ID :
407640
Tue, 05/24/2016 - 17:49
Auther :

Japan Aims To Double Foreign Students To 300,000 By 2020

PETALING JAYA (Selangor, Malaysia), May 24 (Bernama) -- By 2020, Japan aims to double the number of its foreign students to 300,000, says its Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. Its international affairs division director Hiroki Toyooka said currently, Japan had 150,000 foreign students pursuing various courses at numerous institutions. "We (Japan) are planning to increase it and double the number of students worldwide in four years' time as we are trying to prepare a new scholarship and so on. "At the same time, we also aim to increase the number of our (Japan's) students in other countries, especially in the ASEAN region," he told reporters after the 7th ASEAN +3 Senior Officials Meeting on Education here Tuesday. ASEAN +3 Senior Officials Meeting is part of the 9th ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting (9th ASED) held in Malaysia after being appointed chairman of ASEAN Education for two years from 2016. Meanwhile, Toyooka said Japan also had a good relationship with Malaysia, especially on student exchange programmes. "Since 2014, there are 2,475 Malaysian students studying in Japan's numerous institutions," he said while hoping that by attending 9th ASED, Japan would benefit more in terms of educational cooperation. Furthermore, he said Japan was particularly looking to strengthening the education partnerships in the area of Education in Sustainable Development (ESD). "The Japanese Government is forecasting programmes on the area based on its importance. Promoting ESD is an indispensable element for realising the target of sustainable development. "Good ESD practices are expanding in the ASEAN +3 region of Japan, China and South Korea and we expect each country to continue its promotion," he added. ESD emphasises on holistic human capital outcome, environmentally-conscious and responsibility. Toyooka said Japan looked forward to lively discussions to take place during the events which would result in the stronger education cooperation within ASEAN member countries and its strategic partners. --BERNAMA

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