Online Debriefing Session on Inter-University Exchange Project (Latin America) 2018/19 Study Abroad Results

February 8, 2021

On Friday, January 29, 2021, a debriefing session on the Inter-University Project “A Co-Creative Education Program of Humanities and Sciences to Solve Global Issues Confronting Japan and Latin America (La-CEP)” was held online (via Zoom), at which the students' study abroad achievements were presented. La-CEP is a program aimed at fostering practical global human resources through collaboration among three universities: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and the University of Electro-Communications, in order to solve global issues that need to be addressed in Latin American countries (e.g., environment, resources and energy, food, and social and economic development).

At the debriefing session, students from TUFS and TUAT, who had studied abroad at partner institutions in Latin America under the program in 2018 and 2019 and had returned to Japan by December last year, gave free presentations on what they had learned at their host universities, their work experience through internships, and the changes they experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the students who participated in the program in 2019 were forced to interrupt their studies and return home due to the spread of COVID-19. However, even in the midst of such adversity, the students made positive efforts by attending lectures online and acquiring their credits after returning to Japan, practicing conversations online with friends they had made abroad, and focusing on their research with the hope that they will be able to study abroad again.

The MEXT subsidy period for this project began in 2015 and ended in 2019. However, the TUFS Student Mobility Center and the Global Japan Office, in collaboration with the three universities will continue to support student exchange in Latin American countries.