Asia Intercollegiate Cooperative Project
for Nurturing Global Leaders
in Sustainable Infrastructure Development

The full-fledged CAMPUS Asia Program of AY2017 has finally started in this September. On September 4^th and 5^th, five students from Shandong University, China as well as five students from Sungkyunkwan University, Korea safely arrived in Nagasaki. Four students from Nagasaki University have also made their arrival in their host universities in China or Korea.

Nagasaki University has organized a special introductory program in September for the ten international students, who arrived one month before classes start in October. On September 8^th, an orientation was conducted by Prof. Omine, Head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Course, to explain about their class schedule, supervisor allocation and laboratory placement. Subsequently, the Chinese and Korean coordinators in charge of the CAMPUA Asia Program provided information and guidance on the procedures required to live in Japan for half a year ahead.

As part of the special program, a series of lectures were given by professors from each discipline in the Chemistry and Materials Engineering Course and in the Structural Engineering Course of the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagasaki University. The program also included basic Japanese language lessons as well as recreation classes to make a smooth transition to living in Japan. Furthermore, the participating students joined the field trip to see construction sites with 4^th grade undergraduate students in the School of Engineering in the end of September. It was s a good opportunity for them to communicate with Japanese students and to gain field experience at real construction sites in Japan.

According to a survey conducted afterwards, the special introductory program received generally positive comments from participating international students: “I found the special lectures interesting because they covered various topics different from my area of research,” “It was a great opportunity to experience various things. I learned a lot about Japanese culture and lifestyle. Living in a foreign country will give me a great advantage in the future,” and “It was a really good experience to study at the construction fields and see beautiful streetscape and landscape in Japan.” From the staff point of view, we can tell that this introductory program has helped ease the students’ concernss and get used to university life in Japan quickly. Nagasaki University will continually provide support for the international students to help them lead a fulfilling life here in Nagasaki.

The 5th round table meeting for the CAMPUS Asia program took place on September 1 in Seoul, Korea. Led by Prof. Akihide Tada, six faculty and staff members from the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagasaki University, participated in the round table meeting. The meeting was also joined by representatives of the School of Civil Engineering and the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University as well as by Prof. Jun Kyungsoo, Dean of the Graduate School of Water Resources and other members from Sungkyunkwan University.

The focus of the meeting was to discuss specific issues for establishing the double degree program next year, based on the ideas exchanged at the previous meeting. Nagasaki University proposed a basic plan for practical time schedule as to when students should start and finish the program and compose their master’s thesis. Since the three universities have different requirements for graduation, our challenge is whether we can establish a two-year double degree program with a standardized schedule for entrance examination. While each university further clarifies issues and points of concern, we will soon have to reach a conclusion about whether the program can be launched next year.

The six-month exchange program based on the credit transfer system is almost ready to start in September, and its progress was also reported at the meeting. Nagasaki University, as a host university, explained about its special introductory program organized for the incoming students, as well as their supervisor allocation and laboratory placement.