Work-education abroad sets business students apart

 As a third-year commerce student at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, Marcel Glaesser spent an academic semester at the University of Mannheim last year. After completing his studies in Germany, he decided to stay longer and landed a six-month contract with BMW in Munich.The coolest thing is that I got to do so many things,” he recalls, citing marketing-related assignments that included preparations for the company’s annual meeting held in a stadium, complete with a display of prototype cars.His experience typifies a growing trend among undergraduate and graduate business students to study and work abroad while earning their business degree. For Mr. Glaesser, Germany held appeal because he was born there before his family came to Canada 10 years ago. He took his classes in English at Mannheim, but had to brush up on his German to work at BMW.

His advice to other students is “go abroad, go abroad. It will set you apart.”The same message comes from Canadian business schools, some with formal and informal arrangements to promote international experience opportunities for students before they graduate.For example, Beedie recently signed an agreement with the British Columbia and Caribbean branches of the Certified General Accountants for an accounting student to spend a work term in Barbados every year.We feel it is a great opportunity for students because they get to work and learn, says Andrew Gemino, associate dean of undergraduate programs.We would love to do more, he adds. “It is a matter of finding those opportunities and working on them.

About 1,700 Beedie commerce undergraduates – about half of the enrolment – are at one stage or another of the school’s co-op program, either completing a prerequisite semester, applying for a placement or actually on the job. Every semester, between 170 and 240 students are actually working, with about five per cent choosing to go abroad.Through a variety of different ways, the students are becoming more comfortable and more interested in working internationally,” says Shauna Tonsaker, co-op education program director.Her office provides financial and other assistance to students before, during and after their work stint. Prior to departure, all students complete an online course to minimize culture shock. This summer, students have chosen placements with major firms in half a dozen countries, including China, Austria,Japan and Germany.

“They get the experience of working in a culturally diverse work environment, gain experience for the first time of living on their own and get a global perspective,” she says. “It is of huge value when they are out there to apply for careers, locally and internationally, and can bring that [experience] to the workplace.Now completing his fourth year at Beedie in business marketing, Mr. Glaesser says the biggest bonus of working abroad was his new level of confidence. “It was the first time working in any big organization and seeing how it works from the inside,” he recalls. “For me, it was really valuable.”

Social media fundraising

For the second year in a row, MBA students at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University used social media for philanthropic pursuits while on a 10-day overseas study trip.During the for-credit “hot cities” tour to South Africa this year, students used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to raise funds for Ubuntu Education Fund, a Port Elizabeth non-profit that provides medical and educational support to orphaned and vulnerable children.The students hoped to raise $20,000, but fell slightly short at $18,000. However, the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education recognized the student effort with a gold medal for best use of social media, according to Desautels student Melanie Walsh, one of the organizers.
 
Endowed chair

An astonishing 98 per cent of Canadian businesses have fewer than 100 employees. But a 2010 Industry Canada study found this country lags behind global competitors on several measures of entrepreneurship, such as exports generated by small and medium firms.Exploring the potential for these enterprises to extend their global reach is one goal of a new $2-million endowed chair in international entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business.Looking at countries in the world where this culture of entrepreneurship is well developed and looking at the opportunity in Canada, we saw this [endowment] as an opportunity,” says Doug Brooks, chief executive officer of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario, which endowed the chair. “The knowledge and understanding, from a global perspective, to develop an entrepreneurial culture within Ontario and Canada we see that as the way forward from an economic standpoint.He adds that the endowment – one of several relationships between his association and post-secondary institutions and think tanks is a great strategic fit” because his members either work in or for small and medium enterprises.Moren Lévesque, who has taught graduate-level entrepreneurship students at the school since 2011, is the inaugural chair.

High college cut offs attracts world’s top universities to India for talent

College cut offs reached new heights this June as the 10% increase in entry requirements into Indian colleges caused great challenges to students achieving less than top marks. Even talented students achieving marks in the 80+ range are likely to face difficulty in gaining a spot at their first choice university in India. The world’s top universities recognise the talent in Indian students and will arrive in India between the 13th and 21st of September to meet and recruit the best Indian students to their institutions.

