UWI, Japan for exchange students.
T&T Newsday Reports.
TRINIDAD and Tobago students will have the chance to study in Japan while Japanese students could visit TT under a proposed MOU to establish an exchange programme to be signed between the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine and Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.
Among Sophia’s notable alumni are actor, George Takei, who played “Mr Sulu” in sci-fi mini-series, Star Trek, and Japan’s former prime minister (1993 to 1994), Morihiro Hosokawa.
A Japanese delegation recently met Ministry of Education officials, and will today meet UWI officials.
Japan ambassador, Mitsuhiko Okada, Sophia University’s Prof Toshiaki Koso and others last Friday visited the Ministry’s Permanent Secretaries, Gillian MacIntyre and Angela Sinaswee-Gervais; Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan, and Sector Specialist, Davin Jagessar.
The delegation asked for the Ministry’s support to build ties between the St Augustine Campus and Sophia University.
UWI has agreed in principle to an exchange programme with Sophia University, to allow student exchanges between the two institutions, and expose the youngsters to different cultures and academic environments. Today’s meeting is to herald the signing of an MOU between UWI and Sophia University.
UWI St Augustine principal, Prof Clem Sankat, told Newday he had met the Japanese delegation including the chancellor and ambassador last Saturday.
He said he had expressed his deepest condolences on the murder of visiting Japanese pannist, Asami Nagakiya. The delegation had accepted the apologies, and had noted this nation’s outpouring of grief over the tragedy. Asked if the MOU was spurred by Asami’s death, Sankat said no because it has been two years in the making.
