Postgraduate Studies in Japan - Admission Experience and Personal Impressions
Cinnamon, dear readers.
The topic of training in graduate and postgraduate studies in Japan on Habré has been raised repeatedly . The author of the mentioned posts, respected rg_software , teaches at the University of Aizu , where I am currently working on obtaining a PhD degree. In this post, I have tried to, first, to highlight the issue of admission to graduate school and receive scholarships from the Japanese government, and, second, to present personal impressions of almost a year in hospitable Japanese land.
(In the photo - the entrance to the university canteen)
')
In 2009, after studying for five years at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Management Processes at St. Petersburg State University, I received a diploma in the specialty “Applied Mathematics and Computer Science”. In the same year he entered the graduate school to the same supervisor, the benefit of our cooperation was quite productive. By the time I finished my studies, I had been working on the side for quite a long time, so I went to graduate school, as it seemed to me then, realizing the consequences of combining scientific and professional activities (as often happens, they didn’t overlap with each other: I worked as an analyst in software development , and at the university was engaged in mathematical management theory). But it turned out that at the end of the first year of graduate school I had a sharp leap in complexity and scope of work; the brain suggested that it was probably time to quit this study and just work like all normal people. But at some point, something clicked in my head, and I realized that if I didn’t give up everything right away and didn’t do a thorough science, then I would regret the rest of my life about it. It was around this time that I began to realize that I would definitely like to try to live abroad, and that, again, then it might already be too late (well, or, in any case, much more difficult).
So at the end of 2010, I came up with the idea of ​​entering graduate school at Aizu University. There is a long-term partnership program between my alma mater and the University of Aizu, in which I, while still a graduate student in Russia, have already managed to go to Japan for a conference. Both the university and the country as a whole made such an impression on me that I simply did not consider other options - even this thought did not arise. Now, of course, with hindsight, I understand that at that moment it was worthwhile to at least just look at positions in other universities and other countries, but in no way regret that in the end everything turned out as it happened.
It is not so difficult to enter the university, but I somehow did not want to pay tuition and especially look for livelihoods on the side, and then the Japanese government came to the rescue. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (abbreviated as MEXT ) annually holds a competition for scholarships for the entire period of study in a master’s or postgraduate study for foreign students. In the posts of predecessors about this scholarship has already been told, but I recall the main points:
Getting a scholarship is very simple:
How many people in Habré have already written, the most important thing for continuing their studies abroad is to find yourself a supervisor who agrees to mess with you. In my case, among the hundreds of university professors, there was one whose scientific interests completely coincided with what I wanted to do; if you do not set yourself a goal to get into a particular university, the scale of the task (but at the same time the range of available interesting topics) will increase significantly. It should be borne in mind that it makes sense to choose a leader and, accordingly, a field of research, taking into account your knowledge and skills. But, on the other hand, the transition to another university is a good opportunity to find new interesting problems for yourself, and you should not follow the previous directions too strictly.
A potential supervisor can be tempted in the first place by publications, in the second - by assessments in the diploma. The presence of strong (in refereed journals) or numerous (more than 4-5) publications is generally a very powerful trump card in your application, which significantly increases the likelihood of its approval at all three levels of selection (researcher, university, ministry). I was very lucky that my previous supervisor from the third year began to send me to various conferences (albeit not of the highest rank), plus I had a red diploma. I emphasize that a specialist’s diploma is sufficient; when entering graduate school, he is equal to a master’s degree (at least here in Japan).
The next step after selecting the supervisor is the preparation of a set of documents. You need to collect a bunch of pieces of paper (a letter of recommendation from the dean, a medical certificate, a certified diploma translation, etc.) and send the originals to Japan. For me at that time, the most difficult item was a certificate of taking one of the generally accepted tests in English - TOEFL, IELTS, etc. Due to the tight deadlines and the need for quite a long transfer of the original documents to Japan, I had to urgently go to take the TOEFL to Moscow without any preparation. At that time, it passed, but a lesson to descendants - try to plan everything in advance :)
Documents in Japan with grief in half reached, waiting for the decision of the university. Approved good. We are waiting for the ministry decision. Also approved, now quite well. Formally, there are still entrance exams to the university, but for MEXT scholars, this is only a video interview on Skype with extremely general questions: tell us what you will do, how it relates to previous scientific activities, what programming languages ​​you know, etc. Some time after the interview comes an alert that they took me; I order tickets, get a visa, say goodbye to the employer, etc. I must say that even before my arrival in Japan, the university staff began to help me in every way, answered all the everyday questions of interest to me, found me a home beforehand (the hostel was not supposed to be for MEXT scholarship holders); in general, back in Russia, I felt the responsibility with which the Japanese approach any job.
