Key Activities
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Training, Development and Attachment Programs. The Institute of Student Affairs, an appointed standing committee of the Executive Committee is responsible for planning, promotion and coordination of training, development and attachment programs for the association. It organizes association wide programs and provides support to national and local organizations for organizing training programs for their respective members. Between 1998 and 2007, it had organized attachment programs for over 200 professionals from 8 countries and 3 cities in China, each attaching to an institution in another country for periods between two to 12 weeks. Programs are on self financed basis. Credit balance gained are used for a variety of awards in encouraging participation in global collaborative activities. The program is under review with a view to re-introducing it in due course. Dr. LAI Kwok Hung was the past Director of the Institute which has five Program Coordinators in respective countries and regions. They are Ms Mari Taneichi (Japan), Mr Ray Lee King Sang (Hong Kong), Dr Bella Villanueva (Philippines), Mr. K. Puniamurthy (Malaysia) and Mr Lin Zhendong (China). The last appointed Director of ISA (2018-2021) was Dr Maria Paquita D. Bonnet from De La Salle University of Philippines.
Latest appointed Director of ISA is Assoc. Prof. Michiko Izumitani, Soka University, Japan.
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The Asia Pacific Student Services Association – Institute for Student Affairs (APSSA-ISA) will be conducting a two-day online Training Program on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) on June 28 and July 1, 2022.
Collaborative Online International Learning or COIL is an innovative educational method that enables collaborative learning across countries through online communication. COIL provides students with diverse encounters and helps them acquire 21st-century skills. New perspectives and ideas are generated for faculty and staff, and long-lasting personal and professional relationships can be fostered. APSSA-ISA will provide training for instructors and staff to ensure impactful and effective COIL collaboration for students.
By attending this training program, the participants will
1) enrich their understanding of the internationalization at home (IaH)concept and relate it to COIL/Virtual Exchange practice
2) explore their possible actions to carry out on their campus for local Internationalization using online and onsite modality
3) appreciate hands-on COIL or Virtual Exchange workshops (e.g., how to design a task for collaborative learning and build appropriate assessment methods)
4) learn tangible and accessible ed-tech tools to carry out a successful COIL/VE
5) build a community of international faculty members from the world to allow global networking
The training fee for the two-day session is set at 48 USD and participants will be provided with a Certificate of Completing along with other benefits. Details on the program, registration, and payment methods may be found on the attached general guidelines. We look forward to having you in this training program as we all continue to aspire in providing the best services and experiences for the students under our care.
Registration link: Here
Enquiry: please contact Michiko Izumitani (Soka University), APSSA-ISA Director, at izumitani@soka.ac.jp
CALL FOR PAPER!!
APSSA Special Issue Publication
Student Mental Health and Wellbeing in Higher Education:
Perspectives from the Asia Pacific Region
Editorial Team:
Chief Editor: Dr Jonathan MUNRO, Head of Counselling and Wellbeing, Griffith University, Australia
Editors:
A/Prof LEE Kooi Cheng, National University of Singapore
A/Prof Vivian NG, National University of Singapore
A/Prof Maria Paquita BONNET, de la Salle University, Philippines
Dr Doria ABDULLAH, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Dr Leandro LOYOLA, de la Salle University, Philippines
Board of international reviewers:
Dr Christie White, University of Southern Queensland
Professor Tan Teck Koon, National University of Singapore
Dr K Puniamurthy, Malaysia, Past President APSSA
Dr Chris Hepperlin, Australia, Past President APSSA
Context/Problematisation
International research suggests university students are experiencing psychological distress at higher levels than that of the general population. This in part due to academic and financial pressures, isolation, loneliness and poor self-care and that university years often coincide with the critical transitional period between the ages of 17 and 25 years when mental illness is most likely to switch on. Despite contention about the whether the core business of higher education delivery includes supporting student’s mental health and wellbeing, universities across Australia and Asia have been independently developing policies and programs to respond to mental health issues presenting on campus.
Call for Papers
We invite contributions in three categories: policy, practice, reflection.
Policy-based papers will address the issue of mental wellness at a macro level, namely from national and institutional perspectives. These papers may trace the evolution of mental wellness initiatives, programmes, or strategies in relation to local political and/or social landscape. They may also provide a conceptual understanding of how these innovations and/or set the tone for new directions. Main sources of evidence could be policy papers, white papers, and official documents. [Length: Max of 3,000 words, excluding references and appendices]
Practice-based papers will focus on implementation of national or institutional directions at a meso or micro level in a student service practice context at higher education. Papers at the meso level will provide a description of programme(s) and initiative(s) implemented for a particular community. It should also include outcomes of a systematic inquiry on the impact or effectiveness of such innovation(s). These papers could be reports of small research studies which are grounded in relevant theoretical underpinnings, and a robust research design. [Length: Max of 3,000 words, excluding references and appendices]
Reflection-based papers are practitioners’ critical reflection on their practice. They are concise and should focus on one or two issues. They could be positioned as exemplars of best practices, or reflective pieces on innovations that worked well or did not work in response to student mental wellness. [Length: Less than 1,000 words, excluding references and appendices]
Requirements
APSSA Webinar 2020
Date: October 30, 2020 (Friday), 11:00am (GMT+8)
APSSA will be holding a webinar on October 30, 2020 (Friday), 11:00am (GMT+8) to provide a platform where responses and best practices of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Asia-Pacific region may be shared. This activity aims to inform and educate the different student affairs and services practitioners in the region of the challenges, realities, and the opportunities brought about by the situation as the need to look after the students’ welfare and development still emerged to be very important in the new normal.
