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.

Notice on “Introductory Seminar Presentation” by FGL students

Madoka Hazemi

On next Friday (9.27), three of our students will participate in an event where they will report the results of their studies. This “Introductory Seminar Presentation” (「基礎ゼミ発表会」) was created to give students opportunities to interact with each other beyond their own departments. The presenters from the FGL Program will be Madoka Hazemi of AMC, and Dewi Setyaningrum and Freeha Khalid of AMB. They prepared for it during summer vacation.

They will discuss what they learned through “Selected topics in cell biology” by Dr. Martin Robert. The title of the presentation by Madoka and Dewi is “Effect Colchicine in Cell Development”, while Freeha’s presentation is “Life in an Eye of Science.” In addition to oral presentations by the three of them, Madoka and Dewi will do a poster session too.
"I hope I can gain new experience through this event," Dewi says.

Anyone can attend this event and listen to the presentations, and top performers will be decided by the attendees’ vote. So please come!!

Freeha Khalid

《Oral Presentation》

Time and Date：September 27, 2013 (Fri)

13:30 to 15:30（expected）

Venue：#B200 at Lecture B building on Kawauchi North Campus

Dewi Setyaningrum

《Poster Session》

Time and Date：September 27, 2013 (Fri)

15:40 to 16:10（expected）

※The poster session will be held after the oral presentation is finished.

Poster Display：September 27, 2013 (Fri), 13:30 to October 4 (Fri) 12:00

Venue: Display space on hallway, 2^nd fl. at Lecture B building on Kawauchi North Campus

University Fair in India!

This weekend, Tohoku University will join university fairs that will be held at two cities in India.

-New Delhi

Day and Time: September 6^th, Friday 9:00 to 15:00

Place: The Lalit New Delhi (Barakhamba Lane)

Organizer: Ritsumeikan University

-Bangalore

Day and Time: September 7^th, Saturday 10:30 to 16:00

Place: Bishop Cotton Boys’ School (No.15, Residency Rd.)

Organizer: The University of Tokyo

On those days, two staff and a professor from Tohoku University will attend to answer questions from participants. You can talk with people from other Japanese universities, including both national and private universities. So please register your name and bring your friends. Parents are welcomed too!

In Bangalore, a lecture presentation will be given and persons concerned such as university professors, corporate managers and high school teachers, will discuss study abroad in Japan.

If you have any inquiries regarding this event, please contact us.

School visit in Malaysia 2013

A presentation on Tohoku University’s FGL program was given in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in March. This was our first visit and it was one of the most fruitful, with many discoveries.

School visit in Turkey 2012

So far, the FGL program has been presented at many high schools all over the world.  In November, our visit extended to Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey.

We presented at two schools in each city this time.

At Istanbul Lisesi, we were welcomed by 50 students who sincerely listened to our presentation.  

Bunya Seminar at the Insittute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University


Hi there. I am Houken from the Institute of Fluid science, Tohoku university. Two years ago I applied for the IMAC-G program and entered the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Research and study environment in Japan may be different from your country. Bunya-seminar is one of thing you might not experience in your country. Let me introduce it briefly first.



Houken Presenting at Bunya Seminar


 n  What is Bunya Seminar?

In the Tohoku university Department of Mechanical Engineering we have this special seminar for first year master degree students. Every student is asked to prepare a one-page printout to simply introduce his/her research and give a 10min presentation which is open to all master and doctor students. Especially in recent years, since the number of foreign students is increasing, presentations in English are very common and popular as you can see in the photo. Furthermore, many Japanese students start to prepare presentation and printout in English in order to enhance their English communicating skills.  

n  My experience during Bunya-seminar

Although foreign students can choose their presentation language freely, I chose to speak in Japanese. It was really hard to prepare because using technical language properly in Japanese is even more difficult than daily communication. However I believe it is especially meaningful for foreign students to learn how to communicate with Japanese not only in daily life but also in their work or research. Communication skill in Japanese is absolutely important to live and work in Japan. Bunya-seminar is just a wonderful chance to learn and practice!

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Text and photos by Houken