With prestigious colleges such as Shri Ram College of Commerce, Hindu College, and Lady Shri Ram College requiring 100%, 99% and 97%* respectively, over 150,000 Indian students are currently pursuing higher education degrees overseas. The recently released eighth edition of the QS World University Rankings® 2011, which ranks the top 700 universities in the world shows the range of world class universities . The top 100 consisting of universities from UK, US, China, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Denmark and Canada to name a few. The QS World University Tour, an undergraduate recruitment event from the team behind the QS World University Rankings®, brings some of these top-ranked institutions from around the world to meet with the best Indian students looking to study abroad.

Universities from around the world are keen to recruit in India and have long recognised the potential of the country’s students and the value they add to their universities. Marina Tirado, Head of International Development at IE University in Spain says,Over the course of the last year India has played a major role in global business. The talent of Indian students is internationally renowned which is why we’re actively recruiting these future leaders to our university.Peter MacDonald, Head of Graduate Products at QS says, ‘The best higher education institutions in India are heavily oversubscribed; the supply and demand of quality institutions in India does not go hand in hand.He continues,Candidates may be pleasantly surprised at the entry requirements of some of the best universities in the world in comparison to those in India. Countries such as Canada are offering very favourable visa environments for Indian students in hope of attracting the best students to the country.

For those worried about the high cost sometimes associated with studying abroad, many institutions travelling with the tour will provide scholarships and offer practical advice on applying to different financial aid schemes. Attendees will also have the opportunity to speak with admissions directors from universities around the world, receive admissions advice from independent experts and attend seminars on studying abroad. QS is the world’s leading information specialist in the higher education sector. QS mission is to enable motivated people to fulfill their potential by fostering educational achievement, international mobility and career development.Through our exclusive events, publications, research and interactive web tools, we link undergraduate, graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with recruiters and education providers.

TU Japan study abroad program saw a decrease in enrollment

The natural disaster and subsequent events that unfolded in Japan last March haven’t stopped Sydney Daviston-Atkins from wanting to study abroad at Temple Unversity Japan. If anything, she said, they made her want to go more.The sophomore theater major, who recently transferred to Temple from Fordham University, where she began formally learning the Japanese language, said she’s been interested in Japan’s culture since her early teens.

I’ve wanted to go to Japan since I was a teenager,Daviston-Atkins said.The desire is still there.the disaster didn’t really deter me from wanting to go.However, this semester, the number of students studying abroad at TU Japan has dropped to 33 from 69 last spring.Kyle Cleveland, study abroad coordinator at TU Japan, said a number of factors could have affected the decrease, apart from the disaster, known as the Great East Japan Earthquake.While Cleveland noted the disaster could have played a role in the recent decrease, he listed a number of other things that may have offset some of the program’s enrollment.

Whatever trends that we’re seeing are also impacted by what was happening a couple of years ago,Cleveland said, citing the U.S. recession and economic downturn. He noted that decisions to study abroad are typically made a few years before actually going.Cleveland also said the deadline to apply for the program, close to the time of the disaster, could have affected decisions to study abroad at TU Japan this fall.I think that if people had the ability to decide today, opposed to three months ago, you’d have a different number,Cleveland said.Between the Fall 2005 and Spring 2010 semesters, the number of students studying abroad at TU Japan fluctuated between 73 and 97. Last year, the number dropped to 63 and 69 in the fall and spring semesters, respectively.

