An increasing number of Japanese companies have initiated internship programs to promote their businesses and recruit talented youth. Most of them offer brief internship programs lasting only for 3–10 days and try to reach out to maximum possible university students. Although it is an irrefutable fact that an internship itself offers valuable opportunity for both future employers and employees (students), this study questions the current “short internship boom” that only seems to hasten university students to pursue a job since the early stages of their college life and diminishes the value of their undergraduate education. Instead, this study asserts the importance of an industry-university collaboration in an internship program and proposes an internship course as an active learning course. The study argues that an active-learning-based internship can facilitate students to analyze businesses extensively, improve their communication skills, and link their internship experience to their undergraduate program. As a case study, the Global Internship program offered by Kwansei Gakuin University since 2012 is analyzed herein.

This paper reports on a survey conducted among the faculty members at a private local university in Japan. Now Japanese universities are challenged with difficulties in order to become internationalized and to survive in a globalized world. The writer’s previous study showed that most of the faculty members at the university generally have positive attitudes toward internationalization and that some study programs would be necessary in order to promote their attitudes. In this study, the writer focuses on the effect of both English proficiency and the experience of stay ingabroad on the faculty members’ attitudes toward internationalization. The study also tries to find the relationships among their attitudes towards the internationalization and some other attitudes, such as an attitude toward foreign languages and cultures, familiarity with foreign residents, and a sense of belongingness to their own culture. It concluded that even a small university has better chances of promoting its own internationalization through enhancing faculty members’ awareness of intercultural competence in its own way. The study suggested that it would be desirable forJapanese universities to provide their faculty members with some opportunities for intercultural contacts and to get them to develop an open-minded attitude toward different cultures.

The education program by utilizing ICT for fostering global person in Hokkaido Information University (HIU) is held in collaboration with Rajamangala University of Technology Tanyaburi (RMUTT) of Thailand. This program is held once a year since 2011. The program is composed of five small programs: a contest of ICT works in each university, prior lectures for workshops, an international contest between these two universities, the two workshops and a briefing session for presenting their works made in the workshops. The main part of this program is composed of two successive workshops. These workshops are held in HIU and RMUTT alternately at interval of a few days. The duration of each workshop is 8 days apart from moving days. The 18 students of each university visit their partner university each other. They make Web work, short film or computer program by utilizing ICT in cooperation with each other in groups. In this program, students develop as global person. This program is managed with collaboration by many staffs of both universities.

This article presents the results of a survey measuring students’ perceptions of the learning outcomes of semester-long language study abroad programs. Sixty-one female study-abroad participants were queried about their perceptions of five learning outcomes: (1) language acquisition, (2) knowledge of the host country, (3) intercultural awareness, (4) knowledge and awareness of their own culture, and (5) personal growth and development. The results indicated that semester-long language study abroad programs can have a positive impact on overall development in these five areas. The author suggests that semester-long language study abroad programs may serve as an alternative to studying in undergraduate programs that have more strict admission requirements and a higher cost of attendance.

Because of the rapid pace of globalization today, universities in Japan have been expected to change English education and to offer courses where students can acquire English as a tool for global communication. Though the importance of learning English as a tool for global communication has been emphasized, there is usually no clear guidance from university administration about content and methods for teaching English classes in a way that reflects the importance of globalization. Based on the concepts of English as a lingua franca, English as an international language, and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), I defined English as a tool for global communication: First, as having the English ability to think critically and objectively and to convey thoughts and ideas in an organized manner through pair work, discussion, and presentation. Secondly, as having English ability to understand other people and other cultures and to understand and convey our own cultures. With the reference to the European Language Portfolio (ELP) and self-regulated learning theory, a portfolio was designed to help university students to acquire English as a tool for global communication. Pedagogical implications to teach English as a tool for global communication will be also addressed.