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

On July 31, 2019, a pre-departure orientation was conducted for nine students participating in the Summer School Program at partner universities. This year, two undergraduate students from Nagasaki University will participate in the Summer School in Shandong University, China from August 13 to August 25, 2019. In the meantime, seven undergraduate students will be sent to Sungkyunkwan University, Korea from August 10 to August 21, 2019.

Following the encouraging comment from Professor Akihide Tada, Program Manager of the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagasaki University, international coordinators provided detailed explanation about their stay in China and Korea, including life tips, daily schedule and some items to prepare before departure. To be better prepared for risks of studying abroad, the students were encouraged to read through the “Risk Management Guidebook” provided by Nagasaki University along with an emergency contact list. Further information about credit transfer system was given by an administrative staff at academic department.

Through cooperation and information sharing with host universities, our international coordinators will continue to provide flexible and tailored support to meet the students’ needs and to address their concerns about risk management and studying abroad in general.

Nagasaki University hosted the “Summer School Program on Infrastructure” for ten days from July 11 to July 20, 2019, with the main purpose of securing graduate students who will participate in the project after 2020. The Summer School was attended by 18 students from Shandong University, China and 12 students from Sungkyunkwan University, Korea. The participating students were graduate students or fourth grade undergraduates. They learned about the current situation of infrastructure development and maintenance in Japan though lectures all given in English. They were also very interested in the field trip to visit infrastructure related sites such as disaster restoration site at Mt. Unzen, unmanned work site at Mizunashi River and Mt. Unzen Disaster Memorial Hall. Some participants said that the trip gave them an opportunity to learn more deeply about the disaster experience unique to Nagasaki. Others said that their own experience of having visited these sites before class started had gave them an advantage in understanding the lecture contents much better.

In addition, Japanese language lessons were offered by international coordinators. Exchange opportunity was also organized to meet with Japanese students who would be sent to Shandong University and Sungkyunkwan University in August 2019 as part of the Summer School Program held at each university. For the purpose of understanding Japanese culture, the Chinese and Korean students experienced wearing kimono and attended a special lecture “Tezuka Osamu and Japanese Animation” by an invited lecturer from Nagasaki Prefectural University.

Despite the short period of ten days, the summer school participants have learned about the current situation of infrastructure development in Japan and enjoyed interacting with Japanese students and experiencing Japanese culture.

From June 19 to July 10, 2019, a series of TOEIC seminars took place for four times at Bunkyo campus of Nagasaki University, led by an AEON English teacher. Seven outbound students who are going to take TOEIC tests on July 28, 2019 attended the seminars to improve their English skill. Two graduate students will start the Short-Term (six months) Exchange Program based on the credit transfer system from September 2019. The other five undergraduate students will participate in the Summer School Program on Infrastructure, starting on August 10 or 11.

Based on the distributed study materials in each seminar, students were asked to read out questions and check their answers each other. The lecturer then gave a detailed explanation. The focus of this seminar was to give practical exercise through repeated practice in answering actual TOEIC questions. Besides the TOEIC test preparation, dictation and shadowing practice was incorporated into the lecture as applicable. Many students said that the seminars had helped to dispel concerns about their English skills before studying abroad.