On December 6, 24 students and faculty members (21 students and three faculty members accompanying them), who had come to Japan for the “International Field Science Course,” provided by the Faculty of Agriculture and Marine Science of Kochi University each year, from Thailand (Kasetsart University and Khon Kaen University), Vietnam (Hanoi National University of Education) and Malaysia (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and University Putra Malaysia), called on Vice-President Sakurai (Director of General Administration and International and Inter-Regional Exchanges).
  The “International Field Science Course” is a mutual student exchange program organized with Southeast Asian universities that signed partnership agreements with Kochi University, aimed at supporting the development of human resources who will play leadership roles in the agricultural, forestry and fisheries industries in the future by providing students specializing in agriculture, forestry, marine science, environmental science, among other fields to deepen their interest in, and understanding of, science and technology through learning about initiatives promoted in the Japanese agricultural, forestry and fisheries industries based on combinations of Japan’s latest scientific technology and traditional technology, technology for utilization and management of natural resources, and so on.
  This year’s course took place over ten days, from December 5 through 14, with financial support from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) as part of the “SAKURA Exchange Program in Science.”
  During the visit, Vice-President Sakurai said to them, “Kochi University has been proactively promoting academic and student exchanges with Southeast Asian universities so far and we would like to extend an enthusiastic welcome to you on this visit. I am hoping that it will make you even more interested in Kochi University, leading to stronger relationships with each university in the future.”

*JST’s “Japan-Asia Youth Exchange Program in Science” (SAKURA Exchange Program in Science) is a program for enhancing exchanges between Asian youths and Japanese youths who will play a crucial role in the future field of science and technology through the close collaboration of industry-academia-government by facilitating short-term visits of competent Asian youths to Japan. This program aims at raising the interest of Asian youths toward the leading Japanese science and technologies at Japanese universities, research institutions and private companies, thereby contributing to further advances in science and technology in Asia and Japan. (Source: SAKURA Exchange Program in Science website http://ssp.jst.go.jp/outline/index.html)

＜Courtesy call＞

＜Group photo＞