PRESS RELEASE

Indian Ministry of Railways sends engineers to The University of Tokyo ~Increasing student exchange and strengthening collaboration between India and Japan~

 

India has been one of the University of Tokyo’s focal points for education and personnel acquisition. In February 2012, UTokyo established its India office in Bangalore, to promote higher education opportunities for Indian students in Japan. Further, the office aims to build more academic and research partnerships between India and Japan, in ways such as accepting more international students from India to UTokyo. In this context, two engineers currently working in the Indian Ministry of Railways were accepted into UToyko’s Department of Civil Engineering in the Graduate School of Engineering, and will enroll in a two year Master’s program this October. The candidates are expected to play important roles in the Indian government’s high speed railway project. They will be pursuing their Master’s degree with support from the Asian Development Bank’s scholarship program.

 

One of the Graduate School of Engineering’s aims has been to recruit excellent students from all over the world. The two incoming students are alumni of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), a group of prestigious academic institutions in India. The budget for implementing the high-speed railway project was accepted in the 2014-2015 railway budget, when Prime Minister Modi formed his new cabinet in May. This will be the first high-speed railway for India, and will connect the two cities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

 

Prof. Koichi Maekawa from UTokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering and Mr. Hiroshi Yoshino, director of the UTokyo India office, visited the Ministry of Railways to discuss further collaboration in personnel training for India’s high-speed railway project. During the meeting, the Executive Director of the Training and Man Power Planning mentioned that the first stage of the training program would initiate this October, with the enrollment of the two Indian engineers, to UTokyo.

 

The acceptance of the engineers from India represents a critical juncture for UTokyo’s contribution in India-Japan cooperation in personnel development for the high-speed railway sector. UTokyo also anticipates that this collaboration will lead to an increase in exchange students from India.