The Hindu Business Line : Pune to become second point of entrance to Japanese varsities

Pune, Nov. 2 Pune would become the second centre in the country, after Delhi, where the Japan Student Services Organisation (JASSO) would be conducting the examination for Entrance to Japanese Universities (EJU).

Speaking at the Japanese education fair in the city, Mr Tomohiko Hikichi, Deputy Director, Exchange and Follow-up Division, Student Exchange Department, JASSO, said this is the second consecutive year of the fair in Pune organised by JASSO and the Mombusho Scholars Association of India (MOSAI) with support from the Embassy of Japan-New Delhi and the Consulate General of Japan.

EJU is one way to get into Japanese Universities for higher education with scholarships and is conducted twice a year, in the months of June and December. Dr Umesh Joshi, Vice-President, MOSAI, noted that the percentage of Indian students going to Japan for higher education was poor compared with China due to the lack of awareness about the opportunities in Japan amongst Indian students and their parents.

Enrolments

Last year, only 500 Indian students went to Japan for education as compared with one lakh from China. He also noted that it was disappointing to see that every year, over 2,000 candidates enrol to learn the Japanese language in Pune, but only a negligible number explored education opportunities in Japan.

He said that there were very few takers of the Mombusho Scholarship, which gives ¥1,74,000 per month along with the cost of travel.

He pointed out that Indian students were perceived to be good in Mathematics; however, the results of qualifying exams like EJU and Mombusho have a different finding all together — Indian students have not performed well in Mathematics.

Training centre

To overcome these problems and to train Indian students for these entrance examinations, MOSAI has taken the lead to start a training center in Pune, he said. The centre would train students according to the syllabus of EJU and Mombusho qualifying examinations.

The Pune centre would be the first-of-its-kind training center in India which would focus on preparing students for entrance examinations to Japanese Universities and would have direct participation of Mombusho scholarship holders as faculty members.

Dr Hari Damle, a Mombusho scholarship holder, will be the Center Coordinator. The center will commence operations from January 2009.

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