The International Affairs Office, Prince of Songkla University (PSU), together with the Embassy of Japan in Thailand and the Association of Japan Alumni in Southern Thailand, organized the 8th Japan Education Fair on February 12, 2015, at the Khunying Long Athakravisunthon Learning Resources Center, Prince of Songkla University.
Mr. Koji Tawara, First Secretary, Embassy of Japan, gave a welcoming speech and introduced representatives of several Japanese universities, including Osaka University, Meiji University, Tokai University and Tokyo University of Technology. Mr. Tawara then said that last year they managed applications and the scholarship competitions at Prince of Songkla University. PSU candidates who passed the qualifying examination got funded by the Japanese government. This year, they hope that they will receive just as much attention from PSU’s students. There are various types of Japanese government grants, for researchers or undergraduate students and short-term scholarships for high school and university students.
Ms. Sainoon Jarong, a lecturer at the Japanese Department, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, PSU Pattani Campus, said that she heard about this fund from the Embassy of Japan website. She received a full scholarship grant for 3 years to go to study at Miyazaki University in Japan, with the department's expectation that all staff should graduate from Japan directly. This grant covered every cost and it did not have to be paid back. Ms. Sainoon will go to Japan at the beginning of April 2015, where she expects to do research to improve the teaching of students with special skills in at least two languages. She wants to be a good intermediary who associates together and hopefully can create a positive image of qualified personnel in the three high-risk provinces in southern Thailand, where multiple languages and cultural learning abound.
This year, the Japan Education Fair featured numerous interesting activities, such as the sing-and-dance show by the pupils from Tetsaban school, Ban Kaokaew, along with several informative sessions on studying in Japan by alumni, by representatives of the Embassy of Japan, by the Bangkok-based Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), and by representatives of Japanese universities.