The approximate 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the northeast coast of the region on March 11, with a deadly tsunami following. Aftershocks, a nuclear power crisis and radiation leaks were among the concerns spawned by the disaster.Recent reports estimate that close to 15,700 people have been confirmed dead and more than 4,000 people are still missing.The general sentiment in Tokyo, where TU Japan is located, is starkly different than northern areas such as Fukushima, Cleveland said. Fukushima is home to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the site of the largest nuclear accident that resulted from the disaster.Up there, you can hardly overstate how bad it was and how it affected those people, but down here in Tokyo it’s a very different situation, Cleveland said.He said signs of the disaster are hardly visible in Tokyo and that the campus’ surrounding area is safe for students to travel to.Although the Japan campus reported no damages, the Spring 2010 Japan study abroad program was cut short after a travel advisory in Japan was issued by the United States Department of State. A chartered flight on March 20 from Tokyo to Hong Kong assisted students in leaving the TU Japan campus.

The voluntary authorized departure from Japan ended April 15, when the U.S. declared that the safety and health risks outside of the 50-mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were very low.Cleveland said he expects enrollment to rise again in the near future.Students don’t randomly come to Japan. It’s expensive, it’s a long ways away, there’s the language issue,Cleveland said. I don’t think they’re likely to be deterred.In fact, Cleveland said students traveling to Japan now will have a unique experience.If you’re a person who is interested in Japan, this is one of the most interesting times to be in Japan that you’ll ever experience,Cleveland said, noting the disaster’s affect on the culture. I think some kids.want a front seat to history.Daviston-Atkins said she hopes that Japan’s society can rebuild itself to the point it was at before the disaster. If she doesn’t get to study abroad at TU Japan this spring, she said she’ll go next year.It’s not a matter of if I’m going to go, it’s a matter of when,Daviston-Atkins said.

Japan Study Abroad Program Canceled

Japan Study Abroad Program Canceled Due to March Earthquake.When word got out about the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 of this year, most people were looking at footage of a place they would never see first-hand. But for junior English major Joe Bisciotti, Japan was a place in which he'd planned on studying even before he came to Messiah College. Bisciotti and two other students, Lindsay Prior and Emily Murphy, were scheduled to leave for Japan just two weeks after the earthquake and resulting tsunami occurred.

While watching the news the morning of the earthquake,my heart just sunk,said Bisciotti, "I just kept thinking about how many people had died and how I was most likely no longer going there.The earthquake resulted in a tsunami that claimed thousands of lives. To add to the crisis, the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant flooded and the cooling system designed to keep the reactors from overheating stopped working. The six reactors began to heat up, radiation levels quickly rose, and over 200,000 people within 20 km of the site were evacuated from the area. All others were told to stay indoors to avoid harmful radiation.

The program was still set to go in the few days following the disaster,said Bisciotti.After about a week though, when nuclear issues became a concern, Messiah finally canceled it.At that point, the death toll from the earthquake had climbed into the thousands, and many more people were being reported as missing.Although the program's cancellation was quite a blow, Biscotti is thankful that he wasn't there for the earthquake.I'm still kind of in disbelief,he said.The fact that this happened less than two weeks before we were going to leave is kind of surreal.I knew that God was definitely looking out for us.Since the program was planned to start so late into the semester, Joe was concerned he wouldn't graduate in time since he had essentially skipped one whole semester of classes. But by working closely with the EpiCenter, Joe and the two others who planned on studying with him in Japan were able to get into a summer program at Oxford University.

Technical and vocational education is inferior

In short, the British grammar-style education that we adopted was for the elite, and not workforce development. We have a largely untrained and unskilled labour force because we did not see the need to train and certify everyone.We were quite comfortable, it seems, to continue with our plantation economy as primary producers and cater to the traditional professions of law and medicine. We did not do very well at industrialisation or economic growth. In fact, those who graduated from this British system are largely to be blamed for our bad economic and tribal political polices over the last 48 years. This is the real cause of Jamaica's poor economic performance.

I further submit that the Task Force Report of Education 2004 was not radical enough. We need to revamp the current syllabus-driven CXC examination system. If we can't get consensus with our other CARICOM partners, Jamaica may well leave CXC and go it on our own.The OECD countries do no follow the British grammar-style education system. In fact, the K-12 is the most popular type, and technical and vocational education is mainstreamed. The success of the economies of US, Singapore, Germany, France, Australia,Austria Japan and China, among others, was facilitated by workforce development led by technical education. Employers really want workers with knowledge and skills. Not just knowledge. Indeed, the new age requires adaptable workers and workers who can multitask.

