Feature

Toyohashi Tech’s Overseas Education Base in Penang, Malaysia

Toyohashi Tech has recently established an overseas education base in Penang, Malaysia in co-operation with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The educational facilities—housed in a refurbished heritage-looking mansion in Penang—were officially opened in December 2013. Toyohashi Tech is entrusted to implement the Globally-Oriented Human Resources Development Program within the framework of the government-sponsored “Tri-Institutional Collaborative Educational Reform Project” in partnership with Nagaoka University of Technology (NUT) and National Institute of Technology (KOSEN). Malaysia is multi-cultural country with multi-national companies, including many globally orientated Japanese companies within easy reach of the campus.

The project offers many opportunities to initiate academic collaboration and the development of a wide range of international programs with governmental organizations, local public and private tertiary educational institutions in Penang. Moreover, Penang is the perfect place not only for the students but also staff to experience a multi-ethnical environment. Toyohashi Tech has been welcomed by the people of Penang with high expectations in terms of initiating educational programs to support Malaysia’s needs for advanced engineering, technology management, and efficient utilization of human resources.

Atsunori Matsuda is the Director of International Education Center (CIE) and presidential advisor on international affairs. CIE is one of three international centers, established under the Global Network Innovation of Technology Education (IGNITE) of Toyohashi Tech. The mission of the CIE is to manage the education base in Penang (Toyohashi Tech Penang) and implement global programs in Penang. “All support from the partners of Toyohashi Tech is indispensable to forge a strong collaborative partnership with organizations in Malaysia and Japan,” says Matsuda.

Activities at Toyohashi Tech Penang

1) Annual IGNITE conference collaboratively held with USM. The 2nd IGNITE conference will be held on 14-16 Dec 2014.

2) As part of the International Internship Program the first batch of 21 students (16 Japanese and 5 Malaysians) were dispatched to Japanese and multi-national companies Jan-Feb 2014. Also plans for an initiative for longer internship period of 6 months are on-going.

3) International Summer School Program (August 31st – September 6th), where 14 Japanese students had participated in this program utilizing Toyohashi Tech Penang to have exposure and opinion exchange with USM students based on environmental life science themes.

4) TUT-USM Global Summer School (Leading Program, September 9th – 21th) where 16 students had participated in this program (8 TUT and 8 USM medical school students. The photograph shows participants from TUT and USM at the summer school.

5) TUT-USM Collaborative meetings to assess collaborative projects and future plans.

6) Collaborative research hub not only with academic institutions but also industry.

Future plans for Toyohashi Tech Penang

With the establishment of Toyohashi Tech Penang is expected to lead to more research collaboration with academic institutions and industrial companies, global education and international internship. Furthermore, the selection of Toyohashi Tech for the Top Global University Project by MEXT will propel Toyohashi Tech Penang towards achieving its global status as a global education Hub in South-East Asia. Prior to IGNITE 2014 conference on December 15-16, an alumni meeting and gathering co-hosted with Tri-Institutional University reform will be held on December 13 at Toyohashi Tech Penang. Also Toyohashi Tech Penang is proposed to be an educational platform through twinning degree program in collaboration with local universities in Malaysia.

As for industrial collaboration, Toyohashi Tech Penang serves as a hub for its continuously expanding research collaborations with not only Japanese companies but also multi-national companies in Penang. TUT is looking to extend the internship period to 6 months from the current 2 months.

These activities underline the importance and the active role of Toyohashi Tech Penang. This education base is set to be the focus hub for more activities in near future.