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2016.3.26 KIP Symposium “Thinks about the Future of University Education”
Held the 7th KIP symposium at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. Started from the brief report of last year’s activities and quizzes about KIP. After that, we had three-part programs.
In the first part, members from US study trip had a presentation entitled “Thinking about meanings of university from the point of internships”. They explained the difference of values about internship and of university life between US and Japan. Comparing to Japan, students in US have to prepare so much before taking classes and company’s value on students’ GPA. From these reasons, students in US study hard, while Japanese students do not have pressure to study. These differences of the way to think about grade come from how hard to take credits in universities. Because taking credits in US is more difficult than in Japan, so GPA is valuable to estimate students. After the presentation, we had a discussion, “what kind of university would you like to make if you were a president.” One group suggested that they want to promote classes with fewer pupils so that they can participate actively.
In the second part, Chieko Ishii from Ministry of Education, Sports, Science, and Technology, gave a speech about “Promotion of Internship.” She explained the characteristics of internship in Japan. According to her, while internships can be good hints for students’ future career, it actually interrupts their study. In addition, some companies apply internships as a process of job-hunting, so sometimes students have no choice to be absent from classes. This is one of big problems.
In the third part, we had a discussion, “Should internships directly connected to recruiting be allowed formally?” We almost agreed the idea, but we think the government should set the period that companies allowed to do it.
This is just a part of the 7th symposium. We learned, thought, and discussed a lot. We sincerely appreciate KIP directors, alumni, students, and all the people who cooperated for this symposium.