So the establishment of the Tertiary Commission should be applauded because it will level the playing field and give better value and recognition for technical and vocational education. The national qualifications framework will allow for credits to be given for practical experience, competency, as well as establish equivalency standards and transferability of credits among institutions.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Global Production Engineering,Business Administration and Process Energy Environmental Systems Engineering.

It will also mean that we will have to rationalise the qualifications offered at CXC for secondary certification. This must be led by the expansion of secondary education to age 18. That is adopting the K-12 or K-13 system. That is why I fully support the concept of a senior school to age 18 called the Career Advancement Programme (CAP).So I wish to propose the integration of Basic Proficiency, CCSLC, CVQ and NVQ with CSEC General Proficiency. We would have one exam called CSEC and retain the two options of Technical Proficiency and General Proficiency. Grades four and five would represent foundational qualification, and then grades 1-3 would remain as acceptable grades for further education. But we must also reform the high-school curriculum to ensure we have a curriculum that will produce the ideal Jamaican and ideal Caribbean worker and citizen, and through these different subjects, we will have the Caribbean Secondary Diploma, based on a minimum cluster of subjects.

Secondary-level graduates should be well rounded, with the basic knowledge and skills necessary for further education or to function effectively in the workforce based on further training.Post-secondary institutions would offer higher-level training in technical and vocational education, or the normal tertiary universities or colleges. It is worthy of note that many universities, including UTech and UWI, are already seeking the transition into this new global imperative.The purpose of career and technical education is to provide a foundation of skills that enable high-school students to be gainfully employed after graduation either full time, or while continuing their education or training. Nearly two-thirds of all graduates of career and technical programmes enter some form of post-secondary programme.

Across the United States, career and technical education programmes are offered in about 11,000 comprehensive high schools, several hundred vocational-technical high schools, and about 1,400 area vocational-technical centres. Public middle schools typically offer some career and technical education courses such as family and consumer sciences and technology education. About 9,400 post-secondary institutions offer technical programmes, including community colleges, technical institutes, skill centres, and other public and private two- and four-year colleges. In 2001, there were 11 million secondary and post-secondary career and technical education students in the United States, according to the US Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

To reverse declining enrolments, career and technical education faces a twofold challenge: to restructure its programmes, and to rebuild its image. Traditional vocational programmes provided students with job-specific skills that many parents viewed as too narrow for their children.The trend is for career and technical education programmes to rethink their mission by asking how they can prepare students with high-level academic skills and the broad-based transferable skills and technical skills required for participation in the 'new economy' where adaptability is key. Programmes adopt this dual approach in an effort to make career and technical education a realistic option for large numbers of students to achieve academic success, which will translate into employment for them.

These programmes teach broad skills that are applicable to many occupations. This preparation for the world of work is anchored in strong academic skills, which students learn how to apply to real-world situations. These academic skills include the competencies needed in the contemporary workplace as well as the knowledge and skills valued by academic education and measured by state examinations.

The reality is that the academic skills needed for the workplace are often more rigorous than the academic skills required for college. The multidisciplinary approach of most work tasks and the amount of technology and information in the workplace contribute to the heightened expectations of all workers, including entry-level.For career and technical education programmes to flourish in today's test-driven school environment, they must find ways to continue to prepare students with the skills and knowledge needed in the increasingly sophisticated workplace; embed, develop, and reinforce the academic standards/benchmarks that are tested on the state-mandated assessments; and teach the essential skills that all students need for success in life.As career and technical education programmes redesign curricula to embed academic standards, their students have an advantage over other students because career and technical education students also learn how to apply these skills.

