On November 25, 2017, TUFS Global Community meeting was held in Moscow. This is the second time since 2014 that Moscow has hosted the Global Community meeting. The meeting was held on the occasion of a TUFS delegation visit to Moscow following its selection as one of the universities participating in FY2017 Inter-University Exchange Project (Russia) funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
One of the primary objectives of this visit was to have detailed discussions with partner universities in Moscow in order to further promote student exchanges between Japan and Russia. Other objectives were to ask Japanese companies and government organizations operating in Moscow to cooperate in providing Japanese and Russian students with internship opportunities, another major pillar of the Inter-University Exchange Project, and to discuss with the companies and organizations that had already agreed to accept interns the specific details of the internship programs.
Due to the shortness of their stay, the delegates were expected to be able to individually meet only a limited number of companies and government organizations. In fact, they managed to arrange meetings with just four companies and two organizations in between their appointments with partner universities. In view of these circumstances, the Tokyo Gaigokai Moscow Branch, an association of TUFS alumni living in Moscow, invited TUFS students studying in Russia, in addition to other participants, to organize a Global Community meeting based on its social reunion (Moscow Gaigokai) held several times a year. With the participation of TUFS alumni working for companies in various industries and government organizations in Moscow, the meeting was aimed at efficiently expanding the TUFS Japan-Russia Business Network (Business Network),* which supports our project, and at providing the alumni with an opportunity for communication with TUFS students studying in Russia.
To this end, at the meeting the delegates asked the alumni to actively participate in the Business Network and to make arrangements to accept TUFS students studying in Russia as interns at their offices. Meanwhile, the delegates explained to the TUFS students the significance of experiencing an internship in Russia, a foreign country for them, and some points to note when serving as an intern. Additionally, the delegates encouraged the students to be proactively involved in Business Network activities in the future when they become working members of society so as to provide the same support to their junior fellows as they received themselves.
Meeting participants from TUFS included Executive Director and Secretary-General Katsuhisa Sagisaka, Professor Kyoko Numano (the Project Leader, Institute of Global Studies, Russian Literature and Russian Culture), Professor Yoshikazu Suzuki (Institute of Global Studies, Modern Russian Regional Studies, Economic History, and Comparative Economic Systems), and other delegates. From the Tokyo Gaigokai Moscow Branch, 17 members attended the meeting, including Branch Director Yoshihisa Tachi and some former students who returned to Russia after studying at TUFS. Also with the participation of 12 TUFS students studying in Russia, a total of 35 people gathered for the reunion.
In this way, the initial objectives of the visit to Moscow were generally achieved.
*The TUFS Japan-Russia Business Network is a community of TUFS graduates who are active in or have experience in Japan-Russia business to support TUFS in implementing the Inter-University Exchange Project (Russia) from the alumni perspective. The members are expected to offer support, such as providing career consultation for current TUFS students and students from Russian partner universities, talking to them about business between Japan and Russia, and giving internship opportunities or serving as a bridge to give such opportunities to their junior fellows at their companies and organizations.
At the global community meeting