Special Tea Break Session with Dr. Nobuko Kayashima & Prof. Dr. Miki Sugimura

Speakers' Profiles

Nobuko KAYASHIMA is a Senior Research Advisor at the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. Since graduating from Kyoto University in 1982, she has been associated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the international aid agency of the Japanese government, where she has played a critical role in planning and executing JICA's education cooperation programs. Throughout her tenure at JICA, she has held several key positions, including Senior Vice President, Vice President, Director/Deputy Director of JICA Ogata Research Institute, and Director General of the Human Development Department. She has also served as a committee/board member for several government and civil society organizations in the field of education, including as a member of the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO and a board member of the Japan Society of International Development. While assuming managerial positions in JICA, she has been actively involved in academic research activities. She earned her Ph.D. from Nagoya University for her research on the internationalization of Japanese universities, and she has made substantial contributions to various publications, including "Japan’s International Cooperation in Education" (co-editor, Springer, 2022) and "Internationalization of Higher Education and ODA Participation of Japanese Universities" (the University of Tokyo Press, 2019). Her current research interests include higher education development, education cooperation, and university participation in ODA.

Miki SUGIMURA is a professor of Comparative and International Education, Faculty of Human Sciences, and Vice President for Global Academic Affairs from April 2014-March 2021 at Sophia University in Japan. M.Ed. and PhD (University of Tokyo).Associate Fellow of Asia-Europe Institute of University of Malaya. President of Japan Comparative Education Society (JCES), and a board member of World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). She is also a visiting professor of the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) and a program officer of Research Center for Science Systems of Japan Society for the Promotion Science (JSPS). She was a member of Japanese National Committee for UNESCO and a member of International Expert Group for the revision of 1974 Recommendation by UNESCO. Her research topics are international/transnational higher education, multicultural education and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).