Abstract
As artificial intelligence accelerates across global higher education, one question grows more urgent and more human: what does it actually take to build international partnerships that last? This roundtable brings together Hitotsubashi University (Japan), Kyung Hee University (South Korea), and the University at Buffalo, State University of New York (USA) not to present answers, but to open a genuinely collegial conversation. Drawing on active bilateral frameworks, undergraduate mobility initiatives, combined degree pathways, and early assurance programs across East Asia and North America, our institutions offer three distinct yet complementary perspectives on a shared conviction: technology can accelerate partnership, but it cannot generate the trust, reciprocity, and sustained institutional commitment that make partnerships endure. Four anchoring questions will guide our dialogue: How do we build trust across cultures in an AI-mediated world? What structures best support students across the full arc of their international journey? How do institutions sustain partnership commitment when priorities shift? And how do we transform disparities in research capacity from a source of imbalance into a foundation for mutual scholarly growth and shared purpose? Participants are warmly invited to bring their own experiences into the room. Attendees will leave with practical insights, meaningful peer connections, and a sharper framework for designing international partnerships that are not merely efficient but enduringly human.
Learning objectives
- Articulate the human foundations of trust, reciprocity, and institutional commitment that distinguish enduring international partnerships from transactional ones in an AI-mediated landscape.
- Compare cross-cultural approaches to partnership-building across East Asian and North American contexts, drawing on active bilateral frameworks among Hitotsubashi University, Kyung Hee University, and the University at Buffalo.
- Evaluate structural models including undergraduate mobility initiatives, combined degree pathways, and early assurance programs that support students across the full arc of their international journey.
- Identify strategies for sustaining institutional partnership commitment through leadership transitions and shifting priorities.
- Develop a practical, peer-informed framework for designing international partnerships that leverage technological acceleration without sacrificing the relational and cultural intelligence that technology cannot replicate.
Target audience
International partnership officers, mobility coordinators, senior academic and administrative leaders, and professionals designing pathway or combined degree programs; particularly those navigating institutional strategy, cross-cultural relationship management, and AI integration in global higher education.