As I expected, in everyday life living in Japan turned out to be somewhat nicer than in Russia (but this is just my personal opinion, there are people who think differently). The general benevolence of all around at first amazed and caused a certain mistrust, but gradually I got used to it. Since childhood, the Japanese have been inculcated with a paradigm of trust and respect “by default”, that is, until the Japanese are mortally offended, in many respects they will treat you as a good friend, even if you are a complete stranger from the street. Due to this crime, at least in our town with a population of about 150 thousand people, almost none. Bicycles, which, by the way, are very popular here, are left by the Japanese in parking lots near shops without any worries and chains on wheels. In summer, cars often stand in parking lots with open windows with bags and ipads in the front seats. Well, and other similar things that indicate the level of morality in society.
The population is socially protected, families with low incomes are rewarded with various payments, free medical insurance, almost free children's gardens, etc. I honestly do not observe social stratification at all - perhaps because the Japanese simply don’t boast of wealth. Of course, the average, say, a cashier in a store will not be able to save for an apartment (by the way, he can quickly enough for a car), but there are no fundamental differences in the standard of living between him and, for example, a businessman.
By the way, about finance. MEXT scholars receive about 150 thousand yen per month, which is about 1,500 euros. This money for an unmarried student without children, renting an apartment not in Tokyo, is enough for the eyes and the ears, despite the fact that in general the prices in the country are quite high. For example, a pack of milk costs 1.8 euros (yen to euro is very convenient to transfer, so all prices will continue to be in euros), a kilogram of rice is 3.5 euros, lunch in a simple restaurant is 10 euros, in a student cafeteria 4-5, fare bus in our town or in the Tokyo subway - from 2 euros. A liter of gasoline - 1.5 euros, used Toyota Corolla in almost perfect even after 10 years of using the state can be bought for 3.5-4 thousand euros with the annual guarantee of the official dealer, navigator, winter tires and other buns. Month of renting an apartment in a small city like ours is 300-400 euros for an odnushku or 350-500 for a dvushku, in Tokyo - from 600 for odnushku, but usually higher. A significant proportion of scholarships eat off utility bills; in my two-room apartment in the summer about 300 euros per month (electricity, water, gas, Internet). I think that if you live alone in a one-room apartment, you can safely reduce costs to 150 euros, but in winter it will still go much more, since there is no central heating in Japan and you have to warm up with specials. instruments; The Japanese themselves usually use kerosene heaters.
A foreign student can bring his wife and children with him, while his wife cannot work in Japan under the terms of a visa, so that they will have to provide for the family on their own. On the other hand, even foreigners rely on all social benefits that the Japanese receive - quite good children's allowances (150 euros per child per month), the same, almost free insurance, etc. Plus, there is almost always an opportunity to earn extra money at the university - professors leading courses for bachelors, assistants are required, with whom the university pays labor costs at a rate of 10 euros per hour (if you wish, you can fill up with an assistant to 2-3 teachers, in this case it will be around 500 600 euros per month).
It remains to tell about the most interesting thing - directly study in graduate school.
If all the previous information was valid for most of the Japanese cities and universities, here I will talk specifically about my refuge.
Geographically, the University of Aizu is located in the city of Aizu-wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture, about 200 kilometers north of Tokyo.
