Japanese Universities Want more Indian Students

From- http://indiatoday.intoday.in

Japanese universities want more Indian students   

You don't have to master Japanese to be able to study in a Japanese university. This was the most important take-home message of the day-long education fair organised last week by the Embassy of Japan and the Japan Foundation.

Eleven Japanese universities participated in the fair, which showcased their government's 'Global 30' initiative to attract best students from across the world. Japan had kickstarted the initiative in 2009 with the ambitious target of having 300,000 foreign students by 2020.

Language being the biggest barrier for Japanese universities, one of the early decisions taken by that country's government was to relax the rule making it mandatory for all foreign students enrolling for higher studies to learn Japanese. The 11 universities that participated in the fair were among the first to impart education in English.

"This was very challenging because we had to get professors who speak in English and also have a deep understanding of Japanese culture," said Satoshi Hata, who heads the India Office of the East Asian nation's top private university, Ritsumeikan University, which has campuses in four cities, including Kyoto. "The number of international professors teaching in Japan is also increasing," Hata added.

The pride of place at the fair of course belonged to the University of Tokyo, one of the oldest in Japan, having been founded in 1877. The university with a student population of 28,000 has just 35 from India enrolled in its engineering and information science programmes.

At the neighbouring Waseda University, which has 4,000 international students, India's presence adds up 10. The sought-after programmes at this university are political science, economics and engineering. An obvious gain of studying in a Japanese university for Indian students is their employability in Japanese firms, which are expanding steadily across the country.

"We hope to increase the number of students from this country by opening an office in Bangalore in February 2012," Yoshino Hiroshi, director of the University of Tokyo's India Office said. At present, the majority of the international student are from China and Korea. Of the more than 140,000 foreign students studying in various Japanese universities, Chinese students add up to 86,173, whereas Indians total only 546.

Students from India are enrolled mostly in engineering and Japanese language and literature programmes, the latter being particularly useful for those who wish to work as translators in Japanese companies. A number of these Indian students are on scholarships.

"Last year we gave scholarships to around 50 students from India," Kei Eda, first secretary, Embassy of Japan, said. "We want more Indian students to come and study in Japan."But before you set your sights on Japan, start preparing for the Entrance to Japanese Universities Admission for International Students (EJU) exam, which is similar to the GRE. For details on the syllabus and question patterns, go to the website of the Japan Student Services Organisation (JASSO), www.jasso.go.jp.