Yayoi

Cafe

from Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences

国際交流室

Striving towards creatinga har monious campus

The Of fice for Inter nationalin April 2006. Since then, all that we

Cooperation and Exchange,need to convey to the students is being

popularly known as OICE, wasregularly uploaded on this homepage.

established in its present form in 2003.

In addition to studying/ research, we

OICE members consist of one regularalso wish that international students

staf f, and three advisor y members

can make lots of friends, and tr uly(Head and two advisors). In addition,cherish throughout their life, theone temporar y personnel, from thetime they spend on our campus. ToInternational Student Section, provides

enhance interactions among them as
A view of the OICE during an informal gathering

technical support.

well as with the Japanese students,

Presently, over 200 international students from 30 countries are

we organize annual event like the Yayoi International Day. During

af filiated with our school. The OICE is an inter face between thethis event, international students present the uniqueness of their

university and these students, as well as those striving to join us innative country through power-point presentation, music, song etc. On

the future. We work in close cooperation with our school’s Academic

this occasion, we also invite a few Japanese speakers to share their

Affairs Section, especially with the International Student Section,

personal experiences either during their study abroad or as tutors

for all administrative matters related to students and events. Ourof international students, or on topics related to Japan. Last year, themajor activities are counseling/ advising, overseas correspondence,

power-point presentation made by a Japanese student depicting theproviding placements to MONBUKAGAKUSHO Scholarship students,

seasons in Japan and its characteristic foods, flowers, festivals, etc wasself-supporting students, and JSPS researchers, etc. The OICE regularvery educative to the international students, especially those new tostaff is an alumna of this school. Her previous experience as a doctoralJapan.

student here and the struggle with language barrier comes in very

Another annual event we organize is the overnight study trip for

handy while counseling the students, who are often a replica of theinternational students. During this trip, we visit one of the affiliateddilemmas faced years ago by her and her peers. For the OICE, there isresearch facilities of our graduate school, and nearby places of interest.

nothing more satisfying than seeing the smiling and enthusiastic faces

This provides an opportunity for the students to not only make friends,of the students freed of worries.

but also enrich their knowledge about our school.

Most international students, especially those on MONBUKAGAKUSHO

The motto of OICE: “To strive continuously towards creating a campus

Scholarship lack the Japanese language ability. Hence, from 2003,

where cultures blend, and everyone including international students

student-related information received in Japaneseand researchers enjoy harmony, mutual respect and trust”.

from the International Student Support Group

PS: Only a few of the OICE activities are briefly mentioned here.

of the university was mailed to the international

Anyone interested in knowing more may please visit the OICE

students in Japanese and English. However,personally for further details.

as the students use various email ID’s, andwith the influx of SPAM mails, at times they
did not receive the emails sent and missed
out impor tant information. To avoid thisproblem, we set up the OICE homepageBrochur

st udene for newtsDr. Neelam Ramaiah
Lecturer, OICE11