Gifu University Head Office for Glocalization (GHOGL) hosted a Study-Abroad Report Session at the International Student Center on January 17, 2018. Forty-two students and teaching, administrative staff attended.
The theme of the session was, "Things we will never know if we don't stay abroad." The students who returned from their studying abroad in 2017 made their presentations.

After the greeting by Dr. Fumiaki Suzuki, Executive Director for International Affairs and Public Relations, Vice President, Director of GHOGL, summaries of summer school and student exchange programs, and "TOBITATE! Young Ambassador Program" of the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) were introduced. Then the students who participated in the programs spoke about their individual experiences of studying abroad.

In a summer school report session, the students who studied at Griffith University (Australia), Seoul National University of Science and Technology (South Korea) and University of Alberta (Canada) for two to five weeks, made their presentations. Gifu University has concluded partnership agreements with these universities.

Next, the students who studied at Northern Kentucky University (USA), University of Technology, Sydney (Australia) and The University of Bayreuth (Germany) as an exchange student for one year, spoke about their experiences abroad. These three are also partner universities of Gifu University.

Lastly, the students who were selected by "TOBITATE! Young Ambassador Program" talked about their one-year research activities at Tulane University (USA), Wageningen University (the Netherlands), and Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). After all the presentations were over, Professor Koichi Morita, GHOGL Vice Director, Director of the International Student Center gave a closing remark.

Every speech that the speakers made was quite inspirational and intriguing full of interesting episodes about language studies, cross-cultural experiences and research work. They also introduced real charm and attractions of the countries they stayed as well as failures and difficulties they underwent.

Because the number of students who study abroad is growing these days, the report session is expected to provide a strong incentive to students who wish to study abroad in the near future.