International Exchange Event “Erasmus Day”

Okayama University, in its engagement with the “Erasmus Mundus Program,” a program to promote student and researcher exchanges between Europe and Asia, held an International exchange event, or “Erasmus Day,” on October 20^th 2014.

This program, developed by the European Union (EU), is intended to improve the quality of advanced education, and its main objective is cooperation of educational institutions and the promotion of exchanges between student and researchers between Japan and EU. Okayama University participated in the “2010 - 2014 Erasmus Mundus BEAM Program” as a consortium school. We have conducted research exchanges with cooperating institutions in Europe and elsewhere, centered on both teachers and post-doctoral students. From 2013, we implemented the “Erasmus Mundus EASED Program”, centered on the field of ecological energy, in order to encourage the strengthening of international cooperation and the globalization of educational research.

Naoshi Ikeda, professor at the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology and the Erasmus Mundus partnership Implementation Committee chairperson, introduced our university’s efforts in implementing the EASED program at the event. Students and researchers who had been abroad to study using this program, along with foreign students currently on exchange here at Okayama, reported on their research in English. They described what their study abroad was like, their cross-cultural exchange experiences, and more.

Two graduate students from the l'Université de Montpellier, a university conducting the Erasmus Mundus MaMaSELF Program, introduced the “MaMaSELF” (Material Science Major Master Course Program) Program.

Bernard Chenevier, a senior research administrator, explained a new Erasmus project, the “Erasmus+”, which started this year. He addressed the audience by saying, “I hope participation in this program is wide-ranging in many fields - regardless of whether you are from humanities courses or science courses.”

Okayama University aims to become a world class research university by fostering global-minded human resources who can flourish on the world stage. We aim to strengthen our global competitiveness through various international exchanges in research and education.