On Tuesday, June 21, Mr. Hideyuki Tanaka, State Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and his delegation visited Kyoto University and inspected Kyoto iUP.
First, after a speech from Professor Hisashi Miyagawa, Director of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, Admission Officer of Kyoto iUP Office gave an overview of Kyoto iUP and the current admission situation, and Professor Junko Kawai explained Japanese language education of Kyoto iUP.
After that, the delegation observed a hybrid format class of “Advanced Japanese (Academic Writing),” one of the Liberal Arts and Sciences courses (by Lecturer Koyo Akuzawa). Although it was only for a short time, they saw how international students, including iUP students, were working hard to learn Japanese.
At the end of the inspection, two first-year students and three third-year students of Kyoto iUP were given the opportunity to meet with the State Minister. Kyoto iUP students spoke honestly about their daily life at Kyoto University, including their reasons for applying to Kyoto iUP and the difficulties of learning specialized subjects in Japanese and how they have overcome them. Third-year students were confident and fluent, while first-year students were nervous but tried their best to explain their stories in Japanese.
The State Minister, who saw the students talking hard in Japanese about their life at Kyoto University, expressed his appreciation for their efforts, saying that in addition to their original excellence, they must be working even harder to overcome the difficult circumstances of the Covid-19 Disaster.
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Kyoto iUP （Kyoto University International Undergraduate Program）