The university focuses a little less than completely on computer science - sofware engineering, distributed computing, network technologies, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, in general, the public for every taste . In addition, there are some pretty interesting laboratories at the junction of CS and other sciences. For example, my supervisor is working with mathematics models of human behavior, there is a group of physicists who deal with graphene, a laboratory of computer arts, numerous diaspora linguists, etc. There are about 100 professors in the staff, more than half of them are foreigners. The vast majority of courses for undergraduates and part of the lectures for bachelors is conducted in English.
Each university student (starting from the third year) is given his own workplace in the laboratory and a computer in addition. Accordingly, it is assumed that the person will come to the university “as if to work”, and not appear from time to time for exams. For me, this moment was very important, because I usually cannot work productively at home. All the equipment necessary for research is bought for the research budget allocated for the student to his supervisor - for graduate students it is about 1.5-2 thousand euros per year. The university library provides a huge selection of literature on the university's profile in English and Japanese; In addition, the student has the opportunity at the expense of the budget to purchase any favorite book from the same Amazon, or an electronic version of an article from a journal that was not in the library.
Each student is given a grant in the amount of 2,000 euros for a trip to an international conference outside Japan once during the period of his master’s or postgraduate study. In addition, the supervisor can allocate money from his won grants in order to send his student to additional conferences, which is actually done quite often. Plus, of course, in Japan itself a lot of interesting conferences are held, where students travel in batches.
Participation in conferences is stimulated by the fact that the master will not be able to defend his thesis without publishing its results in the IEEE or ACM conference proceedings, and the graduate student must publish at least one article in the journal from the Thomson Reuters Master Journals List plus two articles in the IEEE works - or ACM conferences. In addition to this, and the availability of the dissertation itself, there are no requirements for graduate students; there is no “candidate minimum” here. Masters must earn a certain number of points by taking different courses during two years of study; The course set is completely determined by the student himself.
On campus there is a dining room where you can have a fairly tasty and inexpensive breakfast, lunch and dinner; Sports facilities include a football field, tennis courts, a large gym, a trainer with a shower, and a 25-meter swimming pool. For musicians there is a rehearsal room. From pleasant bonuses - impressive size Japanese garden with a pond, a special room for relaxation with dim lights, couches for sleeping and massage chairs, and just a bunch of quiet corners scattered around the campus with sofas where you can quietly sit and chat with friends (and if too lazy to go to the rest room, then sleep, never saw someone wake up).
Twice a year, free Japanese language courses are offered to foreign students and teachers, and various interesting events are constantly held. In particular, I am occasionally called to classes in elementary schools, where children want to learn something interesting about Russia (the majority of schoolchildren, by the way, for some reason are sure that the national currency of Russia is dollars), play some games, but mostly, of course, just look-touch this gaijin :)
And finally, some pictures.
(Japanese university garden)
(The view from the window of my laboratory. Children from the kindergarten nearby are periodically brought here for a walk)
(The interior of the main building of the university. On the first floor you can see sofas on which students sleep often)
Something like that. If you are interested in my story, you want to continue your studies in some exotic country and you are not afraid of the prospect of eating excellent rice every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, keep in mind that the closest competition for scholarships starts in late November, you have enough time, but it’s worth starting now. Ready to answer all questions in the comments.
The topic of training in graduate and postgraduate studies in Japan on Habré has been raised repeatedly . The author of the mentioned posts, respected rg_software , teaches at the University of Aizu , where I am currently working on obtaining a PhD degree. In this post, I have tried to, first, to highlight the issue of admission to graduate school and receive scholarships from the Japanese government, and, second, to present personal impressions of almost a year in hospitable Japanese land.
(In the photo - the entrance to the university canteen)
')
Motivation
In 2009, after studying for five years at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Management Processes at St. Petersburg State University, I received a diploma in the specialty “Applied Mathematics and Computer Science”. In the same year he entered the graduate school to the same supervisor, the benefit of our cooperation was quite productive. By the time I finished my studies, I had been working on the side for quite a long time, so I went to graduate school, as it seemed to me then, realizing the consequences of combining scientific and professional activities (as often happens, they didn’t overlap with each other: I worked as an analyst in software development , and at the university was engaged in mathematical management theory). But it turned out that at the end of the first year of graduate school I had a sharp leap in complexity and scope of work; the brain suggested that it was probably time to quit this study and just work like all normal people. But at some point, something clicked in my head, and I realized that if I didn’t give up everything right away and didn’t do a thorough science, then I would regret the rest of my life about it. It was around this time that I began to realize that I would definitely like to try to live abroad, and that, again, then it might already be too late (well, or, in any case, much more difficult).
