Southeast Asian graduate students complete GSGES Program on Contributing to Sustainable Development through Establishment of Foreign Satellites (1 April–29 September 2015)

Under the auspices of Kyoto University's FY2015 Project to Enhance the Promotion and Support of Internationalization, the Short-Term Credit Transferring Program for Southeast Asian Graduate Students Aimed at Contributing to Sustainable Development through Establishment of Foreign Satellites ran as a six-month program (during Kyoto University's Spring Term) for special auditing graduate students from universities in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand with which Kyoto University has concluded agreements on Inter-University Student Exchange. Participating students are eligible to take lectures in order to earn 7 to 12 credits from the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), and to receive research guidance from supervisors in their respective research disciplines. Because the earned credits are recognized by participants' home universities, this program is expected to lay a foundation for future establishment of double-degree programs.

For the 2015 program, eight participants were selected from among 20 applicants by way of document screening and remote interview examinations: three from Vietnam (Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry, Hanoi University of Science and Technology), four from Indonesia (Bandung Institute of Technology, Bogor Agricultural University), and one from Thailand (Mahidol University). Starting in April, they engaged in lectures, research activities, and training sessions, including on-site training at a plum farm in Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture.

A presentation session to showcase results of the students' study and research activities was held on 24 September. The following presentations were made: "Pollutant reduction based on factors of distance and vegetation"; "Study on water and nutrition management for paddy rice production in salinized areas in Vietnam"; "Ecology and conservation of raptors (Study Case: Nisaetus bartelsi , Accipiter gentilis fujiyamae , Bubo blakistoni , Nisaetus nipalensis orientalis ); "Study on perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination in groundwater in Thailand"; "Dynamic modeling of environmental systems: Case study on forest ecosystems"; "Evaluation of the adsorption performance of GCL (bentonite) in comparison with composite GCL (zeolite and bentonite); and review of literature on semi-aerobic landfills (Fukuoka model) ; "Traffic problems in Bandung: A comparative study"; and "Analysis of political financing in Indonesia". Following the presentations, an awards ceremony was held, in which each participant received a program completion certificate. Later, at a luncheon party to celebrate completion of the program, the participants were joined by degree-awardees of GSGES, whose graduation ceremony took place on the same day.