Overview

Background and purpose

In the Asia-Pacific region today, there are many barriers to creating a sustainable future for the area, from both an international and a single-country perspective. These include security concerns and the significant disparities between the rich and poor. To resolve this difficult situation, it is necessary to train and produce human resources who can not only create and accumulate specialized knowledge in individual academic and practical fields, but also comprehensively grasp the reality in which various subjects and problems are intricately intertwined, and adopt a flexible approach that is not bound by the status quo and have the ability to coordinate knowledge across a range of different fields. This program comprehensively covers such educational themes. Students from Japan, the U.S., the Philippines, and South Korea, all with different majors and cultural backgrounds, study the current situation in the Asia-Pacific region, incorporating diverse ideas and knowledge in the interdisciplinary educational program that also includes GX and DX, and develop skills in creative coordination to bridge differences in language, culture, and their major fields of study to find solutions to the issues of today.

Program outline

The project is primarily aimed at undergraduate students from overseas partner universities in the U.S. and the Philippines who are studying at TUFS, and our undergraduate students who are currently studying at these partner universities. The program aims to develop the coordination skills of these students to envision a sustainable future through dialogue and collaboration, overcoming differences in cultural backgrounds and their major fields of study while retaining a shared focus on the Asia-Pacific region. To achieve this goal, eligible students participate in the three-part learning program: (1) Online Program, (2) On-Campus Program, and (3) On-site Program (Location-based).

In the TP-Bridge Program, Japanese students and students from the United States and the Philippines will participate in the online program (October to March). During the spring semester (April to July), we conduct internships that combine classes taught in English and online training for Japanese students and U.S. and Filipino students who joined our university in October or April. In July, students undertake short-term training in Korea and report on the results of their studies. The Japanese students then depart for short-term or medium- to long-term study abroad, while the U.S. and Filipino students return to their home countries after completing their overseas studies. Any of these students can re-enter the online program at any time.

Partner Universtities

• San Diego State University
• California State University, Northridge
• San Francisco State University
• University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
• University of Nebraska at Kearney
• University of California, Riverside
• University of California, Irvine
• University of the Philippines
• Ateneo de Manila University
• De La Salle University-Manila
• Seoul National University