Webinar Theme: Student Affairs and Services in the New Normal: Challenges, Realities, and Opportunities
The webinar session will focus on the presentation of the different initiatives and best practices of the HEIs in the Asia-Pacific region to continuously deliver the programs and services under student affairs and services. It will highlight the efforts of the HEIs from the following cities -- Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore- and Thailand.
SIGN UP NOW: bit.ly/APSSA2020
Program
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Time |
Activity |
Person-in-charge |
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11:00am |
Entry to the Webinar Platform |
Meeting Room host |
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11:10am |
Webinar Guidelines |
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11:15am |
Overview and Welcome Address by President of APSSA (2018-2020) |
Ms Angela Pok |
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11:30am |
Panelists (Student Affairs Professional or Student):
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The Live session |
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12:30pm |
Final Remarks – to share on 17th APSSA International Conference 2021 & Closing |
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Short break (5 mins) |
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12:45pm |
APSSA Annual General Meeting |
Only for APSSA members |
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1:30pm |
End |
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Panelists are from:
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Country |
Name |
Position |
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Australia |
Dr. Christie White |
President, Australia and New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA) |
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China |
Wu HaiFeng |
Director of Student Affairs, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China |
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Hong Kong |
Mrs. Jaime CHAU |
Chairperson, Hong Kong Student Services Association (HKSSA) |
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Japan |
Assoc Prof. Dr. Michiko Izumitani |
Deputy Director of Office of Career Development Program for International Students Institute Ehime University |
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Malaysia |
Prof. Dr. Azizan Abdullah |
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Student Affairs, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), |
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Philippines |
Dr. Aldrin Darilag |
Commissioner, Commission on Higher Education, Republic of the Philippines |
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Singapore |
Richard WANG Kai |
President, 41st Executive Committee National University of Singapore Students' Union (NUSSU), Singapore |
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Thailand |
Ms. Aphisara Saeli |
Faculty, Political Science and Public Administration, Chiang Mai University, Thailand |
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APSSA ISA programme jointly organised by National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University
12 & 13 December in Singapore
Here are the relevant links:
1. Event landing page: https://nus.edu/2Hw6qnl
SHARING SESSION:
Title: "Student Wellbeing and Mental Health at Universities: Key Challenges and Best Practices"
Presenters: Dr Jonathan Munro, Prof. Kwok Kian Woon and Assoc Prof. Victor Yeo
Synopsis:
Universities are complex organisations, which can also be usefully considered as “eco-systems” — with the idea that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. In the same vein, we speak of a university not just as an “institution” but also a “community”: its members (students, faculty, and administrators) are socially related to each other, and are pursuing not just individual but common goals. Put simply, learning lies at the heart of the mission of the university: learning within and beyond the formal curriculum. From this perspective, student health (including mental health) or wellbeing is not only a precondition for, or enabler of, learning. It is itself an integral part of self and group learning throughout the university years and beyond.
Our presentation hinges on a few basic propositions including the following:
In this respect, we will also present NTU’s “campus community approach to student wellbeing”. We hope that our presentation will serve as a springboard for conference participants to share their experiences so that we learn from each other’s best practices.
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Dr. Jonathan Munro |
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Professor Kwok Kian-Woon Associate Provost (Student Life), Nanyang Technological University |
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Associate Professor Victor Yeo Deputy Associate Provost (Student Life), Nanyang Technological University |
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Passed Study Visits
Study/visits have been organized placing global collaboration with host institutions and individuals as the main goal.
In 1999, all 17 members who attended the annual conference of the Association of Managers of Student Services in Higher Education, United Kingdom, prepared a paper on the theme of the conference and presented to the occasion collectively in the form of a monograph. The group visited the Oxford University and universities in London and were guests of the National Student Affairs Organisation of Germany (Deutsches Studentenwerk), at its headquarters in Bonn, and the Studentenwerk in Osnabruck.
In 2002, 21 members attended and made written presentations in an international symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles and made visits to universities in California, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Georgia.
In 2005, 16 members together with 13 student affairs professionals from Germany, UK and USA visited Central China. Highlight of the program was the International Symposium on the Changing Role of Student Affairs in Higher Education organized by the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.
In 2006 and 2008, delegations comprising mainly members of the APSSA Executive Committee and senior practitioners visited Germany as guests of the German National Association for Student Affairs (Deutsches Studentenwerk).
In 2013, 26 foreign members had joined a Study Visit to Kyoto.
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