Study Abroad Program in Japan cancelled by CSUN

California State University, Northridge, has cancelled its study abroad program in Japan after the the triple whammy of a devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake, a tsunami, and radiation leaks at nuclear facilities in Fukushima. Chancellor Charles B. Reed immediatelly recalled all 22 California State University system students studying in Japan.Three of the four Northridge students who attended school in Kyoto more than 500 miles away from the quake epicenter have returned or are en route to the United States after months learning Japanese culture and language.Now, we must reinstate the study abroad students into the program at CSUN,” said Dr. Aki Hirota, Japanese Section Head, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures.Students will be awarded credit for the work they completed overseas.

A source of frustration, according to Hirota, was the uncertainty of what would be waiting for the students when the arrived back in the states.One member of the program had to stay in Japan to secure a new student visa, while another wanted to stay and help.I was against leaving Japan at the time of the quake and tsunami,said CSUN student Nick Winegar in an email.I wanted to find a way to help out in any way I could. I felt I was in no danger since the earthquake and tsunami were over.Winegar said he searched for locally to donate anything he could: money, clothes, blood. Even more than that, he wanted to provide physical help, but he said his presence would probably have been more of a burden than anything.

Since the quake, I have had a strong enforcement to the respect I give the Japanese society, Winegar said.After an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear scare, the Japanese people and society stay strong and resourceful.Winegar said he expects to be living in the Santa Clarita Valley when he returns, but he said that the immediate order to evacuate left him with little time to plan a living situation.I was definitely unhappy,said James Her, a CSUN student who returned last week after six months at Japan’s Ryûkoku University.But I expected our university to either suspend the program or terminate it solely for the safety of the students studying abroad on behalf of the university.

When the earthquake hit Japan on March 11, Her was in Seoul, Korea. He travelled across three countries in three days to get his affairs in order to leave Japan.After a $3,000 one-way plane ticket back to the United States, Her said the hardest part was not being able to say goodbye to the people he met and the friends he made in program.They went under the auspice of the CSU system,Dr. Hirota said.They had to come back because we were responsible for them.The students will be reimbursed for unexpected funds collected by CSU’s Office of International Programs, according to a memo from CSU Chancellor Reed.Her, who was awarded a scholarship, does not expect to be reimbursed for his tuition.I understand Japan was nationally in a state of emergency and our university and our head of the Japanese department back in America was only doing what they felt was safe and right,Her said.It is a rare occurrence and I know there are others, especially in Japan, that had suffered a much greater loss than I have, so I have no room for greed.

Japanese students share thier study abroad experiences

UW sophomore Mike Thielk was studying abroad in Sendai, Japan on Friday, March 11 when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the northeast coast of the nation. He was one of 24 UW students in Japan when the earthquake hit.I thought I was going to die,Thielk wrote in an email.I was in a research lab in an older building on a mountain during the earthquake. The lab had a lot of damage.The earthquake was the most powerful on record to hit Japan. Its reverberations triggered a tsunami that washed over the nation and caused extensive damage along the eastern coast of the country. Japan’s National Police Agency has stated that the official death toll has exceeded 10,000 people, and over 16,000 more have been reported missing.

Sendai, the city in which Thielk was studying, was the nearest major city to the quake. The surrounding area has suffered the most extensive damage. Thielk’s dorm was without power and water until Saturday night. The water they did receive that night ran out Sunday.I am looking for a way to leave Sendai for a while,Thielk wrote.UW is advising me to leave, but they have even less information than I do.Brent Barker, UW travel security and information manager, said that the UW made contact with 17 of the 24 students within three days after the earthquake hit. The remaining students have since been accounted for and are unharmed.

While we don’t have any immediate concerns, we still want to close the loop and make sure [the students] are fine,Barker said.We are trying [to reach the students] by all means possible: phoning, emails and doing searches.Barker said that Thielk is the only student he feels should leave the area. He said it is likely that the UW will let most of the students continue their studies in Japan since there is not significant damage in other areas of the nation, such as Tokyo.UW professors Robert and Saadia Pekkanen and professor Jody Bourgeois were also in Japan at the time of the earthquake. All three have confirmed that they are safe.

