03 Jul 2017

Akita University in Japan has opened an office at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) in Palapye.

Speaking at the official opening of Akita University office at BIUST recently, Mr Masaki Shiga said the establishment of the office of at BIUST shows that the Japanese university has developed closer ties and partnerships with Botswana.

He said in several occasions, they had students from Japan visiting Botswana in the field of studies, noting that the new office could serve as a demonstration of one of the best practices in academic cooperation.

Mr Shiga said the long term collaborations between Japan and Botswana through inter-university cooperation would continue.

He said they had a number of Akita University graduates who were lecturers at BIUST, noting that such clearly indicated that the two nations shared the belief that there was a need to invest in quality education by making it a priority in the development goals of the two countries.

He also said Japan focused on offering assistance in the field from early childhood to higher education, hence their government provided support through the grass-roots assistance projects to improve the school facilities as well as introduction of scholarships to Batswana students.

He said to date, the government of Japan had granted scholarships to over 20 Batswana to study in Japan.

Moreover, he said Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched the African Business Education (ABE) initiative, which offered opportunities for young Africans to study Master’s courses in Japan and develop effective skills and knowledge through internship programmes in Japan.

He said so far, seven Batswana students were admitted to ABE initiative programmes.

For his part, president of Akita University, Professor Fumio Yamamoto said they had  developed broad international partnerships in many countries including Botswana by organising symposiums and conducting joint research and short stay programmes for students.

He said Botswana was one of the most indispensable partner countries for the successful education and research in the field of resource sciences.

Professor Yamamoto said the establishment of the office would promote further exchanges of students and visiting lecturers from their faculty members, something which would enhance partnership between Akita and BIUST.

In addition, vice chancellor of BIUST, Prof. Otlogetswe Totolo thanked Akita for opening an office at BIUST, noting that the office would strengthen the collaboration between BIUST and Akita University.

He said the office would allow BIUST to be connected with Akita University even while they were here and to provide information about their programmes of study, scholarships and other necessary academic services.

He said his expectation was to see students, members of academic staff, community of Palapye and the entire nation visit Akita University office from time to time to seek services they offered and familiarise themselves with Japan.

Prof. Totolo said their relationship with Akita University dated back to 2009, noting that 10 Memorandum of Understanding had been signed for the course of almost 10 years of collaboration. ENDS