So at the end of 2010, I came up with the idea of ​​entering graduate school at Aizu University. There is a long-term partnership program between my alma mater and the University of Aizu, in which I, while still a graduate student in Russia, have already managed to go to Japan for a conference. Both the university and the country as a whole made such an impression on me that I simply did not consider other options - even this thought did not arise. Now, of course, with hindsight, I understand that at that moment it was worthwhile to at least just look at positions in other universities and other countries, but in no way regret that in the end everything turned out as it happened.
Admission and receipt of scholarships
It is not so difficult to enter the university, but I somehow did not want to pay tuition and especially look for livelihoods on the side, and then the Japanese government came to the rescue. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (abbreviated as MEXT ) annually holds a competition for scholarships for the entire period of study in a master’s or postgraduate study for foreign students. In the posts of predecessors about this scholarship has already been told, but I recall the main points:
- The scholarship competition is held every year among foreign students who wish to study in a magistracy or postgraduate school in Japan (there are also programs for bachelor students, but this is a topic for a separate post)
- The application for participation in the competition can be submitted in two ways - through the Japanese Embassy or directly through the university, if you know exactly where you want. Since, in my case, the target university was known in advance, the story of how to act in this case will go on; About the first option, nothing intelligible, unfortunately, I can not say.
- The winning students of the competition are exempted from all expenses for study, receive a free air ticket from anywhere in the world to Japan and back, as well as a monthly stipend during the whole period of study (I’ll tell you about finances in the second part of the post). It is also worth noting that the masters who received the scholarship have the opportunity, in two years, to extend it for another three years to study in graduate school.
Getting a scholarship is very simple:
- You find the intended supervisor in Japan.
- If he agrees to mess with you, you are preparing a package of documents with him, which you will eventually mail to the university.
- The university considers all submitted applications and selects some of the best ones according to the quota allocated to a particular university. So, my relatively small university can recommend only two candidates for receiving scholarships every year, while, for example, the University of Tokyo - several dozen.
- Applications of selected candidates go to the ministry for approval. Of the two applications selected by our university, one is usually claimed.
- If your application is approved, you are taking the university entrance exam. “Pass on” is a very appropriate word, since there is absolutely no need for the university to sift out the MEXT scholarship holder at the last stage, that is, to lose money and lose out on karma.
How many people in Habré have already written, the most important thing for continuing their studies abroad is to find yourself a supervisor who agrees to mess with you. In my case, among the hundreds of university professors, there was one whose scientific interests completely coincided with what I wanted to do; if you do not set yourself a goal to get into a particular university, the scale of the task (but at the same time the range of available interesting topics) will increase significantly. It should be borne in mind that it makes sense to choose a leader and, accordingly, a field of research, taking into account your knowledge and skills. But, on the other hand, the transition to another university is a good opportunity to find new interesting problems for yourself, and you should not follow the previous directions too strictly.
A potential supervisor can be tempted in the first place by publications, in the second - by assessments in the diploma. The presence of strong (in refereed journals) or numerous (more than 4-5) publications is generally a very powerful trump card in your application, which significantly increases the likelihood of its approval at all three levels of selection (researcher, university, ministry). I was very lucky that my previous supervisor from the third year began to send me to various conferences (albeit not of the highest rank), plus I had a red diploma. I emphasize that a specialist’s diploma is sufficient; when entering graduate school, he is equal to a master’s degree (at least here in Japan).
