The British Council will be hosting a Networking reception for representatives of Japanese and UK educational institutions on Friday 15 November 2013 at the British Council Spring Gardens headquarters in London.

The reception represents a fantastic opportunity to network with senior international staff from some of Japan’s leading universities.

Date and time: 6.00 p.m. – 7.30 p.m., Friday 15 November 2013
Location: British Council Spring Gardens (Access map)

Japanese Participants

The reception will be attended on the Japan side by university representatives participating in the following two events taking place in the UK in mid-November:

1. Experience Japan Exhibition
   Saturday 16 November
   www.experience-japan.jp
   This event will be attended by 16 Japanese institutions and aims to provide information on studying and working in Japan. More details can be found at the attached URL.
    
2. Fifth Inward Mission to the UK for International Office staff of Japanese Universities
   Monday 11 November – Thursday 15 November
   Representatives of an estimated 15 Japanese universities will be participating in this programme. The delegation will visit a number of UK institutions over the course of four days.

It is expected that the following Japanese institutions will be represented at the reception (to be confirmed):

• Akita International University
• Doshisha University
• Hokkaido University
• International Christian University
• Kanazawa University
• Keio University
• Kobe University
• Kyoto Institute of Technology
• Kyoto University
• Kyushu University
• Meiji University
• Nagoya University
• Nihon University
• Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
• Ritsumeikan University
• Sophia University
• The University of Tokyo
• Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Waseda University

The majority of participants will be senior level international office staff from the universities above, however we also expect some Vice/Pro Vice-Chancellors and teaching staff to be in attendance.

The majority of the prestigious ‘Global 30’ universities (universities selected for special government funding for internationalization) will be attending the reception. You can find out more information on the ‘Global 30’ scheme from the following URL:

http://www.uni.international.mext.go.jp/               

Recent trends towards internationalization in Japan

Former Prime Minister Fukuda announced the Japanese government’s first comprehensive policy on international students and the internationalisation of higher education in 2008. The so-called ‘300,000 international student plan’, which was influenced by UK practice, was named after the government’s target for international student recruitment by 2020. The plan included provisions for the encouragement of international collaboration and cooperation between universities, including student and staff exchanges, credit transfer and double degrees; the improvement of student mobility; the teaching of many more courses in English; and the hiring of more foreign lecturers. 

In 2012, a new funding programme known as ‘Global Plus’ was launched to support universities to develop global human resources through enhancing international academic courses, links with business, skills to provide global education, and study abroad programmes for Japanese students. This summer, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a further package of education reform initiatives and pledged to double the number of students going abroad to 120,000 by 2020.

The British Council in Japan has been active in supporting the internationalization initiatives of Japanese institutions and it is hoped that through providing this networking opportunity we will be able to further support quality Higher Education collaboration and mutual student exchange between Japan and the United Kingdom.