2015.10.05

　On September 25, the “New Term Opening Ceremony for Twinning Program and KOSEN Study Abroad Program” in “Higher Engineering Education Development Project,” which was started as a project under Japanese ODA Loans, was held at the lecture hall of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST), Ulan Bator. We requested the honor of the presence of Mr. Luvsannyam Gantumur, the Minister for Education, Culture and Science of Mongolia, Mr. Takenori Shimizu, Japanese ambassador plenipotentiary to Mongolia, and other guests.
　The project comprises several pillars, including the dispatch of students to colleges of technology (KOSENs) in Japan, a Twinning Program at the faculty level implemented by MUST and the Japanese University Consortium, and study abroad programs to master’s and doctoral courses. The ceremony on that day was celebrated as a ceremony for the official announcement of the start of the two programs inside and outside of the country, following the determination of 47 students studying at KOSEN and 96 entrants to the Twinning Program.
　At the ceremony, after Minister Gantumur and Ambassador Shimizu made their speeches, two students who planned to study in Japan expressed their passionate determination in fluent Japanese: “I wish to learn Japan’s outstanding technology and contribute to my country.” In addition, all KOSEN entrants assembled on the platform and sang “My Grandfather’s Clock” in Japanese. It became an opportunity to show the entrants’ high level of motivation and their preparation for learning Japanese to all the parties concerned. Representatives of six universities (Kitami Institute of Technology, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Toyohashi University of Technology, Kyoto Institute of Technology, and Kyushu University), which plan to accept Twinning Program students, participated from Japan, and Dr. Yoshiki Mikami, Executive Director and Vice President of NUT, who serves as the Chair of the Consortium delivered a speech as the representative from the Consortium universities.
　The project under Japanese ODA Loans, which well known in Mongolia as the “1,000 Engineers Plan,” is slated to extend nine years from 2014, during which 1000 students will study at university and KOSEN in Japan at KOSEN, faculty, and graduate school levels. Minister Gantumur, who took the leadership role in promoting the project, graduated from National Institute of Technology, in 1996 and from NUT in 1998. Subsequently he returned to his home country, entered politics, and became the Minister for Education and Science of Mongolia in 2012. In his speech on that day, the Minister expressed the thought that he wanted to establish Japanese KOSEN education and practical engineering education in Mongolia at any cost and lead it to industrial development in his country.
　In April 2018, Twinning Program students come to Japanese universities to transfer as third-year students. Until then, students will receive the first half of education and Japanese language education at MUST and an intensive course of lectures by teachers from the Consortium universities.