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

Ten exchange students of Shandong University and Sungkyunkwan University who were studying at Nagasaki University through Inter-university Exchange Project gave a reporting session on February 8, 2018. The students looked back their study abroad experience in Nagasaki University for the time of their stay (September 2017 – February 2018), and reported what they have accomplished through this experience.

In the presentation, students talked about Nagasaki, their study at the university, cafeteria and dorms, and how they spent their weekends. There were a number of comments from the students saying that they didn’t want to go back to their home country or they wanted to study abroad one more time in Nagasaki, and these comments indicate the program to be a great success. We hope that our trilateral relationship among three universities gets closer and closer with opportunities like this.

According to the survey conducted on exchange students, students were very satisfied with the special program carried out in September, Japanese classes offered at the university, a field trip to job-site in a different prefecture, the content of the lecture, study environment, and scholarship system. On the other hand, they suggested that there needs to be better internet accessibility at dorms, and the activities to experience Japanese culture were not planned enough. Students’ comments made us aware of the areas we need to improve for the future program. With these valuable information, we would like to fully prepare ourselves to provide a better environment and student support for the upcoming exchange students. At the end, Professor Tada, Graduate school of engineering, congratulated students’ accomplishment with the certificate of completion, which made students very proud of themselves.

Student exchange for the year of 2017 was accomplished, and a summary meeting is planned to be held next month. With the new points to be improved, we would like to continue to work hard for the success of the program.

On February 5, 2018, a debriefing session was held by the students participated in the summer program in Sungkyukwan University in Korea. (Program period: July 24, 2017 – August 18, 2017) Six (6) undergraduate students from Nagasaki University and thirty (30) students from Shandong University joined the program, and the students from Nagasaki University reported their experience through the program. In the session, they also gave some study abroad tips for the current Nagasaki University students who plan to study abroad in the future.

＊Below are the comments from the participating students

○ Special Classes

Special classes offered at Sungkyukwan University were well designed for students to learn about the fundamental elements of civil engineering, such as water, structure and ground, as well as the advanced technology used in the field. For me, learning in the program became a great opportunity to have different perspectives on the subject. I was very inspired by the talk on how Korea perceives Japanese technology used in the field and decided to work hard on my graduate thesis and future career. Korean classes were also offered about ten times as a total in four weeks, which enabled me to read Hangul characters by the end of the class. Taking Korean classes also gave me the courage to talk to people in Korean outside the class.

○ Facility Observation

We observed one of the world biggest tidal power plants and construction technology laboratories in Korea. Facilities had models for sewer pipes, subway stations and urban city to conduct flood drill, and the scale of the models were breathtakingly huge.

○ Overall Comment

Joining the program was a mind-broadening experience for me. Although I didn’t see dramatic improvements in my English skills, it was a stimulating experience for me to realize what I am capable of at the moment, and what I need to do work on to accomplish more in the future. I was also able to see the difference in infrastructure system between Japan and Korea, and truly realized that, in the future, I would like to make people’s lives better and work in an infrastructure development site overseas. 

This summer program was a great experience for the students and it gave a strong motivation for them to continue studying hard. The debriefing session was meaningful to those students who plan to study abroad in the future.