Macro Factors Determining Transition of Vietnamese International Students Mobility

With constant increasing in numbers of students studying abroad, Vietnam is on the way to become one of the largest contributors to the world’s international student mobility. The overall picture was changed from several thousand students sent to the Eastern bloc during the cold war to about 200,000 students currently studying in Japan, Australia, US, Europe etc. This paper reviews the factors that affect the transition of trends and mobility of Vietnamese international students in the modern time. By examining related studies and literature, we demonstrated that transition of studying abroad in Vietnam is not subjectively resulted by decision of the students themselves or of their families, but it is strongly influenced objectively by external determinants including cultural, social, political, foreign relation, economic, educational factors in the country. The results found five macro factors that influence the transition trends of Vietnamese international students over time, including number of students, study destinations, career after graduation and impact on society

International students' exposure to Japanese Culture : Results from the field trips to Kyoto

現在、多くの日本の大学が留学生の確保に力を入れている。 今回注目する文化ツアーは、より多くの留学生に日本の大学に興味を持ってもらうための一つの方法としてこれまでにも多くの大学で実践されてきたものであり、徳島大学国際センターでも、毎年、留学生のためにいくつかの見学旅行を開催している。その中でも、特に京都は日本文化を理解するため題材として最も有名で魅力的な場所であると考えられるが、今回の分析では、京都文化ツアーに参加した学生の全体的な満足度、ならびにこの文化ツアーで学んだことに関する具体的な内容や今後の日本文化ツアーに関する留学生のニーズと関心について分析を行った

Factors Pulling International Students to Japan : A Situation Analysis

Japan has 312,214 international students in May 2019, successfully achieving the 300,000 international students target. This study investigates the factors pulling international students into Japan for higher education. Data for literature review was collected from mainly Japanese sources including research reports, review papers, statistics, and online materials, which addressing the issues of international students’ mobility into Japan from 2008 until present. Data was reviewed qualitatively by comparative analysis, comparing the literature with the elements of 300,000 international students plan and the pull factors from the push-pull model. The results showed specific measures in strengthening campus internationalization, expanding international cooperation and alumni network, improving supporting services, diversifying scholarship schemes, job hunting support etc. could be considered as effective pulling factors. Moreover, while these factors could be applied effectively by some universities, it is hard for other universities to follow the same approach. The results imply obstacles to the mid-ranking public universities to attract more international students and the need to improve this situation

CHALLENGES IN ATTRACTING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS TO JAPAN

Japan is an attractive study abroad destination for international students worldwide. However, there are still challenges in attracting international students and internationalization, especially for the universities not enlisted among the top-tier universities, and universities which locate outside metropolitan areas. Despite relative advantages of quality of education, affordable cost, student-friendly environment, and exotic region-specific culture, Japanese universities still face certain challenges in attracting international students. We conducted a literature review to investigate challenges that may hinder attracting international students to Japan's universities. The data showed that there are challenges in maintaining academic ranking and internationalization level, diversifying the student body, securing revenues for operation, regional popularity and disparity, strengthening the supporting system, maintaining cross-cultural exchange and communication, mobilizing scholarship, supporting employment and a part-time job, online transformation, etc. that may influence the efforts for effectively attracting international students

Online Seminar : A Potential Mental Health Support Tool for International Students

Since 2020, university students in Japan are exposed to the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic. Data from a survey had shown that over 50% of international students had been experiencing some kind of stress (Tran, unpublished). For supporting international students in the prolonged pandemic period, we conducted a series of Stress Prevention Seminars during 2021. These seminars were designed for students to learn simple skills that could help them to cope with various stresses. Records of the seminars, including students’ interactions, Q&A, feedback, emotion score (Ogawa, 2000) and final evaluation were analyzed. This presentation is aiming to show: (1) preliminary results of the seminars conducted; and (2) potential of these events for strengthening mental health status of international students during pandemic. The results showed high understanding level and satisfaction rate, as well as inreased positive emotion score. The results suggested that providing these stress prevention seminars to international students is potentially to be an effective strategy, in addition to providing individual counseling and other activities, to improving stress resilience of international students for long term

On Campus Support and Satisfaction of International Students : A Review of Japanese Literature

Japanese universities are popular destinations for international students. A lot of efforts have been made to provide supporting services and activities to international students such as Japanese classes, counseling and consultation, job hunting and career education, exchange events, summer school, culture experience tours etc. These activities bring satisfaction to international students, which is contributed indirectly as a pulling factor for attracting international students into Japan. However, little has been known about the approaches used by different universities for supporting international students as not many reports are published in English regarding this topic. This study investigates the variety of on campus supporting services and activities provided to international students in Japanese universities and satisfaction of international students as recipients of these services. The literature for review was mainly collected from Japanese sources using Google Scholar. Data was reviewed qualitatively by comparative analysis, comparing approaches applied by different universities with regards to the elements of 300,000 international students plan and other pull factors. The results showed specific approaches, results in providing campus supporting services by different institutions. The results also imply obstacles and potential solutions to the Japanese universities to attract international students

Motivation for study abroad in Bangladesh : Learning from the Tokushima University Alumni

バングラデシュは若者が多く、海外への留学ニーズが高まっている。日本に留学したバングラデシュ人は、帰国後に成功したキャリアを積む事例が多いが、バングラデシュでは日本語の人気はなく、日本へ留学するバングラデシュ人も増加はみられない。今回、現在のバングラデシュ人の留学傾向、日本語の教育状況、日本への留学の動機および留学へのハードルを分析した