On March 1st, a briefing session was held for NAIST's 2017 Overseas Staff Development Training Program.

This program began in 2007 to further support the international education and improve general planning skills and abilities for promoting systematic globalization in graduate school education through language training, workplace visits, debate, etc. at overseas universities.

This year, NAIST sent one administrative staff member to each of the following university programs: Hawaii Tokai International College from November 6th to November 19th, 2017 and Macquarie University from November 4th to November 18th, 2017,; and sent one administrative staff member to both University of California Davis and Massachusetts Institute of Technology from January 10th to January 21st 2018.

The staff participated in a practical English training program and pursued investigations on their own research themes regarding various administration roles at overseas universities through lectures, on-site job shadowing and interviews with various administrative staff members there.

In their reports, the trainees explained what they learned through the lectures and job shadowing, and their research findings in areas such as institutional research, salary systems and the realities of accepting and dispatching international students, while describing the differences between overseas universities and NAIST they discovered during the program.

Finally, the participants encouraged staff members to join this program to develop their English communication skills, as English has become necessary for every staff member.

In the following question and answer session, President Naokazu Yokoya, Executive Directors and staff members actively asked many questions about their experiences.

Finally, the Executive Director Kiyoshi Nakajima gave encouraging remarks expressing his hopes that the trainees will continue to strive forwards excellence in their positions considering the differences they experienced, successfully ending this briefing session.