Internship in Graduate School of Environmental, Life, Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University (iELST)

Overview

iELST is an educational internship program organized by the Graduate school of Environmental, Life, Natural Science and Technology (ELST hereafter), Okayama University. iELST provides a high-level education program to international students who will be enrolled in research topics and in specific classes if necessary with Japanese students. Through this program, iELST encourages students to learn and understand deeply the disciplinary science as well as to gain broad pictures of the interdisciplinary science including natural science, engineering, agriculture and environment. This program provides international students with an ideal environment for their study abroad (in Japan) by having an opportunity to study at one of the prominent universities in Japan with benefits of personal experience and enrichment.

Outline of the program

This program mainly consists of research internship activities.

According to the student’s preferences, the iELST manager will recommend a professor or associate professor from the Graduate School to be their supervisor. Based on that, the student will choose their supervisor and contact him/her to discuss their research project.

Students then will conduct researches with Japanese students and staffs in the supervisor’s laboratory. Students can also have lectures for the existing scheduled and/or the on-demand ones given upon their requests. All lectures are given in English. 

Credit certificate

Evaluation of the research internship is made by the supervising professor with the report and presentation. The evaluation for the lecture is given by the corresponding professor with reports and contribution to the class.

The certificate is given by Dean of the Graduate school of Environmental, Life, Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University. Okayama University will provide students with an official report of their academic records, listing lecture titles, grades and credits. Under our scheme, the students will get around 10 research credits (equal to 12 credits in ECTS) . If the students wish to attend more classes, credits will be basically calculated as below:

• 1 Lecture credit = 15 studying hours.
• 1 Tutorial credit = 30 studying hours.

Recognition of credits earned at Okayama University is the responsibility of the students’ home institution. Typically, 1 credit in this program corresponds to 1.5 ECTS.

The scheduled lectures of this program are provided either in the spring semester (the 1st and 2nd quarters) or in the autumn semester (the 3rd and 4th quarter), according to Okayama University academic calendar. The spring semester (the 1st quarter) usually starts in the second week of April and ends in early of August, and the autumn semester (the 3rd quarter) starts in the 1st week of October and ends in the middle of February (each quarter consists of 8 weeks). The program students can add the working hours in a spring break (March) or a summer break (September) for their research works.

Expected enrolling students

This course is targeted to the inbound Master students, who are registered as a regular student in the graduate school having an international student exchange agreement with Okayama University.

Status of the iELST students

The student enrolling the iELST is accepted as a “special research student” (non-regular student) of ELST.

Academic Curriculum

iELST provides students from European partner universities with an excellent opportunity to study interdisciplinary science in Japan with comprehensive learning experiences at Okayama University. See the iELST Syllabus.

At the time of submission of application documents, you need to list the lectures and tutorial studies which you would like to take on the application document.

*You cannot basically change the subjects you chose at the time of application, so please consult with the supervisor (or iELST manager) about which lectures / tutorial studies you would like to take in advance.

Application procedure

Applicants who wish to participate the iELST must contact us at least 4 months before your desired start date of iELST .

Any questions and inquiries are welcomed to: ielst-mgr◎okayama-u.ac.jp (change ◎ to @)

[Application Procedure]

[Application documents]

– Form 1 (Application)

– Form 2 (Statement of Purpose and Study Plan)

– Form 3 (Letter of Recommendation)

– Form 4 (Certificate of Enrollment)

– A scanned copy of Passport (the page with your photo and passport number)