Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on Japan Research mobility programs: Evaluating the disturbance from Malaysians’ perspective
List of Authors
  • Hong-Seng Gan

Keyword
  • Japan research mobility, COVID-19 pandemic, scientific collaboration, Malaysian researchers and students, Disturbance

Abstract
  • Research mobility contributes to quality education by fostering intellectual knowledge sharing and mutual cultural understanding. In Malaysia, large number of researchers and students have actively joined Japan mobility programs every year. During the mobility, both Japanese and Malaysian researchers would discuss research plans and outputs. However, COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted the existing research mobility model. Due to safety concern, international travel was prohibited and outbound mobility was postponed or shifted to online platform. In this study, a survey was conducted to investigate the disturbance on research mobility caused by COVID-19. Questionnaires were distributed among Malaysian researchers and students to evaluate the impact in terms of intellectual knowledge transfer, networking and communication as well as research productivity. The findings showed that the pandemic has significant disturbance on networking and communication (p = 0.000). Intuitively, we have deduced the disturbance is caused by the hindrance to strong bond building with Japanese researchers after the COVID-19 outbreak. Hence, future studies should explore the strategies to overcome the obstacles of networking and communication in post COVID-19 era.

Reference
  • 1. Boring, P., Flanagan, K., Gagliardi, D., Kaloudis, A., & Karakasidou, A. (2015). International mobility: Findings from a survey of researchers in the EU. Science and Public Policy Advance Access, 1-16.

    2. European Commission. (2013). Support for continued data collection and analysis concerning mobility patterns and career paths of researchers. Retrieved from Deliverable 5 – Higher Education Sector Report (Indicator report):

    3. Gan, H.-S., Ramlee, M. H., Wahab, A. A., Lee, Y.-S., & Shimizu, A. (2021). From classical to deep learning: review on cartilage and bone segmentation techniques in knee osteoarthritis research. Artificial Intelligence Review, 54, 2445–2494. doi:10.1007/s10462-020-09924-4

    4. Guthrie, S., Lichten, C., Corbett, J., & Wooding, S. (2017). International mobility of researchers: A review of the literature. Retrieved from RAND Europe:

    5. Hiroyuki, Y. (2013). An Evaluation of and Recommendation for the Look East Policy: Toward the Discovery of Japan's Second Wave. Retrieved from JAMS Discussion Paper No.2:

    6. Jacob, M., & Meek, V. L. (2013). Scientific mobility and international research networks: trends and policy tools for promoting research excellence and capacity building. Studies in Higher Education, 38(3), 331-344. doi:10.1080/03075079.2013.773789

    7. Lee, S., & Bozeman, B. (2005). The impact of research collaboration on scientific productivity. Social Studies of Science, 35(5), 673-702.

    8. Vriens, M., Petegem, W., Op de Beeck, I., & Achten, M. (2010, 01/01). Virtual mobility as an alternative or complement to physical mobility. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Barcelona, Spain.

    9. Wagner, C. S., Whetsell, T., Baas, J., & Jonkers, K. (2018). Openness and Impact of Leading Scientific Countries. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 3(10). doi:10.3389/frma.2018.00010

    10. Woolley, R., Robinson-García, N., & Costas, R. (2017). Global research collaboration: Networks and partners in South East Asia. ArXiv, abs/1712.06513, 1-25.