Robert Pekkanen, the chair of the Japan Studies Program, and Saudi Pekkanen, Job and Gertrud Tamaki professor, are both back in the United States. Bourgeois is a professor of earth and space sciences and is scheduled to return to the United States on Thursday.In Japan for research purposes, Bourgeios was located at the Sapporo Institute of Seismology and Volcanology at Hokkaido University at the time of the earthquake.I got motion sickness,wrote Bourgeois in an email.I felt like my building was a boat, and the earth had become the sea.Bourgeois was on the island of Hokkaido in Japan to study the relationships between earthquakes and tsunamis. The island suffered minimal damage during the earthquake and had little devastation. Bourgeois is hoping to learn from the disaster, but right now, her main concern is for the well-being of the Japanese people.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Mathematics,International Agricultural Sciences and Bioinformatics.

This event is right up my research alley,she wrote.I was not afraid, just awestruck. The motion was more rolling than shaking, and it was moderate rattling windows but nothing falling over. I was very surprised that the motion kept going, so after a while, I looked at my watch to time it.Three UW graduate students were also in Japan during the earthquake, attending a civil-engineering conference to study earthquake engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. All three students are now back in the United States.

Po-Chien Hsiao, one of the UW graduate engineering students, was more fortunate than Thielk in terms of the earthquake. Hsiao said he was on a bus in Tokyo during the earthquake and didn’t realize an earthquake had struck until he reached his hotel. He said that he woke up numerous times during the night because of aftershocks.Keith Palmer, another UW graduate student and structural engineer focusing specifically on how to reinforce buildings for earthquakes, was in Sapporo, Japan, during the earthquake.The earthquake] added some more motivation to what I am studying,Palmer said.It reinforced that I chose the right field. It’s a pretty important field, and we still have a lot of work to do.Since the earthquake, Thielk said he had not seen many relief efforts in Sendai. Despite the situation, he wrote that the people have not panicked.The Japanese have been very calm and collected despite being without power or water for two days,he said of conditions after the quake.Barker said that the UW’s main concern is Thielk’s safety, which is why they want him to leave Sendai. The UW will determine what the other students in Japan should do on a case-by-case basis.

Study abroad trip to Japan under review due to disasters

The Seton Hall study abroad trip to Japan, scheduled for July 15 Aug. 20, is currently under review due to the current conditions in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, according to Mary Kirk Rawn, associate provost for International Programs and Academic Support Services.According to Rawn, the trip, scheduled to be held at Sophia University in Tokyo, was placed under review by the University out of concern for any students and faculty who would travel to Japan.

Rawn said the Office of International programs provides advisement and information to students who may be interested in studying abroad, which can include exchange programs, faculty-led programs or programs that are coordinated by third party providers.The office monitors the U.S. Department of State's web page with particular attention to travel alerts, Rawn said.Seton Hall will monitor and observe the U.S. Department of State Travel Alert Information and will stay in contact with Sophia University, the sister institution in the exchange program.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Cultural Encounters,Intelligent Software Systems and European Studies.

According to Rawn, Dr. Shigeru Osuka is the director of the Japanese studies program and received more than ten students who were interested in the summer trip to Japan. Some of the students have already made deposits for the trip,Rawn said.Dr. Osuka has contacted students who are interested to let them know that a decision about the trip will be made toward the end of April.Rawn said the decision at the end of April will enable students to either plan their travels to Japan or coordinate alternate plans for their summer studies. Concerning future study abroad exchanges between Seton Hall University and Japan, Rawn said the only semester where Seton Hall students travel abroad to Japan is the summer semester. The SHU-Japan Exchange Program is designed so that students from Sophia University study at Seton Hall in fall and spring semesters, and students from Seton Hall study at Sophia University during the summer.
Dr. Shigeru Osuka did not return requests for comment as of press time.

