Header start
Keio University offers the Keio University Global Fellowship (Study Abroad Grant for Privately Financed Students) as part of the Keio University Ishii-Ishibashi Fund for Education and Research Development for students financing themselves to study at an overseas university. This is a system by which the university provides aid to students who have completed an undergraduate or graduate degree at Keio University, allowing them to study and obtain a degree at an overseas graduate school.
The selection criteria for the fellowship include reasons for going overseas, study and/or research plan, and academic record. After costs such as tuition and living expenses are taken into consideration, students selected as Keio University Global Fellows receive up to 5,000,000 yen in financial aid for the first year of their study abroad. The purpose of this fellowship is to foster an even greater number of individuals who can play an active role in the global arena by supporting students who excel in their fields and wish to engage with the challenge of studying at an overseas graduate school. The fellowship maintains an emphasis on Keio’s transdisciplinary initiatives (Longevity, Security, and Creativity), which are at the core of the Top Global University Project.
Below are reports from the five students selected as Keio University Global Fellows 2017.
Kosaku Tozawa
Keio University Global Fellow 2017, 3rd year Doctoral Program candidate, Graduate School of Letters
Studying at: Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (France)
My purpose in studying abroad is to follow up on the hints provided by the correlating concepts of “faith” and “believing” in French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of time, under the supervision of Professor Pierre Montebello towards bringing my Doctoral thesis to its fruition. Philosophy is a mysterious discipline which despite invariably invoking the response “sounds tough” in almost anybody who hears it, is in fact an area with which everybody must engage at some point during the course of their lifetime. This is because it is concerned with asking “why” people have finite lives which culminate in death. I can spend my days here engaged directly with these challenges, in a genial climate where time flows slowly while remaining enraptured by the old townscapes of this city in the southwest of France with its refined sense of style and laidback locals. I am sincerely grateful to the global fellowship for giving me this wonderful opportunity, and hope that my studies will prove themselves of worth both for my life and that of others.
Ren Nakabayashi
Keio University Global Fellow 2017, 3rd year Doctoral Program candidate, Graduate School of Letters
Studying at: University of Bonn (Germany)
I am currently studying for my doctorate, specializing in German medieval studies under the supervision of an academic advisor at the University of Bonn, Germany. The core work which this involves is the analysis and reinterpretation of various expressions seen in the court literatures of the 12th and 13th centuries in German-speaking countries and oriented by the concept of “emotion.” Thus, the benefits of being physically present at the actual sites of relevance to my studies has in-and-of-itself conferred innumerable advantages, including convenient access to relevant archives. The funding I receive as a global fellow has allowed me to realize my dream of overseas study, which I had partly abandoned due to financial constraints. I am extremely grateful for this. I have encountered many wonderful scholars of medieval studies with superlative academic knowledge and who are active at the cutting-edge of the field, not least of whom is my academic advisor. I am certain that my experience in Bonn, where I have been able to devote myself to my studies surrounded by invaluable resources, will be an experience I can treasure for the rest of my life.
Hirofumi Takikawa
Keio University Global Fellow 2017, Master’s Program graduate, Graduate School of Economics (September 2017)
Studying at: University of Wisconsin-Madison (US)
I embarked on a Ph.D. program in economics because I was interested in international finance, including the debt crisis and exchange rate policy, and my future aspiration is to work at an international body like the IMF. However, I had virtually no opportunities to research this area in my first year of studies due to the program structure. Rather, I spent every day absorbed in coursework for microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, and mathematics classes. While the weekly assignments, semester-end examinations, and the study and pressure involved to prepare for the Preliminary Examination at the end of the first year were also significant factors, being selected as a Keio University Global Fellow has allowed me to relocate myself in an environment where I do not have to worry about financial matters. I feel absolutely privileged, as a person who began his academic career in a Keio-affiliated school, to be in receipt of funding under the Keio University banner.
Yuki Sato
Keio University Global Fellow 2017, Graduate of the Faculty of Economics (March 2017)
Studying at: University of Sussex (UK)
I am currently enrolled in the master’s program in Development Economics at the University of Sussex. I decided to pursue a master’s degree in economics to research how resilience responds to market exchange rates owing to production and specialization across national boundaries by multinational corporations. My ultimate objective is to study how this is already being reflected in the resilience of developing countries, which readily feel the impact of changes in exchange rates, as well as the nature of impacts on the domestic economy. I decided to enter the University of Sussex, which is a thriving milieu of development studies, in order to achieve this, and to examine how economics could be used to quantify the problems of developing countries as well as those of Japan. I am truly grateful to have been chosen as one of the Keio University Global Fellows while still studying for my masters. This funding allows me to concentrate on my studies to my heart’s content and in a near-ideal environment. I intend to diligently apply myself every day to ensure that I prove myself worthy both of the name of Keio University and of the Kimura Lab.
Hiromi Miwa
Keio University Global Fellow 2017, Graduate of the Faculty of Science and Technology (March 2017)
Studying at: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA; US)
I am enrolled in a doctorate program at UCLA, where I am studying the high-speed isolation of cells at the laboratory to which I am affiliated. Just as the world was rapidly transformed by the IT revolution of the 2000s, many revolutionary technologies are now being born in the bio-fields. I hope to apply my experience of studying overseas as a foothold towards becoming a worker capable of contributing to this rapidly evolving field. I am also getting a sense that the many encounters which being an international student affords are a major asset. There are people from more than ten different countries in my lab and I am amazed on a daily basis by the rich variety in their various values and perspectives. I am also finding the encounters with various Japanese people who excel in their fields, including entrepreneurs, physicians, bureaucrats, and top management of major corporations, extremely stimulating. I am endlessly grateful to the global fellowship for having provided me with such a wonderful research environment, as well as access to the superlative platform for encounters that is Los Angeles. I am applying myself from day to day in order to ensure that I use this opportunity to its maximum potential.
Since this initiative was launched in AY 2015, eight students have been selected as global fellows, including the five students introduced above.
*Application for the Keio University Global Fellowship (Study Abroad Grant for Privately Financed Students) from the Keio University Ishii-Ishibashi Fund for Education and Research Development for students planning to study abroad in the 2018 academic year has closed. Recruitment of students planning to study abroad in the 2019 academic year is scheduled for fall 2018. (Office in charge of this fellowship: Planning Section, Office of the President)
Reference:
Keio University Global Fellowship (Study Abroad Grant for Privately Financed Students)―Supporting Top Students Who Continue on to Graduate Studies Overseas (News: March 28, 2017)
Footer start
Navigation start