Evaluation Sheet of Guest Professor Program,Graduate School of Science, Osaka Prefecture University
The following information will be used as a reference material for our evaluation of theprogram. We appreciate your kind cooperation. We appreciate your sending this form by
e-mail to kiriye@mi.s.osakafu-u.ac.jp, Prof. Kouyemon Iriye, Graduate School of Science,
Osaka Prefecture University.
1. If there are comments or advice for the graduate students who took your lecturein “Science Communication”, we appreciate your writing them below.
Although being aware of the fact that the level of understanding and speaking English
may be a problem for Japanese students, I have been surprised that many of thestudents of my lectures gave us the feedback that they had not been able to follow thepresentations sufficiently due to problems with understanding the language. I guessthat my English is still rather simple as I am no native speaker.
Japanese students must surely start getting more and more familiar with the English
language (as the most important one in international science and business) - alreadyduring their undergraduate studies – by attending special language courses, but also byusing international scientific literature instead of Japanese text books (a missing
understanding of the international scientific terms seems to me being another reason
for the problems of the lectures’ attendees). The latter one especially applies to masterand PhD students.
In addition, at the considered level, the possibility of directly communicating andworking together with international scientists (either visiting scientists at OPU or via
internet-based communication) should be strongly encouraged by the responsible
professors. In my case, I unfortunately received hardly any direct feedback from thestudents.
2. If there are comments or advice for the graduate students of your host professor, weappreciate them.
Please see item 1 for some general remark. Although this may not apply for every
master/PhD project, I particularly think that in many cases, other scientists like me(especially when working together with a professor at OPU) would be happy to offer
their assistance in discussing the results of the students’ work related to their subject

(at least by email) if they are presented in English. I think that this is some otherimportant possibility to improve not only the scientific quality, but also theinternational communication skills, which should be particularly encouraged.
3. If there are comments or advice for the undergraduate students who took yourlecture, we appreciate them.
With the increasing importance of international affairs in both science and business,skills of foreign languages (especially English) become more and more relevant inaddition to the specific abilities for the different fields. Using the opportunity to attend
lectures or talks in English is surely one way to improve on both levels. Other
recommendations given at item 1 also apply to undergraduate students.

4. If there are comments and suggestions for our program, we appreciate them.
I think that this program is very important, and the duration of the Guest Professor
contract seems to me being well chosen. The direct communication between the Guest
Professor and the students might however be further extended, especially in the case of
master and PhD students.
Another point I would like to additionally recommend is accompanying the Guest
Professor program by another program supporting short-term stays (e.g. internships) ofmaster and PhD students at foreign universities. Although such a program may only
apply to few students, I think that the benefits for these students would be even muchhigher than just using the opportunities given by the Guest Professor program.

5. Can we make this sheet open to the public?
NameReik Donner[ YES ]
Date

20/02/2009
Thank you.