At Kasetsart University in Thailand, an orientation day was held for the student mobility program in FY 2013 to be conducted as part of the Re-Inventing Japan Project ("Consortium of International Human Resource Development for Disaster Resilient Countries: Based on the Experiences of Disaster Recovery").
Under the project, student mobility programs are conducted through a collaborative education program with a six-partner institution in an ASEAN region, focusing on the theme of constructing resilient countries. In the 2013 fiscal year, the first part of the program was held at Kyoto University in August and the second part will start in September in Bangkok, Thailand. The purpose of this orientation day was to serve as an opening ceremony for the second part of the program. A total of thirty-one students--including sixteen from Kyoto University and three each from Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, Asian Institute of Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, and Vietnam National University--attended the event together with Deputy Executive Director Masao Kitano (dean, Graduate School of Engineering), Dean Thanya Kiatiwat (Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University) and other faculty members from partner institutions.
At the event, after a welcome speech by Dean Kiatiwat, Deputy Executive Director Kitano gave a speech in which he expressed his gratitude and hopes for the progress and promotion of the project. Then, Professor Hiroyasu Ohtsu (Graduate School of Engineering), who is in charge of promoting the project, gave an outline regarding the project's development of human resources and summarized the first part of the program that was conducted in August.
Later, Lecturer Sompratana Ritphring from Kasetsart University briefed students on the details of the second part of the program and provided information on life in Thailand while Associate Professor Kakuya Matsushima (Graduate School of Engineering) gave instructions on how to follow the curriculum. At the end, students went on a campus tour guided by Kasetsart students.
For the thirty-one students from six universities who had already known each other through the first part of the program at Kyoto University and who had worked on the educational program together, the orientation day was a good opportunity for motivating them to actively participate in the second part of the program in Thailand while building even closer ties.
 From left: Deputy Executive Director and Dean Kitano, Dean Kiatiwat and Professor Ohtsu |
 Orientation participants |
