The author has been delivering lectures on “monozukuri philosophy” in both Japan and the Philippines for many years. This lecture series has now expanded into Vietnam. As a result of the impact of COVID-19, in 2020 he gave online lectures on “monozukuri philosophy” in Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines. The “monozukuri philosophy” discussed here is, in short, to learn the philosophy of the East and the West, and be able to apply them. The first purpose is to develop monozukuri human resources who will drive the development of the Asian economy and society in the near future. The second purpose is to learn philosophical thinking (here named monozukuri thinking), which has a history of over 2,500 years, and to help it survive the coming artificial intelligence (AI) era. From the results of the student evaluation questionnaire and comprehension test, it was found that the students effectively learned manufacturing philosophy and fully recognized the necessity of the lecture.

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Japanese universities often rely on overseas study to foster global talent. The COVID pandemic restricted travel, canceling many overseas programs. This paper examines the shift from a short-term study abroad program for Japanese STEM graduate students, to a ‘virtual study abroad’ experience with a partner institution in Australia. The real-world and virtual iterations of this program are considered in relation to the three official aims of fostering ‘global jinzai’ : developing communication ability in a foreign language (English) ; gaining an understanding and appreciation of other cultures; becoming active members of society. This study examines TOEIC results and exit surveys from real-world and virtual iterations of the program, to clarify how virtual study abroad supports the development of global talent in STEM.

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Since the onset of the pandemic, Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) has been actively switching from travel-based study abroad programs to online study abroad programs, guided by the principle “Do not compromise students’ learning opportunities”. As a result, SIT has managed not only to maintain existing study abroad programs, but also to further expand new programs and collaborative workshops. This paper investigates the effectiveness of SIT’s online study abroad programs in the Japanese academic year (AY) 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research data mainly includes (1) participants’ interest and satisfaction with the program, (2) participants’self-assessment of their English language proficiency according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and (3) global competency scores measured by the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale-Short form (MGUDS-S) . With the recent relaxation of travel restrictions, there has been a move towards the resumption of study abroad programs which involve actual travel abroad. Therefore, it’s worth discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the current generation of online study abroad programs that SIT has, as a background to considering the overall future direction of SIT’s study abroad programs under the ‘new normal’ of a world emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) has been conducting online international education programs since the onset of the pandemic. In this paper, one of our programs, “Interdisciplinary Online Robotics Workshop” will be examined. This is an interdisciplinary engineering workshop, run in collaboration with University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). This online workshop is designed as one of SIT’s online study abroad programs to provide participants with an education in robotics and engineering, using Arduino and Tinkercad toolkits. Malaysian participants also receive an introduction to the one-semester study abroad programs and the various laboratory internship options at SIT. This paper offers insights about: (1) Systematic issues with the way these types of engineering workshop is conducted, in the online study abroad programs that SIT has been running since the start of the pandemic: (2) What types of innovations have been applied to this robotics workshop in attempting to overcome them, while still dealing with the constraints imposed by the pandemic: and (3) Program evaluation results after these innovations were introduced.

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Shibaura Institute of Technology, since the adoption for the Top Global University Project in 2014, has been conducting the globalization of education and research with the goal of nurturing global engineers and scientists. The College of Systems Engineering and Science launched Global Program in three departments in 2017 and then extended to all the departments in 2019. Compulsory long-term course-taking study abroad, which is considered as one of the effective measures for globalization, is installed as the core component of the Global Program. This paper discusses the design and implementation of the Global Program and describes the current situation and issues based on the statistical information of the number of students in the Global Program. Moreover, we will also present the results of an outcome survey of graduates of the Global Program and discuss the evaluations of our global education.

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The pandemic has made human mobility difficult and face-to-face study abroad programs were replaced with online ones using remote tools. This has led to a rethinking of the form of study abroad. This research compares the education benefits and motivations of the onsite and online versions of the Tohoku University High School Bridging Program which has been ongoing since before the pandemic. As a result, we found that each onsite and online program had different features of achievements in English skills and awareness. Rather than substituting online as a temporary alternative measure of the inability to travel abroad, we believe that it is meaningful to choose the method according to the educational objectives.

