AIUB and MRU jointly organise international webinar on “Higher Education in New Normal”

Covid-19 has forced us to think and re-think about the scope of higher education in new normal. Although, we are constantly introducing technological innovation in teaching-learning and have updated the modules of pedagogy, however, few questions need to be addressed further, such as access to higher education, digital divide and challenges, and some other issues related to reaching the other stakeholders in higher education and achieving the ultimate objective. Consequently, it has become necessary for the higher education institutes to conduct discussion/webinar where representatives from different stakeholders can analyse the present situation, share the best practices, and draw guidelines for the future befitting their socio-economic demography.

To celebrate events like – UNAI-10, IAU-70, and UN75, the American International University – Bangladesh (AIUB) and the Mykolas Romeris University (MRU), Lithuania jointly organised a 2-day international webinar on "Higher Education in New Normal" on Zoom. This international webinar addressed issues and challenges related to higher education during Covid-19 under the sub themes - "Evolution of Internationalization and Collaboration in HEIs" and "Digital Transformation of Higher Education – Innovation and its Challenges". Two panel discussions were held on the sub themes on two days on January 14 and 15, 2021. The webinar was supported by the International Association of Universities (IAU) and the United Nations Academic Impact.

On January 14, 2021, the opening session of the webinar was held where Prof. Dr. Inga Zaleniene, Rector, MRU, Dr. Carmen Z Lamagna, Vice Chancellor, AIUB, Dr. Pam Fredman, President, IAU and Mr. Ramu Damodaran, Chief, UN Academic Impact (UNAI) delivered their welcome address.

Around 200 participants joined this webinar where the speakers spoke on behalf of their institutions and addressed the theme of the webinar.