Over 150 students from Beijing No. 4 High School visit SFC
05 July 2012Over 150 second-year students from Beijing No. 4 High School visited SFC on June 8, 2012. Beijing No. 4 High School was established in 1907 and is considered to be the most well known public high school in China. Over 96% of students go on to higher education at some of the most prestigious institutions in the country, such as Beijing University or Tsinghua University. 70% of graduates take up positions in the State Council, Communist Party, or as senior officials in the People's Liberation Army. Many graduates also go on to find success as noteworthy business entrepreneurs, scientists, literary figures, and artists.
On this occasion, students from the “Tokyo Group” of the Beijing No. 4 High School “2012 Japan School Excursion” visited SFC.
The students were treated to a warm welcome from Keio students when they arrived in the morning. Dean Jiro Kokuryo, Faculty of Policy Management, gave the students an introduction to Keio and SFC in the Θ (Theta) Building, and Professor Tatsuya Hagino, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, introduced the students to the GIGA (Global Information and Communication Technology and Governance Academic) Program.
Students from Beijing No. 4 High School asked astute questions, wanting to hear about the strong points of Keio University, in comparison to prestigious institutions in the West. Another question posed by one of the students was to ask about the scope of the research in the merging of ICT and governance in the GIGA Program, and how that can prove useful in the real world. Both professors explained that the GIGA Program is not about learning ICT as mere techniques, but about considering how ICT can be used to tackle the mix of factors that cause challenges to the modern world. They also stressed the importance of experimenting with different methods in the real world to find solutions through trial and error.
The nervous tension felt in the Θ (Theta) Building was quickly dissolved as the visiting students were next divided into ten groups and taken on campus tours by Keio students. Students from Beijing No. 4 High School listened attentively to their guides and seemed to be having fun as they walked around the campus, basking in the gentle heat of the morning sun.
After the campus tour, visiting students gathered in the Ω (Omega) Building to take part in a discussion with Keio students as part of the Keio Research Institute at SFC (KRIS) Japan Studies Platform Laboratory. Joint Representative of the Laboratory, Associate Professor Tomoki Kamo from the Faculty of Policy Management used graphs to pose the following question to the students for group discussion: “The amount of imports and exports and personal exchange between Japan and China has increased rapidly since 2000. Based on historical experiences with international relations, this should bring about a deepening of interdependence and create even closer ties between the two countries. However, this is not the case with Japan-China relations. In fact, in recent years, the perceptions among Japanese people towards China have degenerated. What are your thoughts on this?” A lively dialogue between visiting students and Keio students ensued in each group. Visiting students from Beijing No. 4 High School joined in easily to the discussion with the Keio students who were mainly from China, probably as they could use their native language with students close in age to themselves. Many participants expressed their wish that they had more time for the discussion.
Students from the Beijing No. 4 High School “Tokyo Group” visited several places as part of this school excursion, including historical sites, work experiences, high schools, and the Office of the Prime Minister, but of all of these, their visit to SFC was considered to be very stimulating and meaningful.
(This information is released by the International Affairs Office)