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Tokyo Tech professes that we provide excellent education nurturing the ambition to change the world in students’ minds and acquiring the ability to take a panoramic view and leadership. To the aim, in order to develop global human resources who will lead the world by technology, Tokyo Tech is promoting various initiatives that take into account the position of universities as top-tier institutions of higher education. In this manuscript, the environmental improvement and educational programs for that purpose along with each intention are introduced. On the other hand, the activities of researchers with higher quality in various international joint researches themselves are the best teaching materials. The efforts to promote international joint researches, which will lead to the creation of situations and environments for fostering global human resources, are also introduced.

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International Linkage Degree Program (ILDP) began in 2017 in Hiroshima University, supported by MEXT Inter-University Exchange Program. The ILDP is a well-designed exchange program between Hiroshima University and eight selected Indian institutions, offering eight exchange programs in three step-by-step courses covering undergraduate to Ph.D. students. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it was switched from an in-person program to an online one without missing a beat. The online learning program could successfully promote multinational student collaboration by focusing on SDGs and climate change issues. More researchers participated in the online joint research activities than expected, expanding organized academic exchange. The unpredictable event shows a new model for developing global human resources, the internationalization of universities, and research enhancement.

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This report first gives an overview of the Global Engineering program at the National Institute of Technology, Tokyo College, and then introduces in detail our online international exchange efforts with Flipgrid, a free video discussion and video sharing app provided by Microsoft. On a private group within Flipgrid, students at NITTC posted videos in which they introduce themselves in English, and then engaged in asynchronous communication with American students who posted comments to their videos. Subsequently, the NITTC students met the American students online and engaged in conversations with them in mostly English. A survey administrated afterward revealed that all the NITTC students found this exchange opportunity meaningful.

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This paper describes the contents of a global engineer training program at National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Nagano College. The contents include the details of classes, overseas training, campus globalization, and e-learning system. Each program is mindful of international exchanges during the COVID-19 pandemic and this paper shows their current outcomes.

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There is a growing consensus of using the TOEIC as an English proficiency measure in many university admission exams and company promotions in Japan. Yet, many KOSEN students and graduates struggle to use English both at school and work. To fulfill the needs, starting from 2023, Hachinohe KOSEN will introduce the new curriculum for 4th grade students that will require them to have a TOEIC score of least 400 points in order to move on to the 5th grade. To prepare for this requirement, TOEIC-related English classes were introduced in 2019 from the 3rd year. In this study, TOEIC scores of the same students who took two years in a row (the 3rd and 4th grades) were compared and the students’ responses to the English classes were reported.

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Although various international exchange programs are available at Hachinohe KOSEN, many students are hesitant to participate in these programs because they lack confidence in speaking English and feel uncomfortable communicating with people of different nationalities and backgrounds. When the COVID-19 pandemic caused overseas travel restrictions, the international exchange program introduced some new events, to lessen language barrier of the students and increase their motivation to become global engineers. This paper presents examples of various international related activities and curriculum provided at Hachinohe KOSEN during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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NIT, Ube College has been selected for the Global Engineer Project and has been implementing global education, especially for the lower grades of the first through third year, since the 2019 academic year. However, NIT, Ube College has already been conducting mutual exchanges of faculty members and students through academic exchange agreements with overseas educational institutions for more than a decade. In 2018, before the coronavirus pandemic broke out, there were 105 students who received language training and specialized experiments and practical training at overseas partner schools during summer and spring long vacations, and 59 short-term international students from those schools. However, there are a significant number of students who are not active in activities conducted both on and off campus, and the challenge is how to involve such students. What we have tried to do is to globalize the campus, and I would like to introduce three initiatives that we have implemented during the past two years of pandemic. The first was to provide online language training and overseas training, and position it as an official course for which credit can be granted. In addition, online English conversation classes were made available to students who wished to take them. The second is the “Global Engineer Lecture Series,” in which alumni with overseas work experience give lectures online. In FY2021, five lectures were held. The third is the implementation of after-school English conversation classes utilizing foreign faculty members and long-term international student tutors, in which many students in lower grades participate, leading to an increase in the level of globalization on campus.

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