The next step after selecting the supervisor is the preparation of a set of documents. You need to collect a bunch of pieces of paper (a letter of recommendation from the dean, a medical certificate, a certified diploma translation, etc.) and send the originals to Japan. For me at that time, the most difficult item was a certificate of taking one of the generally accepted tests in English - TOEFL, IELTS, etc. Due to the tight deadlines and the need for quite a long transfer of the original documents to Japan, I had to urgently go to take the TOEFL to Moscow without any preparation. At that time, it passed, but a lesson to descendants - try to plan everything in advance :)
Documents in Japan with grief in half reached, waiting for the decision of the university. Approved good. We are waiting for the ministry decision. Also approved, now quite well. Formally, there are still entrance exams to the university, but for MEXT scholars, this is only a video interview on Skype with extremely general questions: tell us what you will do, how it relates to previous scientific activities, what programming languages ​​you know, etc. Some time after the interview comes an alert that they took me; I order tickets, get a visa, say goodbye to the employer, etc. I must say that even before my arrival in Japan, the university staff began to help me in every way, answered all the everyday questions of interest to me, found me a home beforehand (the hostel was not supposed to be for MEXT scholarship holders); in general, back in Russia, I felt the responsibility with which the Japanese approach any job.
Personal impressions of the country
As I expected, in everyday life living in Japan turned out to be somewhat nicer than in Russia (but this is just my personal opinion, there are people who think differently). The general benevolence of all around at first amazed and caused a certain mistrust, but gradually I got used to it. Since childhood, the Japanese have been inculcated with a paradigm of trust and respect “by default”, that is, until the Japanese are mortally offended, in many respects they will treat you as a good friend, even if you are a complete stranger from the street. Due to this crime, at least in our town with a population of about 150 thousand people, almost none. Bicycles, which, by the way, are very popular here, are left by the Japanese in parking lots near shops without any worries and chains on wheels. In summer, cars often stand in parking lots with open windows with bags and ipads in the front seats. Well, and other similar things that indicate the level of morality in society.
The population is socially protected, families with low incomes are rewarded with various payments, free medical insurance, almost free children's gardens, etc. I honestly do not observe social stratification at all - perhaps because the Japanese simply don’t boast of wealth. Of course, the average, say, a cashier in a store will not be able to save for an apartment (by the way, he can quickly enough for a car), but there are no fundamental differences in the standard of living between him and, for example, a businessman.
By the way, about finance. MEXT scholars receive about 150 thousand yen per month, which is about 1,500 euros. This money for an unmarried student without children, renting an apartment not in Tokyo, is enough for the eyes and the ears, despite the fact that in general the prices in the country are quite high. For example, a pack of milk costs 1.8 euros (yen to euro is very convenient to transfer, so all prices will continue to be in euros), a kilogram of rice is 3.5 euros, lunch in a simple restaurant is 10 euros, in a student cafeteria 4-5, fare bus in our town or in the Tokyo subway - from 2 euros. A liter of gasoline - 1.5 euros, used Toyota Corolla in almost perfect even after 10 years of using the state can be bought for 3.5-4 thousand euros with the annual guarantee of the official dealer, navigator, winter tires and other buns. Month of renting an apartment in a small city like ours is 300-400 euros for an odnushku or 350-500 for a dvushku, in Tokyo - from 600 for odnushku, but usually higher. A significant proportion of scholarships eat off utility bills; in my two-room apartment in the summer about 300 euros per month (electricity, water, gas, Internet). I think that if you live alone in a one-room apartment, you can safely reduce costs to 150 euros, but in winter it will still go much more, since there is no central heating in Japan and you have to warm up with specials. instruments; The Japanese themselves usually use kerosene heaters.
A foreign student can bring his wife and children with him, while his wife cannot work in Japan under the terms of a visa, so that they will have to provide for the family on their own. On the other hand, even foreigners rely on all social benefits that the Japanese receive - quite good children's allowances (150 euros per child per month), the same, almost free insurance, etc. Plus, there is almost always an opportunity to earn extra money at the university - professors leading courses for bachelors, assistants are required, with whom the university pays labor costs at a rate of 10 euros per hour (if you wish, you can fill up with an assistant to 2-3 teachers, in this case it will be around 500 600 euros per month).
It remains to tell about the most interesting thing - directly study in graduate school.
Study at a Japanese university
If all the previous information was valid for most of the Japanese cities and universities, here I will talk specifically about my refuge.
