bears the potential for bridging the gaps of a research-based exchange between these communities for developing sustainable models of coexistence across the globe. However, while the new situations of learning with online education can create and increase awareness of sustainability as a paradigm for actively engaging to meet the global challenges endangering our common future, they cannot be sustainable themselves at the expense of quality standards and values. These standards can be strongly supported if online learning insists on the intrinsic relationship between quality and ethics, on matters of form and on methods of learning in relationship with the expected outcome and attitudes of the learners in the world.

Online learning has to promote transparency and contribute to equity in access to higher education. Quality and future-oriented online learning can also assist in facilitating professional development and adaptability in the labour market. 

The conversations during this thematic track will deepen the understanding on how ethics and quality standards contribute to and accompany the transition from offline to online learning, on how blended learning can complement classical forms of learning and on how the aim of equipping students, teachers and institutions for a sustainable future can serve as framework for all these different provisions for learning in the 21st century.

Activities

Speakers and topics for Thematic Track 3: Online Education for a Sustainable Future: Quality and Ethical Standards in Higher Education 

MODERATOR

Deivit Montealegre
Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto
Colombia/Canada

 

ETHICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION - AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE 

Jesse Mugambi
University of Nairobi
Kenya

COMMUNITY-BASED HIGHER EDEUCATION ON SUSTAINABILITY AS EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIETAL QUALITY – AN EXPERIENCE FROM THE MALUKU ISLANDS

Jenne Jessica R. Pieter
The Protestant Church In The Moluccas
Indonesia

QUALITY AND ETHICAL STANDARDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN EGYPT

Hany Youssef Hassan
University of Sadat City
Egypt

TOWARDS A CULTURE OF HLISTIC AND INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES THROUGH ELECTRONIC NEGOTIATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND PEACE

Benoît Girardin
Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
Switzerland

Thematic Track 4: Ethics and Skills for a Responsible Global Citizenship

One of the main purposes of promoting ethics in higher education is the development of responsible global citizens, workers and leaders across all sectors of society. The current pandemic crisis has brought to the surface, more than ever before, the close relationship that exists between the values, skills and competences that prepare learners for embracing their responsibility as global citizens with the engagement to determine the future by addressing the pressing global challenges together with others and the international debate and initiatives around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Education reposes on the value of equal access to and participation in education. The emphasis on education as a key and life-changing factor gains in the face of the global pandemic even more significance. Our individual lives, our educational paths and our professional vocations are intimately tied up with the learning chances and educational opportunities of others in the world.  Ethics enables us to see and interpret these connections, to build competences on the insights of sharing this planet with others and in assuming responsibilities to remove and change conditions that result in exclusion from education. 

The intensive exchange of knowledge and values, the internationalization resulting therefrom and the consciousness of a shared responsibility in inhabiting the world with others, will change our view on what education in this era is all about. The pandemic has sharpened awareness of the need for an ethos of global citizenship.

Cooperation among higher education institutions, public and private partnerships, can both challenge and strengthen the higher education sector, bringing it to a new level of quality with values-driven standards and ultimately lead to the formation of responsible global citizens. The conversations during this thematic track aim at gaining new insights on developments in this direction in various contexts.

Activities

Speakers and topics for Thematic Track 4: Ethics and Skills for a Responsible Global Citizenship

MODERATOR

Herbert Makinda
Globethics.net East Africa / Catholic University of Eastern Africa
Kenya

 

RE-IMAGINING SOLIDARITY: THE ETHICAL DUTY OF GLOBAL CITIZENS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Irene Ludji
Claremont Graduate University in California
Indonesia

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP IN A GLOBALLY DYNAMIC WORLD

Ghadially Zoher
Christ University Bangalore
India

YOUTH FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. HOW TO DEVELOP IT?

Melita Marceta
Zagreb Stock Exchange Academy
Croatia

RATIONALE OF ETHICS FOR GLOBAL CITIZENS

Josfin Raj
New Life Biblical Seminary, Cheruvakkal,
India

International Online Conference - #BuildingNewBridgesTogether: Stregthening Ethics in Higher Education after COVID-19

 

 

Contributions of a Confessional University for Society

Rudolf von Sinner
Professor and Head of Graduate Program, Pontifical Catholic Parana at Curitiba
Switzerland/Brazil

 

Building Bonds of Trust and Interconnectivity between Higher Education, Government, Private Sector and Civil Society

Maria Eugenia Barroso
Latin America Programme Executive, Globethics.net
Argentina

From a University to an Epistemic Shopping Mall: a Post Covid-19 Higher Education Vision

Christian Anieke
Vice Chancellor of Godfrey Okoye University
Nigeria

The Role of Transformative Pedagogies in Fostering Ethics Education 

Maria Lucia Uribe
Executive Director, Arigatou International
Colombia

Educating Ethical, Entrepreneurial Leaders

Angela Owusu-Ansah
Provost, Ashesi University
Ghana

 

      
 

Considerations for Student and Faculty Vulnerability in Remote Delivery

Pamela D. Couture
Jane and Geoffrey Martin Chair in Church and Community, Emmanuel College
Director, Toronto School of Theology 
Canada

Higher Education and Pedagogies in an Intercultural, Global Conversation

Dicky Sofjan
Faculty, Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS)
Indonesia

An Ethics of Eco-Relationality: from an Oceanic Perspective to a Global Conversation 

Upolu Lumā Vaai
Principal
Professor of Theology & Ethics, Pacific Theological College

Fiji

Knowledge and Empathy: A fresh perspective from the indigenous people in Maluku on sustainability in higher education

Jenne J.R. Pieter
Assistant Director of Research, Development and Research Department of the Protestant Church of Maluk
Indonesia

Higher Education and Awareness for Global Citizenship

Kanan Kitani
Assistant Professor, Doshiisha University School of Theology/Graduate School of Theology 
Japan

 
      
     

Ethics of Inclusiveness in Higher Education  

Esther Mombo
Associate Professor, St. Paul's University
Kenya

 

 

   

 

Listeners

Thematic Track 1: Creating New Societal Visions in Higher Education: Values for Living Together

Rajula V
Globethics.net India
India

Thematic Track 2: Bridging the Gaps: Ethical Foundations of Online Teaching and Learning Pedagogies

Mary M. Doyle
College of the Holy Cross
United States

Thematic Track 3: Online Education for a Sustainable Future: Quality and Ethical Standards in Higher Education

Jeremy Punt
University of Stellenbosch
South Africa

Thematic Track 4: Ethics and Skills for a Responsible Global Citizenship

Daniel López Salort
Konvergencias
Argentina

Library & Publications

Tilottama Ray 
Budge Budge Institute of Technology
India

 

Globethics.net team

Moderator

Obiora Ike
Excutive Director
Nigeria/Germany

 

Co-Moderator

Christine Housel
Donor Relations and Strategic Partnerships
United States

Framing Session

Christoph Stückelberger
President and Founder
Switzerland

Award Presentation

Amélé Ekué
Academic Dean
Togo

Award Presentation

Anja Sabrina Adriamasy
Online Library and Administration Assistant
Madagascar