Pursuing Higher Education in Japan:
Three Bruneian Youths Start Their Scholarship Programme in April 2016
Three Bruneian youths will depart for Japan to pursue their studies in higher education under the scholarship programmes offered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, at the beginning of April 2016.
The Government of Japan has been providing various scholarship programmes to foreign youths, including programmes for those who wish to study as research students in graduate schools, as undergraduates, as college of technology students and as specialized training college students. This year, three Bruneians, Mr Han Yean, Ms Lim Kim Suan and Ms Nur’ Azimatul Quddsyiah Hj Maidin passed highly competitive exams and interviews to be selected as recipients of the Japanese government scholarship, for research graduate students.
Mr Han Yean, who graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2012, will be a research student at the Graduate School of Creative Science at Waseda University.
Ms Lim Kim Suan, a graduate from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in 2012, will study at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University.
Ms Nur’ Azimatul Quddsyiah Hj Maidin, who graduated from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam in 2014, will study at the Research Faculty of Agriculture at Hokkaido University.
Mr Han Yean and Ms Lim Kim Suan will also take a 6-month intensive Japanese language course at the Tokyo Japanese Language Education Centre before starting their studies at Waseda.
Prior to their departure, all the youths made a courtesy call to H.E. Madam Noriko Iki, Ambassador of Japan to Brunei Darussalam on 25th March. During the courtesy call, they expressed their excitement and gratitude for the opportunity to further their studies in Japan.
Ambassador Iki said to the scholarship students that she hoped they would be successful in their research in Japan, as well as enjoy Japanese culture and life. She expressed her wish that the students would deepen their understanding towards Japan and contribute to enhancing the Brunei-Japan relationship in the future through their studies and lives in Japan.
According to Ambassador Iki, the Government of Japan is currently promoting the “300,000 international student plan”, which aims to accept 300,000 international students by the year 2020. However, the number of international students studying in Japan in 2014 was still only around 184,000 with 90% of them from Asia. She said that she would like to support more opportunities for Bruneians to study in Japan.
The application forms for the Japanese government scholarship programmes for the year 2016/2017 (programmes for research students, undergraduates, college of technology and specialised training college students) will be available from May 2016. The application period will be open from May to June and successful applicants will start studying in Japan in April 2017.
