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Education for Adults and International Students
Adult Education
The Need for Adult Education
In recent years, at many companies, products have become more diverse and sophisticated, and, at the same time, wide-ranging and sophisticated knowledge, technology and research abilities have become necessary for product development. In addition, the progress of such knowledge and technology is extremely rapid, and keeping up with it is a must. On the other hand, companies are losing the wherewithal to adequately conduct in-house education, and are increasingly asking universities to provide education in advanced fields and new fields, and education that fosters effective research abilities. At the personal level, moreover, the employment situation is getting bleaker, while, on the other hand, people who have excellent abilities are being increasingly appreciated in society. Thus, the desire to refresh and improve one’s education is continuing to grow.
The Yokohama National University School of Engineering conducted a questionnaire on adult education (see the “Report on a Questionnaire for Adults about Engineering Education,” published in May 1999) which was mainly targeted at 101 companies that have their offices in the Tokyo-Yokohama region. Regarding the engineering education that the companies wanted their employees to obtain, it was found that 25% of the companies wanted their college-graduate employees to obtain a master’s-level engineering education, while 50% wanted their college-graduate and master’s-degree employees to obtain a doctoral-level engineering education, especially one that would improve R&D abilities. From these results it was concluded that a graduate level engineering education is highly desired in many areas of the business world.
The Accomplishments of Adult Education
As mentioned above, the need for adult education at the graduate level has gradually increased, and is expected to increase still further in the future. Actually, by applying the Special Provisions of Article 14 of the Standards for the Establishment of Graduate Schools, the Graduate School of Engineering has been accepting working adults as students in the master’s program since 1988 and in the doctoral program since 1990, and has produced numerous graduates. It also has a long list of achievements in terms of people who have earned a doctoral degree solely by writing a thesis.
Education for International Students
Graduate school education could be called the main education that this university is currently providing to international students. The Graduate School of Engineering started to convert the language of all lectures in the graduate school into English in April 2015 to develop “global human resources in science and technology” in order to respond the request from industries. Graduate students are also recommended to take up international internships at overseas enterprises, institutions and universities to develop the talents who can achieve substantial accomplishments across international borders. In addition, international students are welcomed to be admitted to the graduate school from developed and developing countries.