Geographically, the University of Aizu is located in the city of Aizu-wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture, about 200 kilometers north of Tokyo.
About radiation environment
Since our university is located in Fukushima prefecture, many of my friends inevitably have questions about the safety of staying here. Briefly outline the situation: of course, in the eastern part of Fukushima, the situation is rather unhappy, a lot of people moved from there because of the real danger to health. But since the city of Aizu-wakamatsu is located in the central part of the prefecture, 100 km. from the problem station, and surrounded on all sides by mountains, here the radiation situation has been and remains favorable. Background radiation is constantly in a small neighborhood of zero, no traces of soil contamination have been detected for almost a year and a half, products from problem regions are brought to stores with reluctance and great care, checking everything that is possible. More information can be found in the recently published report of the World Health Organization .
The university focuses a little less than completely on computer science - sofware engineering, distributed computing, network technologies, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, in general, the public for every taste . In addition, there are some pretty interesting laboratories at the junction of CS and other sciences. For example, my supervisor is working with mathematics models of human behavior, there is a group of physicists who deal with graphene, a laboratory of computer arts, numerous diaspora linguists, etc. There are about 100 professors in the staff, more than half of them are foreigners. The vast majority of courses for undergraduates and part of the lectures for bachelors is conducted in English.
Each university student (starting from the third year) is given his own workplace in the laboratory and a computer in addition. Accordingly, it is assumed that the person will come to the university “as if to work”, and not appear from time to time for exams. For me, this moment was very important, because I usually cannot work productively at home. All the equipment necessary for research is bought for the research budget allocated for the student to his supervisor - for graduate students it is about 1.5-2 thousand euros per year. The university library provides a huge selection of literature on the university's profile in English and Japanese; In addition, the student has the opportunity at the expense of the budget to purchase any favorite book from the same Amazon, or an electronic version of an article from a journal that was not in the library.
Each student is given a grant in the amount of 2,000 euros for a trip to an international conference outside Japan once during the period of his master’s or postgraduate study. In addition, the supervisor can allocate money from his won grants in order to send his student to additional conferences, which is actually done quite often. Plus, of course, in Japan itself a lot of interesting conferences are held, where students travel in batches.
Participation in conferences is stimulated by the fact that the master will not be able to defend his thesis without publishing its results in the IEEE or ACM conference proceedings, and the graduate student must publish at least one article in the journal from the Thomson Reuters Master Journals List plus two articles in the IEEE works - or ACM conferences. In addition to this, and the availability of the dissertation itself, there are no requirements for graduate students; there is no “candidate minimum” here. Masters must earn a certain number of points by taking different courses during two years of study; The course set is completely determined by the student himself.
On campus there is a dining room where you can have a fairly tasty and inexpensive breakfast, lunch and dinner; Sports facilities include a football field, tennis courts, a large gym, a trainer with a shower, and a 25-meter swimming pool. For musicians there is a rehearsal room. From pleasant bonuses - impressive size Japanese garden with a pond, a special room for relaxation with dim lights, couches for sleeping and massage chairs, and just a bunch of quiet corners scattered around the campus with sofas where you can quietly sit and chat with friends (and if too lazy to go to the rest room, then sleep, never saw someone wake up).
Twice a year, free Japanese language courses are offered to foreign students and teachers, and various interesting events are constantly held. In particular, I am occasionally called to classes in elementary schools, where children want to learn something interesting about Russia (the majority of schoolchildren, by the way, for some reason are sure that the national currency of Russia is dollars), play some games, but mostly, of course, just look-touch this gaijin :)
And finally, some pictures.
(Japanese university garden)
(The view from the window of my laboratory. Children from the kindergarten nearby are periodically brought here for a walk)
(The interior of the main building of the university. On the first floor you can see sofas on which students sleep often)
Something like that. If you are interested in my story, you want to continue your studies in some exotic country and you are not afraid of the prospect of eating excellent rice every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, keep in mind that the closest competition for scholarships starts in late November, you have enough time, but it’s worth starting now. Ready to answer all questions in the comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/142854/
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