In October and December 2024, faculty members and student staffs involved in the Beyond Borders Plaza (BBP), a global commons where is focusing on international exchange and language learning gave a presentation at conferences.

The BBP located at the three campuses of Kinugasa, BKC and OIC aims to create global communities that transcend diverse borders such as nationality, language, religion, gender, disability and age based on its concept of ‘Beyond Borders’. This conference was a great opportunity to share results and issues of BBP activity were with people outside the university and to exchange information with self-access learning centers of other universities.

Academic information exchange involving students and faculty members

On Sat. 26th October, three members of the International and a staff of the International Affairs Division attended the ‘JASAL (Japan Association of Self-Access Learning) 2024 Annual Conference’, where they gave a presentation on the current situation and issues upon guiding and supporting student activities at the BBP.

On Sat. 7th December, the ‘JASAL 2024 Student Conference’ was held online. Eight BBP student staff members from four faculties and two graduate schools gave four presentations in English. The three teachers from the International in charge of BBP provided guidance during the preparation and practice of the student presentations, and provided support for the presentations on the day of the conference.
Participants commented that they were able to learn about and empathize with the issues that student staffs at other universities are facing, and that they were able to realize their own strength of BBP, which offers a wide range of activities not found at other universities, such as sports and excursion event, as well as language learning.
Furthermore, they commented that they are happy to have prepared their presentations in cooperation with their teachers and fellow members and to had been received positive feedback through their presentation, and that they are proud to be a member of BBP staff.