A Common Challenge: Improving Student Mobility | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance)

2010.09.28

September brought a series of overseas business trips. The first was an invitation to a UK-Japan bilateral research workshop on "Human Factors in Computing Systems." In addition to the main theme, we discussed how to vitalize exchange among young researchers from the UK and Japan, debating topics such as "what mechanisms are necessary" and "what areas are possible." In Japan, there has been a continuing negative trend in recent years of a steady decline in the number of young researchers who go abroad for long or short-term research stays. Just as the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) launched its "Institutional Program for Young Researcher Overseas Visits" to try and halt this decline, the program was cut due to budget screening—such is the current situation in our country. Meanwhile, in neighboring South Korea, there is a system where the government provides financial support to graduate students if they have an acceptance letter from a host department or professor abroad. In fact, almost all of the Ph.D. students of a professor I know experience training abroad before obtaining their degrees. To further improve the mobility of SFC students, greater efforts are needed in addition to overseas fieldwork and internships.

The second conference was EuroCall2010 , attended by university affiliates involved in foreign language education, EU policymakers for foreign language education, and people from companies that develop and sell related teaching materials. I participated in a presentation of research results on a foreign language learning environment, which was developed as part of a new ubiquitous experiential education environment that I am advancing with Professor Waragai of German studies and Professor Kiyoki's group, which develops database technology. This is a task conducted as part of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Program for Promoting High-Quality University Education," and it is unique in that, in addition to conventional formal learning in the classroom, it provides an experiential, informal learning environment that can be practiced anytime, anywhere using smartphones like the iPhone. I had the opportunity to speak with researchers in foreign language education not only during technical sessions but also at poster sessions and receptions, and I found the differences in the EU's stance on foreign language policy and its perspective on the use of technology to be extremely interesting.

The third was on my way back to Japan, when I traveled from Helsinki to the University of Jyväskylä with Professor Kiyoki's group. There, we discussed the student and faculty exchange programs and research collaborations established between SFC and the university's president and professors from the Faculty of Information Technology. They introduced their MOTEBU (Mobile Technology and Business) program , so I took the opportunity to introduce SFC's GIGA Program . The president of the University of Jyväskylä was very interested in SFC's advanced and unique nature and repeatedly stated his desire to deepen the exchange with SFC in various ways. In fact, university reform is proceeding at a tremendous pace in Finland, and the current government is in the process of standardizing the traditional university system to align with the Bologna Process, moving to a system of a three-year Bachelor's degree and a two-year Master's degree. The Bologna Process was originally an agreement to standardize degrees and guarantee the quality of education within Europe, but it also contributes significantly to increasing student mobility. In Finland, for engineering fields, this means that the equivalent of a Master's degree, which used to take 5.5 years to study, will now be divided into two phases. At the University of Jyväskylä, many engineering students apparently used to study while working, but I was told that this change also reflects a desire for students to study full-time and focus on their education, rather than studying while working. As is the tradition in Europe, university tuition is free, and many students attend graduate school while holding jobs. Balancing both can be difficult, and while some students drop out, there are also formidable individuals who remain in graduate school for many years, earning three or four degrees and delaying their entry into the workforce.

The common challenge across these three conferences was the issue of how to advance the qualitative improvement of education and research, as well as how to enhance student mobility. At SFC, discussions are underway for a five-year curriculum model that connects undergraduate and graduate studies, and I am now keenly aware of the need to create various mechanisms to promote the improvement of student mobility.

(Date of publication: 2010/09/28)