Page 6 - Beyond COVID-19

What is Higher Education Really for?

hat I found most interesting during and of greater value, so STEM programs schedule of university students. I believe
Wthe student colloquium, Beyond COV- usually get more funding for their research students need more time and space to
ID-19, on February 19 was the lecture given projects than non-STEM ones. Meanwhile, immerse in their deep thoughts and to
by Professor Edward Vickers, of Department schedules of university students are packed participate in extracurricular activities. They
of Education, Kyushu University. with classes as schools are shifting to online may also need more room for nurturing
learning. In this way, students have no time their non-major fields instead of dedicating
He points out that online education in to reflect on certain issues nor chance for themselves only to their own major studies.
universities cannot fully substitute face-to- establishing communications, leading to
face classes. This is because what matters universities’ failure in developing critical
most in education in universities are not citizenship of their students.
only lectures themselves, but also informal
conversations among students and those I partly agree with Professor Vickers be-
between students and professors, leading cause ever since I entered university, I have
I believe students
always felt the differences between the
to formation of opportunities and commu- that STEM fields are a bit underestimated. “
nities for further learning, which cannot be so-called main purpose of higher education
achieved through Zoom. and reality. need more time and

He argues further that the pandemic gives Yet, as a STEM student myself, I find space to immerse in
us a chance to reflect on what higher educa-
tion is really for. One of the main purposes Knowledge from this field is essential not their deep thoughts
of higher education is to cultivate critical only for the development of science, but
citizenship, which is highly needed ever also for cultivating critical citizenship. The and to participate
since the outbreak of the virus. Humanities Japanese government has failed to make the
and social sciences play a good role in this best decisions during the whole pandemic in extracurricular
aspect. Knowledge in fields such as poli- because officials and many citizens lack
tics, economics, history, and philosophy are scientific knowledge. activities.
needed.
I guess what higher education in Japan
However, universities are often considered needs right now, apart from paying more
as a tool to develop human resources. STEM attention to the importance of humanities By Takumi Tanabe
fields, for example, are seen as more “useful” and social sciences, is to relax the cramped

VPN- To Use or Not to Use?

esidents in mainland China have no the law. Oversea students in mainland China China, it is hard to know what is going on in
Raccess to Google, Youtube, Facebook, need VPN to have access to online resources, the Chinese society. What we learn from the
etc. This is because the Chinese government to get in touch with other students, and to news about China is mainly about politics,
bans such these platforms with the Great read news from abroad. not about the society. Personally speaking,
Firewall. The only way to use such these I did not know that the use of VPN is such
social media platforms is to use private VPN, Zhang and Cao faced some problems. One a big, yet sensitive problem. China has its
which illegal in China. was that they could only find a few inter- own internet services like Baidu and Weibo,
viewees, and the interviewees did not want and I had never thought about the need of
Two CUHK students Coco Zhang and to provide all information they wanted. This Chinese students of oversea universities. I
Vivian Cao, both currently are back in their is because the topic about the use of VPN is never thought that VPN was in such need in
hometowns in mainland China. They wrote sensitive in mainland China. China. This is why I believe it is necessary to
a story about a dilemma that every Chinese inform more people, both inside and outside
students of overseas universities are facing. Although there is no possible solution China, be aware of this issue.
They need to choose between using illegal to this problem, what is necessary at the
VPN services to continue with their studies, moment is to inform as many people as
or to suspend their studies in order to obey possible about this issue. Living outside By Takumi Tanabe

Varsity student Vivian Cao and Coco Zhang shared their story about mainland Chinese students’ struggle about the use of VPN
which is banned in China and yet necessary for having online class.