G30 Wrap-Up Symposium in Fukuoka

On February 14th, the G30 Wrap-Up Symposium was held at Hotel Nikko Fukuoka. The project for Internationalization of Japanese universities (a.k.a. the Global 30 Project) will end by March 2014, so quite a number of people, from professors to university staff members, gathered in Fukuoka, and discussed the fruits of the project as well as highlighted problems.

Venue of the symposium

Four sessions were concurrently held in each room.

A. Reaching out to internationally mobile students: promotional activities and overseas offices
B. Managing degree programs in English: admissions, curriculum, and pedagogy
C. Internationalizing the campus: support system and accommodations
D. Internationalization in the eyes of students: voice of students

The most interesting session was D, which was facilitated solely by international students who came to Japan through the G30 Project. To name some of the opinions that were raised at the venue, international students often have difficulty in entering the community of Japanese students. Even though they want to join some clubs, there are no brochures in English. In addition, the support environment for people with various cultural backgrounds has not caught up with the real situation—Islamic students chronically cannot find space to do prayer, and there is a lack of medical experts who can communicate in English.

Prof. Masahiro Yamaguchi was invited from Tohoku University, and delivered a presentation at session C. He talked about how Tohoku University handled the situation after the Great East Japan Earthquake suggesting several patterns of action that international students took. He also introduced Tohoku University’s unique program for both International and Japanese students to co-study and earn credit at the same time.
In a different room, 13 universities presented their activities with an original poster that lit up the whole space with nice photos and illustration.

Prof. Masahiro Yamaguchi                                                                 Poster Session

Now the internationalization of Japanese universities is unstoppable. Thanks to the G30 Project, many university staff became aware of aspects of universities abroad. There is so much to be reformed, but the selected 13 universities for G30 surely accelerated internationalization and preparations for it in the future.

Student interview: Leo J. Che of AMB

Leo J. Che, an AMB student from the US, was always interested in the ocean, and especially in fish.  When asked if his career decision had something to do with his home town in California, he not only agreed, but also told us about his other reasons. “I used to go to Monterey Bay Aquarium, famous for its display of the bay, and my father took me fishing from time to time.” Then he talked about the special topography of Monterey Bay in California, where a large number of diverse marine organisms exist. This had a tremendous impact on him, and helped him to choose marine biology for his research.

However, there are more interesting and, in a way, unique reasons as to why Leo came to Tohoku University. The first is that the ocean is shared by many countries, meaning it would be advantageous if he can prepare to work internationally in the future, considering his specialization in marine biology. The second is Fukushima. “It is the first nuclear incident to have happened near the ocean. The Chernobyl accident was not near the ocean, and no other previous nuclear event has occurred on this scale. So it creates a unique opportunity to research things that we otherwise might not be able to explore,” he said. In fact, the nuclear power plant in Fukushima is about 100km from Sendai. Thus it is at far enough to allow one to safely live in Sendai while still being able to meet and learn from many professors in multiple faculties of Tohoku University who continue working on themes related to the disaster of March 2011.

Although many FGL students are hard workers, Leo told us about prior knowledge will definitely help prospective students in their studies. “Be strong at mathematics,” he said with conviction. “You will be required to work with numbers in different ways than you may expect. In addition, it may be difficult for students who aren’t familiar with statistical concepts to understand certain lectures. Some of the lessons seem to assume that you know something that you might not necessarily know,” he advised.

One of the good things about Leo noted about the FGL program is housing. All FGL students seeking bachelor degrees can live at University House Sanjo for two years. While the kitchen has to be shared, each student is allotted a private room. This is a clear difference from the US, where students who live in dorms usually share rooms. “So it is very nice,” he says.

 

Having accomplished the fall semester by now, Leo is slowly getting a picture of his future career. “I’m sure I want to study ichthyology. After the lab tours with the agricultural department that I did this semester, I’m now looking forward to investigating my field of interest and and clarifying what I'll specialize in.” The Great East Japan Earthquake and following accidents were definitely disturbing occurrences, but many people have set themselves straight and started learning from them. Leo embraces this and intends to keep working across international borders, like the ocean.

Student interview: Sirinda Khurewattanakul of IMAC-U

Sirinda Khurewattanakul

 An IMAC-U student Sirinda Khurewattanakul is spending her 3rd year at Tohoku University. Having moved from Bangkok Thailand, she has gone through the first two years acquiring a solid foundation in liberal education on Kawauchi Campus. Now, she mainly stays on Aobayama Campus to focus on experiments and specialized classes, and says that the new environment is very different from previous places. “Before, almost all students at lectures were international students, but now I get to know quite a few Japanese students of my own age through a laboratory, which is nice” she says. She belongs to Prof. Kosuge’s system robotics lab, where there are more female students than at other laboratories. Joining the department’s field trip let her get to know the other female students well. Asked about the Japanese students, she says “they are always very helpful, whether male or female. If handouts are in Japanese, they explain them for me.”
 To our surprise, Sirinda’s first choice for her field was not robotics at the beginning. “I was drawn to the computer field, but rather than just dealing with information and serial numbers, assembling stuff and machines was more fun, I found,” she said. In fact, her knowledge of computer and programming helps her very much when working on robots and mechanisms. As is often said, everything is of use! “I still need to know more about programming for controlling mechanics…” She seems to have been, and still is, on the right truck.
 IMAC-U students actually participate in a program called Team-Based Engineering from sophomore year, in which Sirinda studied about silicon dioxide. There, doing experiments with a team was the main purpose, and she had to wear special white cover-alls, and get air-showered to become completely clean to prevent the experiments from being contaminated. So students can do fully-fledged experiments from an early stage. According to her, some other laboratories let their student participate in an international competition, and they were able to fly to the US where the competition was held.
 While being super busy with her school work, Sirinda thinks of what she will do in the future. “After receiving a bachelor’s degree, I want to go for a master’s degree, then work at some Japanese company in Thailand.” She has a clear picture of her future self. Though a student on an English degree course, she speaks Japanese quite well. Thanks to the new environment with many Japanese students, her abilities are improving more and more. With brilliant equipment and tools added to her competence, Sirinda will be able to become an outstanding female engineer.