Japan earthquake delays study abroad

The OU Education Abroad Office postponed students’ study abroad plans to Japan last week as a response to the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear radiation leaks, according to university officials.The Japanese spring semester begins in April, but OU students planning on studying abroad have had their plans postponed to later in the year because of the crisis.As a result of concerns related to the initial earthquake and the continuing crisis, we have pulled students back from Japan for the spring semester,OU Education Abroad Director Jack Hobson said.We had about eight students planning on studying abroad.It was tragic what happened, but we were lucky to have a swift and safe departure of students.The office is in the process of trying to find other options for the students based on their specific situation, Hobson said.We are in the process of sorting out their needs,Hobson said.Some have already studied abroad and this would be the second time. Some haven’t yet. Some can only do a summer program. We are trying to figure everything out for them.

Hobson said the disaster will not affect any future study abroad relations with the country.Norman’s sister city in Japan, Seika, is located in the southwestern region of the country, was not near the earthquake and should not be heavily affected, Norman Mayor Cindy Rosenthal said.I have sent messages to the mayor of Seika, Japan,Rosenthal said.It’s on the south and western part of the country, so it is far removed from the immediate earthquake. The whole country is obviously affected though.Though she has not heard back from Seika yet, Rosenthal said she understands it is not a high priority for the city’s mayor right now.

The Norman City Council will vote on a resolution this evening expressing sympathy for the country and asking residents to keep the country in their thoughts and prayers, Rosenthal said.Currently, the OU Japanese Student Association is part of a statewide group called the Oklahoma Earthquake Support Group that is creating a relief program in Oklahoma, association president Russell Kabir said.The Japanese clubs at OU the Japanese Student Association, the OU Japanese Club, the Japanese Animation and Manga Society and the Arashi Taiko drummers are planning fundraising events, Kabir said.We found out about the earthquake right after our Japan culture night,Kabir said.We were all so high off of that and then saw news online and statuses about the earthquake. It was a weird feeling.Plans are not concrete yet, but Kabir said he plans to meet with UOSA President Franz Zenteno this week to create an event similar to those for Haiti last spring, he said.We are thinking about doing something in the South Oval with drummers and dancers to get attention and do more fundraising, Kabir said.A lot of things are in the idea stage right now and will be planned soon.

Universities Begin Recalling Students Studying Abroad In Japan

After days of warning their students studying abroad in Japan, American colleges and universities are urging and in some cases ordering students to return home. This follows the U.S. State Department Wednesday advising U.S. citizens to leave Tokyo because of the deepening crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.While institutions of higher education have long fostered international study, they're now experiencing the downside, notes The New York Times. Schools with a foreign presence have a lot at stake, including their students' safety as well as their reputation and property.Study abroad in Germany.

Temple University is arranging a charter flight for any of the remaining 200 students studying at their Tokyo campus. More than 115 have already left, and between 15 and 20 others moved from Tokyo to other regions in Japan. University officials expect the flight to leave Japan on Sunday, Japan time.The real tipping point for us was the U.S. government making its advisory,Kyle Cleveland, sociology professor, told The Inquirer. Temple's Tokyo campus, closed since the earthquake, is slated to reopen March 28, events allowing.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Sociology,Engineering,and Cultural Encounters.The University of Kansas recalled its 10 students in Japan; the University of Missouri did the same with its six students remaining there. Three MU students already have departed. Both schools offered to help pay for these students to evacuate.University policy does not permit study abroad programs to operate in countries where State Department travel warnings have been issued,said Jill Jess, a KU spokeswoman, as reported by The Kansas City Star.

The University of California, one of California's two public university systems, is suspending its study abroad programs in Japan, bringing home the 49 students still there and telling 31 others not to return to Japan from their spring break locales. "This decision was not taken lightly and it is based on the need to ensure your safety, our first and foremost concern,Jean-Xavier Guinard, executive director of UC's education abroad programs, wrote in a letter to the students, according to the Los Angeles Times. Similarly, Cal State, California's other public university system, is evacuating its 45 students in Japan and holding back the 50 students scheduled to travel there soon.Despite recent problems in Japan, international study will remain largely unaffected long term, said Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit, international education and training organization, per The New York Times.Past experience has shown that study-abroad programs can be reinstated relatively quickly, and student enrollments can resume or even surpass previous levels,he added.